Best sleep for a while except for nurses waking me up every few hours. The good news is that for the first time I had no chills or shivering last night. Fitbit can’t calculate a sleep score. Blood tests show WBC down from critical levels at Encompass. Other counts are a bit worse.

Bridget, the nurse practitioner, stopped by to tell me that the most recent blood cultures at MGH were negative. That’s a good thing, meaning they didn’t detect any bacteria. I obviously had something at Encompass, however, but MGH doesn’t have access to the blood cultures that they did there and are trying to get copies.

Because the blood cultures are negative, it’s possible that I can be discharged in a day or two. It really depends on Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy assessments. OT was just here and they watched me transfer from the bed to the recliner, and use the walker. I’m still waiting on PT.

The pool water was delivered this morning, and I watched most of it with the backyard Eufy camera. It appears to have been successful. I had Maureen prime and run the pump and it’s working correctly.

Kylie, the PCA, helped me to the bathroom for a BM. Then she did another blood draw. I guess there’s a real knack to drawing blood. Some nurses are really good at it and others poke painfully around before they find the vein. It’s important, of course, to be properly hydrated, but it also helps I’ve found if they warm the area before they try to draw the blood. Not all nurses do this.

Doctor Gace confirmed what Bridget said that the most recent blood cultures were negative. But they need another 24 hours for the blood cultures to continue negative. They’re still trying to get results from Trident.

My roommate, Andy, had a couple of procedures today. I don’t know all the details, but he’s been treated for cancer before and now it has metastasized to his brain. I overheard the doctor yesterday talking about what to expect. He’s able to walk but needs a walker because he’s a bit steady. It certainly sounds as if the treatment is to control the tumor rather than it. He’s an ex-Marine, about 50. years old. We talked about what happens when we die. It sounded a bit like what I’ve thought about the eternal now. And it sounds like he’s made peace with the world.

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.