Naming names

So, how many of you got a little nervous when you read that blog title? Hmmmm.... I am sure there is another blog post or two on that topic, but we ain't goin' there today.

Nope, I mean the support staff that have been so wonderful during my visit to OHSU. Many of these people will remain unnamed (because I do not KNOW their names), but they include the custodial folks, the dining support staff, and just everyone I talked to. There is an unnamable pathologist (we do not yet have a copy of the report yet, but know the finding (as expected, metastatic adenocarcinoma) and the fact that there is a clean margin surrounding each tumor).

But I digress. The names I want to share and memorialize forever in the Web are the RNs that were so helpful, professional, and wonderful to me and my analytical habits. Can we have a "way to go" for Christy in the ICU and for Rachel, Sharka, and Stefanie in Unit 13K of the Kohler Pavilion? I was very worried about many things (pain, peeing, and passing gas to name a few - but you already knew that if you have been folowing this blog over the past couple days). They handled everything with empathy and confidence. Over the past two days at 13K, I especially felt like Rachel, Sharka, and I were a team working to clear the pain med delivery and peeing hurdles.

[More details necessary, I know. In the operating room, pain suppression and anesthesia drugs were delivered via an IV placed in my right carotid vein. This vein is used because it is big enough to handle any drug they need to use, especially those that might burn the inside of a smaller vein, and in case I needed a blood transfusion (not all that unusual for liver surgery, but I did not need one). On my right forearm, I had two additional IVs - one in an artery and one in a vein. The arterial IV was used for lab draws, and the venous IV was for pain suppression. We were removing the arterial IV in my forearm, but ran into some tape issues and had to also remove the venous IV. This was OK because I still had the one in my carotid vein. I then had another IV placed in my left arm, and we removed the carotid vein IV. Then, that one started to have issues, aand we accessed my PowerPort. Things are pretty good now, except that we seem to need to flush that line every few hours (blood draws, mainly, but also for a magnesium drip later this aftenoon. Whew!]

That's enough. Big shout-out to nurses and their assistants. Amen.