He's Not Dead Yet

I got to Dad's room at 8:00 this morning, and Nolie and Jerry were both asleep. I sat quietly in the chair listening to music on my non-Apple brand MP3 player. While listening to "Kodachrome" by Paul Simon, I noticed that the lyrics don't quite make sense. The song goes "I got a Nikon camera/I love to take a photograph/So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away." Kodachrome is a registered trademark of the Eastman Kodak company. So, is he singing about a Kodak camera, or a Nikon? Is he using Kodak Kodachrome film in a Nikon camera? I think it's very misleading. Also, how is it that I've been listening to this song for so long and have never noticed this before?

The Rheumatoid doc was the first to arrive this morning, and immediately commented that Jerry looks better than he did on Friday. He noted that the red spots that turned black are healing and that whatever was causing the pain and spots seems to have stopped. He reiterated that none of the blood cultures had produced anything yet, and that they may not ever, but his symptoms are consistent with some kind of infection, and that a prophylactic antibiotic course is the standard treatment.

Next, the Oncology doc came. Oncology actually overlapped with Rheumatoid, so they got to confer with each other, which I think is good. Oncology wanted to start Dad on Celebrex, but Rheumatoid felt like sticking with Prednisone was OK since it seems to be helping. Oncology asked me if I had any siblings and then wanted to know what it was like growing up an only child, since he has an only five-year old. I think I scared him when I told him about playing Monopoly with Prissy (poodle) and Missy (Schnauzer). Nolie claims that I turned out OK, even though at lunch today I arranged my Chick-Fil-A dipping sauces in the order that they appear in the color spectrum.

Oncology had initially felt like long term care was a good idea because it's so exhausting for the caregiver. Nolie and I presented the idea that since they plan to stay at the RIBM until this is all over, and therefore she doesn't need to cook, clean, or really do anything else, that she could handle getting Jerry to the clinic every day for his IV treatments. Also, Jerry is able to get out of bed and get to to the bathroom with little help, so, Oncology felt like some type of home health care combined with some type of physical therapy would be OK.

So, to summarize, Jerry's not quite in the grave yet. He scales his pain on a scale from one to ten as around a seven in the morning, and a two or three in the evening before he goes to sleep. Once he gets going in the morning, he does all right.