Day 409

Today started early - 2AM.  Ellen woke me up to say that her bag was filling with blood and she almost fainted.  So it was emergency room time.  We went there and got in quickly.  When they took her blood pressure it was 100/40.  She stopped bleeding, but the emergency room doctor basically said "we aren't sending you home like that".  So she spent the night there and I went home.  I got back to sleep after 4 and woke up at 9:45.

I did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Nothing was happening at the hospital, so I started wrapping Christmas presents and packing them up for mailing.  About 12:30 Ellen said that the surgeon's partner had stopped by.  He basically said "I don't know what's happening, it not bleeding now, so go home".  The guy is useless.  Her blood pressure was still low, and the partner had taken her bag off.  So she was waiting for the stoma nurse.  I drove over there to observe. 

I decided to go to the post office on the way.  When I turned onto 290 the traffic was backed up all the way to 290.  So I turned around and got onto 290 via Slaughter and Escarpment.  Ellen called again just as I got on the frontage road to say the nurse was on his way.  So I just got on the freeway and skipped the post office.

I got there in time.  When the nurse showed up, he said my template was too big.  He made me a new one.  He also showed me how to spread out the adhesive to deal with the horizontal leakage.  Finally, he showed how to push the wafer up under the stoma.  Hopefully all those changes will give us better luck with the bags.

About 3 they moved her to a room.  It didn't seem to make much sense, since the instructions were to send her home if her next blood work was OK.  Her blood pressure was up, but they hadn't done anything to address the blood in the bag.  The nurse thought that was bullshit and went off to talk to someone.  We thought it was bullshit, too.  About 4:30 she started to bleed again.  That sealed it.  She was staying the night.  Since there was no way there was going to be any progress today, I went home a little before 5.

When I got home I continued to wrap presents.  I managed to wrap and package 21 presents before I decided enough was enough.  I probably finish the rest tomorrow.

The evening was football.  The game is a good one for a change, but I got bored in the third quarter and now I'm surfing.