Today was odd!

Today she was kinda alert, but not really. She finally got some morphine at 10:45? I think! Her right arm is completely swollen. They'll have to do another fistulagram tomorrow. She'll also have dialysis and they're going to x-ray her left leg because it is swollen too! They don't have results from the biopsy of her bone marrow. Dr. Wang said that the white cell nuclear thingy showed that the white blood cells were gathering in her lungs...possibly pnemonia, or TB. We might know more tomorrow.

Sad news, Heather Ann Luedtke Chapman passed away this afternoon. She's only 32! Leaves a husband and two small children behind. She fought a long 3 year fight with cancer. Funeral will probably be Saturday at 10a.m.

This just in....

We just returned from the hospital. She's bright eyed and bushy tailed! She's very awake and coherrent and everything. Too bad visiting hours ended!!! She ate most of her dinner. Considering it was 3 hours old and mostly cold she did really well. It was nice to see her lively and talking! I hope she gets some sleep tonight!!! Her right hand is swollen again. Her fingers look like sausages. She might be having problems with her access again! Hopefully we'll get her back down to radiology before they discharge her, so they can see what's going on in that arm!!! That's all folks!

Another day....

Well, she's pretty much the same today. Sleeping and moaning. No real communication. She had the biopsy of her bone marrow at 12:45ish. She's on dialysis right now. Will be done around 7:30- 8:00 p.m. They were better at managing the pain today. Meaning, I didn't have to ask them to give her the vicadin or morphine! She'll probably be out of it for the rest of the night. I do plan to go back a little before 8pm to make sure she eats dinner. That's it for today!

What next?

So, I've been gone for two & 1/2 days. When we left she was alert and talking rationally. Today we got home and I went straight to the hospital. She's back to being sleepy all the time and talking nonsense!
We did receive good news while we were gone. There is no cancer!!! Hooray! Dr. Yu told me they were sending her back to Rio Hondo Subaccute & Nursing Center yesterday and then he called a few hours later and told me that the Infectious Disease Dr. said no way! She's staying until we run a few more tests and find out what's going on!!! THANK YOU!!!! I guess in one of her tests she turned up with big TB cells! Yes, tuberculosis. The Infectious Dr. came in and asked her if she had ever been exposed to TB she said yes, her father had it and died when she was 6! Yes, she always tests positive with skin tests and has to have chest x-rays. So...tomorrow they are doing a bone marrow test on the lesion on her femor to see if it's TB! And if they can run bacterial tests on the marrow they won't have to do another biopsy of the lumps under her arm. They wanted to run them with the last biopsy, but when the lab didn't find any cancer, they through her goo out before bacterial tests could be run! So...that's where we are now. She's having more tests!
I had to grow a spine today and make the nurse give her vicadin. She's obviously in pain, but they ask her if she wants pain meds and she says no. So, I had a copy of her advance directive that says I can make decisions for her even if she's capable of making them herself, so I told the nurse to give it to her regardless of whether she said she wanted it or not. She did give it to her. Funny thing, an hour later the nurse came in and said, has she been in pain for this whole hour? (She was moaning!) We said yes and the nurse came in and shot her up with morphine!!! So there you have it. I still have the advance directive in hand and I will share it with her idiot Dr. Yu tomorrow because it also says to keep her pain free even if the medication hastens her death! DUH! I'm exhausted! I thought getting a way for two days would help. It did! Eddie just says I'm depressed when I return home!

She's Back!

This morning started with Mom being taken off to radiology for a biopsy. She came back a few hours later and was sedated. She slept all day. Didn't eat breakfast or lunch. Hadn't eaten dinner the night before. Dr Yu came in and said that like we discussed yesterday, (I don't remember a discussion!), after Dialysis tomorrow they'll move her back to Rio Hondo. I told him NO! Dr. Wang said that if the biopsy under her arm was negative they wanted to check the lesion on her femer. So, she needed to stay in the hospital until ALL the results are in. He supposedly agreed and we'll see what happens now. Dr. Chuong came in and he doesn't think they'll find cancer. He thinks we need to make a "quality of life" decision. So, Patricia and I went out to lunch. Mom was completely zonked. When we got back I said hello to her and she woke up and was more normal than she has been since last Thursday I want to say! She asked intelligent questions and made normal comments. Remembered it was Eddie's b-day Friday and was concerned about him getting his b-day card! So...I don't see putting her on hospice unless she decides it when she's in a coherrent state! We'll see how the next days go and what her alertness level is. She ate all her dinner and then some. She drank lots of water. Hadn't had a drink in almost a whole day. When we left her she was tired, but still knew what was going on.

