Plotting at BWH Thursday (Day 14 Cycle 5)

Summer is at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for a second day.  

Summer's day started off with a lot of throat pain.  The nurses can't see much currently in her mouth, but her throat continues to be a source of great pain.  She is switching over to oral medication as they work to transition/prepare here for going home (hopefully tomorrow) and she took pain meds around 9:30am.  

Bob and Kim are the official visitors for the day and are looking forward to spending the day with Summer at BWH.  

Bob and Kim are negative for COVID and ready to go spend the day with Summer at BWH.  

The nurses confirmed that Summer is staying for another night and are actively using today to start preparing her to go home - meaning eating solid foods, taking medication orally instead of her IV, drink water through a straw instead of IV, and taking walks (ok, one walk) around the floor.  Summer had soups from Au Bon Pain for lunch.  She is talking much more comfortably, but her throat is still difficult to swallow.  Midday she identified her pain level as a 4 or 5.

Thank you to Summer's Denison friends for the Edible Arrangement! 

The Daily Board:  Stella is the nurse and Victoria is the PCA.  They are both fantastic! 

Today was a wonderfully BORING day.  We watched Seinfeld, Shark Week, signed up for BeReal (yep, Summer made us - I'm KimstaHof and StewPedascho if you want to be our friend).  We also talked about plans for viewing the Pan Mass Challenge, and talked through what Cycle 6 might look like. 

Summer's pain level got to a 3!

A highlight of the day was Nurse Taylor.  She BOOMED into the room (in an almost Kramer-like entrance) this afternoon, eager and SUPER excited to see her favorite patient, Summer! Summer and Taylor immediately burst into a banter about a podcast that they share an obvious love for - it was so fun to watch (even though we had no idea what they were talking about.  Except Kim Kardashian - I knew that name.  haha).  Taylor and Summer had spent a few hours talking late into the evening last night about this podcast and were looking forward to doing it again tonight.  Taylor announced that she was "saving Summer" for her last patient visit so they would have plenty of time together to talk about the latest episode.  

Taylor left Summer a note at the end of her shift 

Summer, Bob & Kim spent some quality time all on their laptops & phones, drafting a letter.  Summer would like to get her nurses something (it's already decided and in the works but we can't yet post here as it is an AWESOME SECRET) as a thank you for the incredible role they played in supporting her through one of the scariest and difficult times of her life.   We worked on that project for a couple hours this evening - even staying 30 minutes past visiting hours (shhhhh - don't turn us in).  Fingers crossed it all works out - STAY TUNED on this one! 

Working hard on our letter 

After we left, Summer found that her hands and feet had blister-like sores/hives that had broken out on them.  A doctor was called in to check it out and said that it was urticaria and gave her benedryl.  hopefully nothing to worry about just need to watch. A doctor is going to check it out again tomorrow. They may call in a dermatologist.   (Now we get to add urticaria to the list of Summer's ailments - Cycle 5 SUCKS!!!). 

It looks pretty promising that Summer will be discharged tomorrow as she is feeling really much better and ready to be home.  Fingers crossed!

GOOD NIGHT!