Monthly Archives: June 2026

Day 50: Tuesday, June 30

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Another rough night. At 11 pm I had another short episode of uncontrolled shivering followed by feeling very cold. I asked the nurse for extra blankets – initially she refused outright to give them to me under the misapprehension that I was running a fever. I assured her I was not running a fever, that she could to take my temperature, and that I’d had similar episodes of feeling cold without running a fever. I must say I was annoyed at her reaction, falling back on a cookie-cutter remedy to shivering without asking me about my actual experience.  I politely repeated my request – no point in pissing of the nurses if you can avoid it. I woke up at 4:15, tired, but feeling quite a bit better. I wanted to find out if I could take my morphine meds, so I asked the same nurse to take my blood pressure. She replied that she didn’t want to. When I told another nurse, Catherine about this later she passed it off as a bad joke. Maybe it was, but I didn’t find it funny. She did eventually put the cuff on me but then did not come back for 20 minutes to read it. It was normal. Bad nurse went off duty – hope I don’t get her again tonight. Catherine came on about 7:00 to take care of me, replaced the antibiotics bag which had mysteriously been disconnected overnight, and gave me my meds, including 30 mg of morphine. It’s hard to say if it works better or worse than the other opioid based painkillers, but I’m not in the mood for experimentation. The NP came mid-morning to remove my last remaining drain. I also got a visit from an oncology doctor, Jessica Lin, who let slip that pathology had identified the cancer as a chondrosarcoma, but no further details as to grade. When I said that I hadn’t heard this from SLC she back-pedalled a bit saying, maybe she was mistaken.  Maureen came late morning and left early afternoon, and I’m still on the ER overflow, although status on the portal has changed to say “Preparing for Admission.”

Worked on blog all afternoon, then at 5 pm Nurse Maddie came to tell me that I had a room. Mad unplugging of everything. While all this was happening the ward nurse came with an iced drink of somethin nasty. It was contrast for a CT scan at 5:30, for which, of course they had to remove the brace. Scan was about 20 minutes after which they had to replace the brace which they couldn’t get right. Had to have the nurse adjust it properly when I got back to the ward. Finished packing up and then was wheeled up to the 16th floor. Feeling pretty good right now except for some leg pain.

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Day 49: Monday, June 29

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Woke up around 6 am according to my Fitbit. The nurse, Jenny, brough me my meds and took my vitals around 7 am. Breakfast as 8 am. I was feeling ok despite the episode of nausea the night before. I had a bowel movement just before Maureen showed up 10:15 for the joint OT/PT Caregiver sessions scheduled for the morning. It started with Lauren, the OT who had essentially nothing to say that we didn’t already know, but kept talking anyway. She was interrupted by nurse Jenny coming in to say that they were sending me back to MGH. They were worried about the infection but were holding off on prescribing antibiotics. Maureen left to go home. I was transferred to a stretcher and went by ambulance to MGH. It was a very quick ride; I was at MGH before Maureen had reached home. I was transferred to another stretcher, checked in at the Emergency Room, and got a bunch more blood tests. Maureen got here at MGH around 3 pm and stayed here while I and had multiple x-rays and was examined by Thomas Heyne. Turned out he had spent a year at Oxford at St. Cross. Since they did not have a bed available to admit me I was  moved to a different section, the Flex area, room 75 – a tiny cubicle with a curtain to divide me from the main area. No window of course. I got two IVs, one in the thumb side of left wrist, for the cephalic vein, and the other in the hollow area inside the right elbow, for the cubital vein. They started giving me two broad spectrum antibiotics: vancomycin and cefepime. I was still in the ER at 9:30 pm, and it seemed unlikely that I would get a bed that evening.

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Day 48: Sunday, June 28

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Slept ok, although Fitbit only gave me a 45. My blood pressure this morning is very low, 89 in the left arm, 91 in the right. Had an EKG at 11:00 and it was normal, but after I felt weak and my breathing rate was elevated. Felt dizzy and sleepy. At 1 pm, suspecting an infection, Caitlyn, the pink-haired nurse, changed all the dressings, but there were no obvious signs. Maureen came in at 1:30 pm and helped me wash and change my clothes. At 3 pm, Caitlyn came with the meds. The doctor had approved an increase in the gabapentin dosage to 600 mg. She took the vitals again and the blood pressure was back up in the normal range, meaning she could give me morphine. By 9 pm I was back to shivering but went to sleep. At 11:00 pm I woke up feeling nauseous. Made a trip to the bathroom where I vomited and had a bowel movement. Back in bed the nurse gave me a dose of Maalox to settle the stomach. I felt ok and fell asleep around midnight.

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Day 47: Saturday, June 27

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First major fault with Encompass. They messed up coverage on the shift change this evening. I began feeling cold after Martha and Charles left around 4:30 pm. It was good of them to come in but I had to gently end the visit as I felt a BM coming on. After, I got back into bed, and had an ok supper of shepherd’s pie (needed more Worcestershire Sauce!). Began shivering. I asked for more blankets and to raise the room temperature which helped a bit, and then fell asleep. Fitbit recorded sleep from 5:53 to 7:44 pm. Awoke to sharp stabbing pain in my right foot every 20 seconds or so. Called for nurse. Crickets. Called for nurse several times. I could hear them talking in the corridor, but no one came to see what was up. The pain at that time was as bad as the pain immediately after surgery and I was calling out: “Fuck, Jesus Christ, Owww.” Finally, around 8:05 someone put their head around the door to tell me it would take  while for the nurse because it was a shift change – as if that explained things or relieved my pain. Around 8:15 a nurse came into give me meds: 30 mg Morphine, 1000 mg Acetaminophen, 300 mg Gabapentin. Relief kicked in around 8:30. The Tylenol should help reduce the fever.

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