The ongoing saga

Joan was able to come home yesterday. The abdominocentesis tube out of her abdomen was removed and a large ‘waterproof’ dressing stuck over the hole in her stomach. By the time we had arrived home the fluid pressure has forced a leak in the dressing and urine-looking fluid was running like a Queensland flood. We rang the Oncologist and he suggested we go to our pharmacy and get lots of gauze pads and change the dressing regularly until the flow slowed down.

After several attempts at stemming the flow we resorted to large incontinence pads. When Joan was in bed the flow slowed and the pad almost held the spillage overnight. This morning we rang the Oncologist’s office and the nurse/receptionist told us to come in immediately. The fix was to clean up the area around the hole and attach a small bag which can be emptied easily. There is a spare bag for me to use if somehow we damage the one stuck on Joan’s belly.
When Joan was getting the infusion of Human Protein (albumin) the nurse told her that each small bottle of 100ml was produced using approximately 30 blood donations. At last Joan saw some direct value in all the years as a blood donor. It will be interesting to see what that cost.