February 24, 2017
Den is still in severe pain. The nurses are trying to keep his meds on time, but sometimes they can’t get to him before they wear off. They have been giving him Norco pills and Dilaudid injections. When the meds are on board, he has some relief, but not completely pain free.
Vika, from the LVAD Team, stopped by to let us know that there was a lesion found on Den’s L3 vertebra. She said that there were more tests that had been ordered to see if it was caused by the blood infection. Den continue getting his IV antibiotic therapy while he was in the hospital.
Neurology came in a little later to let us know that there was a loss of height in the vertebra, but there was nothing that they could do to fix it. The loss of height has most likely been caused by osteoporosis. Den and I were visibly upset by the fact that they said that they were not going to do anything to fix the problem. They did let us know that Ortho had ordered a brace for Den that should help with the pain.
The brace came later in the day and Den said that it did help with the pain. I asked Vika earlier if Den could go see our friend, Pa Hess, who was upstairs. She said that Den could go see him, we just needed to let our nurse know where we were going and for how long we planned to be gone. Den asked me if we could go see Pa after he had been fitted for his brace. We let the nurse know and off we went. When we arrived at his room, Pa was asleep and neither of us wanted to wake him up. So back we went and we planned to try again tomorrow.
I did go up to see Pa a few times later in the day. His favorite part of my visits were the foot rubs that I would give him. I knew that there was not much I could do to help him, but I knew that the rubs would give him some relief and comfort. I have known Ma and Pa Hess for almost 30 years, and they are more like family than friends to me. I could see changes in his body and his mental state since yesterday and I was fearful of what the future had in store for my dear friend.
Den's LVAD 