We'll see what happens. I'll be out of town til Sat. afternoon, so you will not get an update from me.

The latest

Almost different day, same story...but.....she did get a pik line today. She did have the nuclear white blood cell thingy. She hadn't had dialysis yet by the time I left at 8pm. She didn't have the biopsy or the 2 units of blood. The 2 units of blood is supposed to happen with dialysis.

The morning started with me feeding her breakfast. She ate everything! That was good. Then she got wheeled downstairs, bed and all for the pik line. I got a two hour break. On the way out of the hospital I ran into Dr. Wang. (oncologist). She said that there is no myleoma. So if the biopsy of the pit lumps is negative we may need to biopsy her bone marrow to see what the lesion on her femer is.
Then Dr. Yu came in at lunch time I think. He's so confusing. Today he told me, that we're still waiting for these tests, but after the biopsy she'll go back to Rio Hondo Subacute and Nursing Center because.....the germs in the air ducts!!!!!!! Does he really think the air ducts at Rio Hondo are magically cleaner than the hospital? He's retarded!!!
Tonight Dr Chuong came in. He's exhausted. He's been covering for Dr. Thornhill who's on vacation. He informed me today that Dr. Lange will be in Thursday to Sunday and he's glad! He's glad! Heck! I'm glad! Dr. Lange is drop-dead gorgeous!!! Unfortunately I'll miss his first two days, but I'm hoping that Saturday or Sunday I'll be able to talk with him and get the real low-down from him. I believe he'll give it to me straight especially if everyone else is talking nonsense still. Dr. Chuong also said that mom looked better last night than she did tonight. I agreed. It's just waiting to see what the tests say. If they're all negative for cancer, then he says our decision is harder because we can continue dialysis, but then it's a matter of quality of life. I'm not gonna worry about that now, just want to hear the test results. See if they can figure out what's infected!
Mom was pretty out of it after the pik line was put in. She did eat lunch. After the nuclear scan stuff, she was toast! She didn't eat dinner. She never was alert at all! It was sad. I'm tired and I'm going to bed!

Update!

Today should have been an eventful day, but it wasn't.
She was supposed to have her nuclear blood thingy, but they couldn't get any blood out of her. She is a turnip!!!!
They were also supposed to do a biopsy, but her blood was too thin! They've been giving her Vitamin K to thicken it up!
So tomorrow will be a very busy day.
First off, it's a dialysis day.
Second, if her blood is thick enough they'll do the biopsy.
Third, they're going to install(?) a pik line so they won't have to poke and prod her anymore to get blood.
Fourth, they need to draw the blood for the nuclear test.
Fifth, they decided she's a couple pints low....so they're giving her 2 units of blood.

She ate a really good dinner tonight. Ate all her entree and her soup and of course, applesauce. She gets her meds crushed up and then we add applesauce to "help the medicine go down". yum-yum.

She didn't scream as much today or yesterday when they rolled her back and forth. I found out today her pressure sore is at Stage 2! They have it covered now with a big, I guess, bandaid! I need to do some research and figure what a stage 2 is!
She slept for quite a while this afternoon. I'd say way over 4 hours. I woke her up to eat dinner.
One thing she said while she was dozing off is: "I set sail a week ago."

Dr. Yu said we might need to decide on Hospice. I'm trying to stretch it out for as long as I can until that decision has to be made. I might have to make it on Wednesday. Eddie and I are supposed to be going out of town for his birthday Thursday to Saturday. So..we'll see what happens.