Date sent:11/18/99 10:51 AM
Waiting days and busy nights...

Dan has decided that the only thing more boring than spending the day waiting for ... (fill in the blank) in the hospital is watching TV while waiting. On one hand, making progress in his health is good and motivating, on the other hand, it puts you at the bottom of the acute care totem pole.

Yesterday we were told that Dr. Malak (who assisted Dr. Black with both the cyst surgeries) would be the one to do the draining (because he didn't believe that the fluid was too thick to come out, as Ravi had suggested).... (Aside: we were grateful they decided this on their own, and we didn't have to say outright that we wanted someone other than Ravi to do it...). We were also told that he would be in at 8:00 pm.

Actually, he showed up earlier, and drained the cyst, but the vancomycin was not up from the pharmacy so he had to come back to inject that later. Later was about 11:00 pm. In between, Dan had another CT scan. We waited 45 minutes for transport to show up, and finally took him myself. We were back up to the room in 20 minutes.

And, when Dr. Malak did come back to give the injection, he said that the CT scan looked good, that the cyst is reducing in size, and that the cyst fluid had been mostly clear (as opposed to thick and white, wbc and puss). Both are good signs.

On the other hand, Dan continues to have symptoms that are distressing: fatigue/lethargy, intermitten chills, nausia... And questions about whether or not the pennicilan is actually working for him or causing side effects.

On the whole, Dan is making progress and healing. The ebb and flow of progress is distressing. He is sick and tired of being sick and tired.

And the journey continues,

With Love and Hope, Abi and Dan