Thursday...Day 3 in the Hospital

When I got to the hospital on Thursday morning, I found that Jon hadn't slept very well and that he had a fever of 101.  On the bright side, the headache that had begun the previous day was feeling better.  Jon also had a new symptom: pain in the front of his chest on the right side. We waited to talk to the doctor to find out what was causing this.

Dr. Bekele came in and talked to Jon about his new symptoms.  Believing that the pain might be from where more fluid was causing pressure on the lung or from a small air leak from the previous day's paracentesis procedure, he prescribed an IV-administered pain medication to make his pain more tolerable.  Dr. Bekele also hoped that stronger meds would allow Jon to take deeper breaths, which would in turn help his lungs return back to their normal function.  He ordered another chest x-ray for Jon to make sure there was nothing there to be concerned with there.  Jon walked a few laps and then rested up before getting his chest x-rays taken.

Later that afternoon, Barry and Shawna (Jon's dad and stepmom) stopped in.  They had come to St. Agnes for Barry and wanted to see how Jon was doing.  Jen (Jon's sister) also came to see Jon and keep me company.  After Barry and Shawna left, a nurse came in to give Jon his new pain medication, Dilaudin, through his IV.  She warned that it might knock him out, and as she was still administering it his eyes started to close...  We thought he was sleeping, but apparently not!  As I was composing the latest text update with Jen and trying to figure out how to spell the new medication, Jon said that it was spelled "C-O-M-A!" :). According to him, the Dilaudin made him feel like a "marshmallow," but it helped him get some rest and take deeper breaths.

Dr. Miller (oncologist) also came by that afternoon to see how Jon was feeling, and she also let us know that even though they didn't have any results yet from the fluid they should have something the next day (Friday).

For the rest of the evening, Jon and I watched TV together until the TV went out because of a horrible storm. Jon took a few laps around his floor before taking some more pain medication and going to sleep for the night.