"About a week." The doctors say.
Then again, they originally said he wouldn't live past ten years.
My buddy with the cystic fibrosis took a turn for the worse. The doctors basically said there isn't anything more than can do besides pain management. They've taken him off of his antibiotics, and are giving him pain meds and tylenol for his fever. He's on 100% oxygen, and his blood/oxygen level is still below where it should be. He gets tired just from trying to eat, and any kind of prolonged conversation is out of the question.
He was probably fully awake for a total of about two hours. Usually no more than 15 minutes or so at a time, before he'd start to slip in and out of a sleep-like state.
I did my best to not cry in front of him, I'm sure he's seen his share of that from everyone else already, but when I finally got some time alone to talk with him, I couldn't help it. He said it was okay, it got to be too much for him sometimes too, and would just soak his wifes shirt crying while curled up to her.
His wife's been great. She's essentially living at the hospital, the bed is big enough for them both to sleep in, even though they brought her in a bed of her own if she wanted. Since he's been in and out of this hospital so much, for so long, he's sorta privilaged. Nobody raises a fuss when we bring in stuff for him, even snuck his cat in for a few hours.
They're sending him home tomorrow, with a staff of hospice nurses who will be on call 24 hours if he needs anything. They're even arranging for a hospital bed to be brought there so he can't have to expend the energy to sit up, he can just hit the button.
He's one of the few people who can consistantly kick my ass at video games. That's basically been his life for the last 12 years, being too weak to do anything else... but now, he doesn't even have the energy to do that anymore. He needs supports or someone to help him walk whenever he needs to go to the washroom, much less anyplace else. Thankfully (?) he's only about 100 pounds, so anyone is able to help him. He's always been a picky eater, so he's always been underweight, but when he's sick(er), he used to pretty much not eat. So right now, even though he ate alot when I was there, he looks like a skeleton with skin, and blue tinged lips.
dinah wanted me to talk about all this with her. But at the time, I just sat there thinking, and saying "What is there to talk about? My friend is suffocating to death, will eventually go to sleep, slip into a coma, then die." -- and for the most part, I still feel that way. I told her most of what I've said here. The rest is to inform those who have bothered to read and/or care, and, under the assumption I still have this sometime in the future (or print it off if I decide to discontinue the online journal thing), I'll have all this to remember.
Though right now, I don't think I could ever forget.
My buddy with the cystic fibrosis took a turn for the worse. The doctors basically said there isn't anything more than can do besides pain management. They've taken him off of his antibiotics, and are giving him pain meds and tylenol for his fever. He's on 100% oxygen, and his blood/oxygen level is still below where it should be. He gets tired just from trying to eat, and any kind of prolonged conversation is out of the question.
He was probably fully awake for a total of about two hours. Usually no more than 15 minutes or so at a time, before he'd start to slip in and out of a sleep-like state.
I did my best to not cry in front of him, I'm sure he's seen his share of that from everyone else already, but when I finally got some time alone to talk with him, I couldn't help it. He said it was okay, it got to be too much for him sometimes too, and would just soak his wifes shirt crying while curled up to her.
His wife's been great. She's essentially living at the hospital, the bed is big enough for them both to sleep in, even though they brought her in a bed of her own if she wanted. Since he's been in and out of this hospital so much, for so long, he's sorta privilaged. Nobody raises a fuss when we bring in stuff for him, even snuck his cat in for a few hours.
They're sending him home tomorrow, with a staff of hospice nurses who will be on call 24 hours if he needs anything. They're even arranging for a hospital bed to be brought there so he can't have to expend the energy to sit up, he can just hit the button.
He's one of the few people who can consistantly kick my ass at video games. That's basically been his life for the last 12 years, being too weak to do anything else... but now, he doesn't even have the energy to do that anymore. He needs supports or someone to help him walk whenever he needs to go to the washroom, much less anyplace else. Thankfully (?) he's only about 100 pounds, so anyone is able to help him. He's always been a picky eater, so he's always been underweight, but when he's sick(er), he used to pretty much not eat. So right now, even though he ate alot when I was there, he looks like a skeleton with skin, and blue tinged lips.
dinah wanted me to talk about all this with her. But at the time, I just sat there thinking, and saying "What is there to talk about? My friend is suffocating to death, will eventually go to sleep, slip into a coma, then die." -- and for the most part, I still feel that way. I told her most of what I've said here. The rest is to inform those who have bothered to read and/or care, and, under the assumption I still have this sometime in the future (or print it off if I decide to discontinue the online journal thing), I'll have all this to remember.
Though right now, I don't think I could ever forget.