Bob awake, but blood pressure too high

Family and friends,

Today when I went to visit Bob he was significantly more awake and trying to mouth words to me. He is able to lift his hands if ever so briefly and wiggle his toes. I know that might not seem much, but it's a huge improvement. His mom was able to see him for the first time in a week because she's been battling a bout of bronchitis and with her previous leukemia and the fact that Bob still has c.diff infection they thought it wouldn't be safe before.

Here was the problem today. He was most likely still confused as to where he was and trying to deal with the pain of his stomach surgery, the bleeding, and the fact that he has a traech tube in his throat. He kept asking for water and powerade but the nurses feared any fluids could restart the fungus that was previously growing in his lungs, or the necrotizing pneumonia, or that he could aspirate so they only allowed him a few ice chips. He was frustrated and his blood pressure went skyrocketing. They tried to give him a labedlal drip for the blood pressure, but it didn't work too well, then they moved on to some patch that was supposed to help, but it was sporadic at best. Bob's blood pressure got to the point of 193/95 and Aunt April, Uncle Tom, and I decided it would be best to leave so he could get some rest. At that point they had to call a cardiologist because nothing was working. In addition, the weekend oncologist decided to give him a blood clotting medicine in hopes of trying to stop the bleeding, because the higher his blood pressure, the more he would bleed. The clotting medicine is called Amacar. It is used to treat excessive postoperative bleeding, however its side effects are mainly related to the gastrointestinal tract and include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Unfortunately it didn't seem to help much.

I was fortunate enough for the day nurses to let me help clean Bob after one of his bleeding episodes. Although it was hard to look at, I realized why they had to insert a tube into his colon. His backside looked like ground up meat, a combination of what looked like rotting open wounds and bed sores. It's probably the grossest thing I've ever seen and my heart broke for him. Although the nurses cover it with paste and tried to have him sit up today, I asked them if they could get a wound care person in there to treat it asap. The wound care person won't get there until Monday.

Dammit! I just got off the phone with the nurse like 2 seconds ago. Because of his high blood pressure his red blood hemoglobin plummeted to 6.8 and his white blood down to 5.9 (at least this is still in range). His platelets are low too at 91,000. The good news was the the cardiologist put him on a brevibloc drip just now and his blood pressure is in the 140's. I'm hoping this slows the bleeding during the night. They are giving him 2 more units of blood and will retest at 4am. I'll keep everyone updated. In the meanwhile please say a prayer for him. He's awake and he's fighting. He's trying to get his strength back. He mouthed that he loved me today and that made all the difference in the world to me. I have hope that he's going to pull through.

Love and thanks,
Michele