[June 26, 2012] Tuesday

I guess I should start with the events of the midnight hour since technically that WAS today. . .

Around 6 last night, Kenton's nose started bleeding.  Again.

Platelets were at 6. Yes, 6.  They said they wanted to hold off on giving platelets until he was symptomatic.

3rd nosebleed of the day.

Only this one didn't stop.

I think we could call that symptomatic. . .

I'll write more about that on the Monday post.

Fast forward to midnight. . .

On hour 6 of the bleed.

At least 4 boxes of tissues used.

They'd swabbed his nose with q-tips dipped in some other nose spray designed to slow bleeding. No help there either.

Nurse Rick packed a cotton ball with Afrin and shoved it up Kenton's nose - a trick that usually works with nosebleeds.

Nope.  Not for Kenton.

It did make him throw up though.

The on call resident had been up and brought some Surgi-Seal (a wound dressing they use in the military that soaks up a LOT of blood in a quick amount of time).  Kenton's nose had been packed 3 times with that.  It was still bleeding heavily.  Running down his throat and settling in his stomach.  Each time the dressing would have to be changed, he would throw up massive amounts of blood.

He'd been given a new medicine (avacar?) that was supposed to help with the clotting.  Not working so well either.

At a little after 10, I posted this on Facebook: Kenton's nose has bled nearly non-stop since around 6. This is the third bloody nose today. Waiting on platelets. Grateful for surgi-seal. So tired. Hoping you'll remember Kenton in your prayers tonight. We could sure use another little miracle.

At a little after 11, I posted this:

At 12:15, they called in an ENT consult.  He was hesitant to look too closely because he didn't want to slow any of the clotting that he could see was happening.  He did attempt to look in Kenton's throat and was rewarded with a large amount of vomited blood and bleeding from the other nostril.  Gee, thanks for the help.  ;)

His recommendation was to pinch the nose (again!) for 20 solid minutes with the surgi-seal in place and a guaze pad held under Kenton's nose.  At this point, both Kenton and I were dozing off, so I snuggled in bed with him, held him, and pinched his nose as tightly as I could for 20 minutes.  At the end of 20 minutes (it's now 12:40 am!!!), the bleeding had slowed dramatically and they had begun transfusing another unit of packed red cells.

Kenton and I snuggled down and went to sleep, grateful for the prayers of family and friends that certainly were the driving force behind the decrease in bleeding, praying that the platelets would be delivered soon.

I woke a little after 1 to hear the nurses verifying the platelets and beginning transfusion. 

I *think* I rolled over and said, "YAY!  The magic juice is here!"  But hopefully I'm wrong about that, because, really?! Ha, ha.

I'm not sure what happened between then and 2:30 because I was SOUND asleep.  At 2:30, Kenton had to go to the bathroom really bad (lots of blood in his tummy and feeling yucky).  I helped him with that and then put him back to bed.  He was literally asleep before I tucked him in.

I made my bed on the couch and went to sleep.  Sometime in the night he was up to go to the bathroom again, and they gave him the last dose of chemo for this round, another unit of blood, and another unit of platelets.  This morning he woke up around 6 to go to the bathroom, then snuggled right back into bed and slept till nearly 8.  At 8, our new nurse (Nurse Kim) came in, did vitals, started the other medicines, removed the surgi-seal (no bleeding, yay!!), left, drew our blinds, and hung a "do not disturb unless necessary" sign on the door.  I crawled back into my bed on the couch and Kenton snuggled into his bed sound asleep again.  We slept till 9:30!

I finally made my way to the shower, helped Kenton go to the bathroom, ordered him some breakfast (it's Tuesday - Blueberry Pancake/Buttermilk Syrup day!!!), and took care of some paperwork - kind of funny because they brought up a form that had to be filled out for consent to treat Kenton.  He asked, "Then exactly WHAT have they been doing for the past 12 days?!"  LOL. 

Bonnie, the parent coordinator, heard about his night and stopped by with an awesome Lego set (which we'll have to work on tomorrow because we slept the whole day long!).

Dr. Barnette came in and talked to us for a while - he's raising Kenton's platelet threshold into the 20s so that he will receive platelets sooner than normal based on his bleeding issues.  I'm so grateful for that!

Around 11, he was sound asleep again.  He slept, waking only once for a bathroom break, until nearly 4.  At one point he asked me to come lay by him, so we snuggled in his bed and slept for a good three hours.  Sleep feels so good!

This afternoon he had a few visitors (Holli, Brandon, and Kory stopped by after Kory's orthopedic appointment, and Reygan drove down after work).  It was a nice relaxing day.  Kenton was able to sit in the chair for a while and play on his iPad.  He had another rest after Reygan left.  Ate some brownie for dinner.  Sat in the chair again.  Went back to his bed.  Skyped Luke and Goose and Grammy.

Had his new set of vitals and meds, and is back in bed watching Chisum.  Dr. Rawlings stopped by with a "stress" football - one of those little squishy ones that you can squeeze when you're feeling angry.  Kenton and I played catch for a few minutes.  He's getting pretty good at throwing and catching with his left hand!

Nurse Erica just came in to do a flush, then it will be Benedryl and Tylenol followed by Vancomycin (sp?).  I'm heading off to get ready for bed.  Movie and lights off at 10 (maybe earlier if I can talk Kenton into it, he's over there falling asleep!).

Hopefully he'll sleep well tonight after sleeping all day!!  I'm hoping for a relaxing wonderful night of sleep.

And that, my friends, is Day 12.