Charlie update - Wednesday

Charlie's doing ok, getting better by the day, but hes still very grumpy and annoyed with the whole world lol - he has what the Dr calls the "post ICU Grumps"

The nurses have christened him Houdini............ in the space of one day he managed to remove his core heat thermometer & his feeding tube (both from his nose) snap the connection on his catheter, then pull it out completely (dont need to paint you a picture of where that was do I lol)........... then he 'kinked' his dialysis tube cos he was wriggling so much, and set off all the alarms on the thing........ then he detatched the oxygen/pulse monitor from his thumb, so they put it on his toe, and he pulled it off there too! they put the blood pressure cuff on and he has figured out if he pulls the vlcro it comes off, so he pulls it LOL

LOL the only monitor still on him are the pads on his chest, and they are only there cos he cant get at them!
hehe the nurses just laugh at him and re-attach him to whatever it is they are doing when they are needed !

They put a peritineal (??) port in last friday, it puts the Dialysis directly into his stomach blood vessels via a tube, theres also an 'in' (red) and 'out' (blue) blood tube he also had a plasma exchange (white) tube
I dont entirely understand that, but I THINK its so when they do transfusions they put it in thru the red tube, and when they need to take blood to test it they take it from the blue tube so they know its not their transfused blood they are taking straight back out again to test, and the plasma exchanges are hooked up to the white plasma tube.

He had a relapse on Monday, and ended up on a blood transfusion, which was scary cos as the nurse hooked up the wire and put the bag up there was air in the tube and the nurse didnt spot it right away until I asked her if it was normal (which I knew it wasnt) so she had to detach the whole thing and start all over again, and poor charlie was NOT amused (especialy when she also hooked up the dialysis machine, feed tube and a nebuliser (which he hates with a vengance cos its so noisy!)

LOL Aly and I realised he now knows the colour of a nurses uniform, and when he sees them near him he gets antsy and annoyed, hehe dont think we can ever wear a pink or pale lilac top again!

We did have some progress today, when I went in he was lay watching a DVD, but then he got a bit grumpy so Aly picked him up and took him out into the corridor for a minute and I was messing about with one of his balloons being silly with him and he started smiling and then giggling, which is the 1st time we have seen him do that since he got sick - lol only lasted a minute or 2 but it was lovely to see.

We sent Aly and Chris off to get some food - mum made them a plate of dinner each - and a shower, and I was sat with him watching his DVD - lol I hate 'Barney' and 'The Wiggles' by the way!..............and he started getting a bit grumpy again so I picked him up to try and settle him and he snuggled down into my neck and the next thing I know he was sound asleep cuddled up to me, hes not even been happy letting us pick him up until today so I was surprised he even let me hold him.
Hehe Aly and Chris came back in and found him fast asleep in my arms and they were amazed he was SO sound asleep, LOLOL devious pair that they are they hooked up the Blood pressure monitor fast and got the nurse to come and take his pressure, hes not allowed them to get the cuff on him without screaming the place down when hes awake! needless to say....fast asleep he didnt even move when it switched on and we got a nice even (un stressed) reading so the nurse was happy (she told me I had a permanent job doing that every night until further notice!)

LOL you got an essay there sorry!

Anniie