Saturday and Sunday, August 3rd and 4th, there’s not much to report. We had a quiet weekend, did some cleaning, ate a lot of my mother-in-laws food and rested. Our neighbor Mr. Vince and his wife Eileen brought us a smoked brisket, which we took care of real quick. Our neighbor on the other side, Ms. Jill, gave Shannon a silver bracelet that says “You’re not alone.” Ms. Jill is a breast cancer survivor and wore the bracelet 24/7 during treatment until she was in remission. Now Shannon is wearing it until she is in remission and gets thru her bone marrow transplant.

Monday was lab draw/cell count check and we met with Manila the NP for Dr. Abuasab. Cell counts were good. The bone marrow biopsy results were not back yet, but she said we should get those results while in the hospital. Shannon’s Covid test came back negative. Unfortunatley, she needs 2 negative tests in order to be placed on the Oncology floor at St. Lukes. Until then, she will have to be on a different floor. They try to keep the 20th Floor (Oncology) as “clean” as possible due to so many patients being immunocompromised. She said the plan is to still be admitted on Tuesday.

Tuesday around 11am Shannon got the call that they had a bed for her at the hospital. We packed up, said goodbye to the boys and Susan (my mother-in-law) and headed to the hospital. We went to Registration, they checked her in and gave her a patient wristband. Shortly after, a transport girl came to pick her up in a wheelchair. We recognized her and she recognized us from the last admission Shannon had. I can’t remember her name at the moment but her mom was one of our PCA’s (Patient Care Assistants) on the 20th floor and I also remembered that she was only working here for the summer. She was about to head back to college at Lamar University, which is close to where I grew up.

They put Shannon on Floor 7 which is where they put a lot of patients who test positive for Covid. Apparently the 7th floor became the “Covid Floor” because the ICU’s are also on that floor. There’s 5 or 6 different ICU’s on the 7th floor. MedSurg ICU 1 and 2, Pulmonary ICU, Neuro ICU, Transplant ICU (not sure if it’s still open) and a Cardiac ICU. I worked on this floor in ICU’s when I was a nurse aide during my first year of nursing school. As mentioned previously, Shannon is testing negative for Covid, but she needs 1 additional negative Covid test before she can move to the 20th floor.

The attending that’s rounding, Dr. Lok, stopped by and went over a few things with us. The Oncology team is really who directs Shannon’s care so the attending is just there for support and an extra set of eyes looking at lab results daily and addressing other minor issues. We reviewed all of Shannon’s meds with her and got her to order her PRN (as needed meds) so that we don’t have to wake them up in the middle of the night with requests. She also said she would speak with the Onocology team to verify that they want a PICC line placed before ordering it. A PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) is a central line that’s placed in the arm but goes all the way into the chest into a large vein just before the heart. It’s needed for the chemotherapy infusions. The PICC should be placed at bedside by the VAT Team (Vascular Access Team) sometime Wednesday. The nurses and nurse aides on the 7th floor have been good so far and Shannon is asleep. We did have a few minutes of excitement earlier tonight. Shannon and I were watching a documentary on Netlflix when we heard a loud bang/door slamming. A few seconds later we heard “Code Grey 7 Tower.” We remembered from our last admission that Code Grey means there’s a combative person. I stood watch at our door for a few minutes and saw a female patient marching down the hall, looking mad, entered the room next to us, and slammed the door again. One of the staff came in and assured us the cops were up there and they were escorting her out of the hospital. Apparently, she wasn’t happy about the doctors taking away her pain meds and she was throwing a fit. Oh well, she’s gone and all is quiet now. Shannon is sleeping peacefully.