Guest post by Sarah
I got here a couple of hours ago; Adam’s mom is here, too, and Kate was here when I got here but then had to go back to work. It’s her first shift back at work since Adam went into the hospital. She said it’s pretty weird for her, although it’s nice that her building is close-by.
A gaggle of rehab physicians were here doing an evaluation when I arrived. They were talking about what Adam can expect when he gets out, and raised the point that living on a third-floor walk-up isn’t such a great thing for someone who’s not going to be able to get himself up and down the stairs for a while. The “stroke fellow” (according to his lab coat) also came by to check in and confirmed that the facial drooping hasn’t gotten any worse. He said he thinks it wasn’t really related to the plasmapheresis, and that it’s probably related to the taste problems he’s having, as both are on the same facial nerve. He thinks the drooping would have happened anyway, and that its occurrence twice during pheresis was a coincidence.
Adam’s semi-napping right now, and he’s got an IVIG drip going. He says the IVIG makes him feel warm, but it doesn’t seem to be having any other side-effects. He’s got little pressure-cuff thingies on his legs to keep the blood circulating well. They make little puffy sounds every so often.
Things are apparently still on the downward slope and will be for a little while longer. The respiratory tech did the suck-and-blow tests and he did pretty well, but not as well as yesterday on the blow test. The fact that he doesn’t know how much worse this is going to get I think makes this especially difficult for Adam. Understandably.
A LiveJournal community was created by a friend to talk about Adam and his current situation and provide some updates. Membership is open to anyone.