Reply #68: Update on 12/10/06

[Systematic Chaos]

Well, Kirk is still in the hospital and looks to be there for at least a little while longer. They have him on a diabetic diet, with leaway, so I brought him some bean, cheese, and rice burritos from El Polo Loco yesterday, which he ate for lunch and a late night snack. Other than that, he's been eating only what they give him, and he didn't eat his lunch yesterday because of the burritos. They have him on some pain meds, because he does get some leg and foot pain that comes and goes. He went in for a bone scan today, and they finished the second part later, right after I left him. He's done, and it appears that they believe that the results might show a very "mild" bone infection if there is one at all. Mild or major, bone infections aren't fun in either case, but they may be able to save the leg if it's mild and treatable. The primary doctor is going to start seeing him tomorrow, so we will hopefully find out more on what they expect to happen in the near future, including perhaps a time frame on how long he's expected to stay there. The leg and foot swelling hasn't decreased markedly, but he doesn't feel that it's increased either. The doctor that has been seeing him over the weekend decided to not put tubagrip (a stocking material that compresses the limb) on his legs, to allow natural circulation. We will find out if they want to continue that, or use the tubagrip to try to reduce the swelling again.

Needless to say, Kirk is very committed to following through on whatever he needs to do. The only bad thing is, he's said the same thing before and then slacked off and this is what happened. I'm hoping that this will actually work for him, and that he does improve and get better. I'm concerned financially, I'm a little stressed because one of our 4 cats suddenly started acting constipated (either constipated or very hard to pass bowel movements), and I'm not able to spend nearly enough time with Kirk (will have to spend at least the next 3 days not seeing him even for a moment). BUT, if this works, it will be worth it. Unless the cat gets sick, that is.