Fast asleep

Charlie is fast asleep next to me - curled up on his side with his Max
collie dog and Alfie monkey cuddled tight to his poor, battered little
chest.
He really does seem so much more comfortable now two of his drains are
out. We hope the other one can come out on Saturday, but some of the
medical staff think that the tube may be blocked because the drainage
tailed off quite quickly. This might be the case, I suppose, but it's
been about 48 hours now since the drainage reduced, and I'm sure if
Chas was carting 600mls of fluid around in his chest cavity he'd
probably be showing some signs of trouble by now. So we'd appreciate
any 'no fluid' positive thoughts you've got going spare, please!
I don't think there are any plans to remove any more of the hardware
tomorrow - there was some talk of pulling the pacing wires, but I
think we'd rather leave them where they are and take them out along
with the chest drain, rathe than subject Charlie to two procedures.
One other thing - now Charlie's central line is out, we have to start
doing his INR tests via finger prick in the morning. I'm not much
looking forward to it, but hopefully he'll be his usual stoical self,
and will let me jab him without 2much trouble.
Other good news - Charlie has learned to swallow his tablets with
water, after one of his little friends on the ward showed him how easy
it was. This makes life much easier, because some of the liquid
medicines taste foul - especially the warfarin - the tablets are
brown, and when they are dissolved in water they look like liquid mud.
Bleagh.
One of the doctors came to see Charlie today, and brought him a brown
paper bag full of his favourite jelly sweets. It was so kind of him,
and we were really touched that he had bothered.
Talking of gifts - I must just say another big thank you to everybody
who has sent cards and parcels to Charlie while we've been here - the
nurses keep telling us they've never had a patient receive so many
letters! (Especially one all the way from America! Thanks again,
Monica!) And I really must say thank you again for all the emails,
texts and messages of support from all over the place. Pete and I are
so grateful - your messages have really helped us to feel less alone
through all of this. I have read so many of them out to Charlie, and
he has been so pleased to hear how much all his friends are thinking
of him.
Here's looking forward to a good second day of April!

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