Trial and Error

We got Brad settled in and he slept for most of Day plus 1. We were instructed to buy a pill box to make life easier for us when it came time to take his drugs.  I sat down quietly and organized it for the week.

Earlier that day the kids helped me unpack Brad's stuff and put things away.  I handed Samantha the insulin and told her one of two things, either "put this insulin bottle in the fridge" or because my brain is mush I could have very well said, "Put this insulin in the freezer".  We will never know.  She put it in the freezer where it WAS NOT SUPPOSE to go.  When I got to that drug on my list I couldn't find it in fridge and when I found it in the freezer, me being the mother of the year, went right to her room and said, "I told you to put this in the fridge, not the freezer!  Sam, I need you kids to focus.  This is all very important stuff and I need your help."  Well, you can imagine, she felt terrible and scared and within a minute I realized what I had done and went to her and told her it was probably me who made the mistake, sorry, love you, etc.  That mistake ended up costing us $215 today because Kaiser would not replace it.  We had to buy it again at our cost, not the copay cost.  That was mistake #1. 

 Mistake #2 was all me.  Once I got Brad's pills all in order I gave them to him and he said "Looks good, honey, you did it" (because he was familiar already with what he was taking at the hospital).  Then I called the charge nurse at PSL to ask her  a few questions I had about the drugs and she reminded me to have Brad take Prilosec alone because it's for abdominal bleeding and it needs to be absorbed by itself with no food or other drugs.  I had put that in my notes too but he had already swallowed all of the pills!  It scared me so bad and Brad said, "it's ok for tonight, don't worry about it" But, I went to the kitchen table and cried.  This was the kind of mistake I have been worrying about.  Human error on my part!  It will take some time for us to learn it all.  

This is Brad this morning as we sit at CBCI while he gets his magnesium drip.  The drugs he takes depletes his magnesium so he needs to replenish it everyday.  We will learn how to do this at home tomorrow when the in home care people come to teach us everything.  You can tell by this photo how terrible he feels.  Most notably this morning were the huge bags under his eyes.  

When we got home he tried to eat some Ramen (soup is the only thing that sounds good to him) and within a minute of eating it he was throwing it up in the kitchen garbage can.  He couldn't even make it to the bathroom.  The realities of cancer.  Sucks.  I will say that he has perked up some today from yesterday.  He talked during the car trip home today whereas yesterday not a peep.