karenulijohn

As of last night, Harvey has had five infusions of antibiotics and there is a marked improvement in his condition.  Apart from the fact that his foot hurts like the dickens, he is much like his old self, able to do a few things around the house, but most especially, able to come out with the jokes and comments that so endear him to me.  Thank goodness his appetite is also slowly returning.  I don’t think I could stand another night of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup for dinner.  The fuss he made over my fixing it might have fooled the average person into thinking that I had prepared Pheasant Under Glass.  I guess when you don’t feel good, some bland foods taste positively delicious.

It seems like we have spent most of our days, since Thursday, at Sutter hospital, either visiting the doctor, or having an infusion, or blood draw.  Yesterday we went to see Dr. Colbourn in the morning.  He had a look at the toe and asked Harvey if he thought the red area had receded.  Harvey replied, “Oh yes, quite a bit!”  I jumped in and said that it looked exactly like it did last Thursday except the redness was not so angry looking.  So, the doctor took his pen and drew a line around the offending red lump providing a baseline for comparison.  He then told us that it did not need to be lanced because there was no sign of any blood or puss.  He went on to describe the lancing procedure in great detail, and I could feel Harvey squirming in the chair next to me.  Dr. Colbourn laughingly told us that he loves to describe things like that in gory detail because patients feel better when he tells them that the described procedure won’t be required.  We will be seeing him again tomorrow to determine whether or not Harvey will continue receiving antibiotics by infusion or in pill form.  While we hope for pill form, we will do whatever is necessary to get this infection under control and finally healed.  After a quiet afternoon, we headed back to the hospital at 5:00PM for the infusion.  Days go quickly with this schedule.

This morning we saw Harvey’s surgeon, Dr. Owens.  He noticed immediately that Harvey has lost weight, asking what was happening.  I was satisfied that Harvey’s description of events provided enough detail, so I kept quiet.  Dr. Owens examined his face, cheeks and neck, first with his fingers and then with the ultrasound.  He is very thorough, even explaining to me what he was seeing.  Finally, he announced that everything looked terrific and we can look forward to seeing him again in three months.  Oh, what a relief!

We decided to celebrate at the Black Bear Diner in Roseville where Harvey tucked into two eggs over easy, all of the strip potatoes and one sausage patty.  He couldn’t quite manage the second sausage patty and the biscuit, but I was so happy to see him eating and enjoying the experience.  It’s great to have him back!