Friday, Feb 21st, 2020……
Numbers are better today. Dr. says it will take several days to show
improvement, given her current condition and history. But she’s now going in
the right direction. You couldn’t prove it by looking at her. She sure looks
miserable, but hasn’t had much sleep until today. She’s still queasy and has no
appetite (this is all typical from the chemo). She is very weak from all of the
water weight from the chemo meds. As I said, she is sleeping more now. We
couldn’t believe it but she has over 50 lbs of fluid weight gain! So, needless to say, she is pretty limited in
movement and miserable, both physically and mentally. Doctors are saying it
will go away but will just take some time. They have also told me that some
people tolerate the level of chemo she received with no issues and those people
can get increased doses and maybe less treatments. But, like Lydia, there are
some who cannot deal with the meds and the next round will most likely be
adjusted downward. Remember, Lydia has a severely comprised immune system and
these drugs are hitting her like a ton of bricks and she can’t fight back at
this point in time.
Saturday, Feb 22nd, 2020…… Last night they added oxygen to
her list of treatments. They said it’s
not critical that she have it, but it helps with her labored breathing and she
doesn’t have to work so hard. The doctor said he wants to move her to the CCU.
This is primarily because she is needing more constant care than they can
provide. The staff assigned in her area have 4 rooms and she’s using most of
their time. CCU will be better suited for her care.
They moved
her this afternoon to CCU. She’s still
pretty out of it and when she’s not sleeping, she wants wet swabs in her sore
and dry mouth. While I was there today, they were in there every moment tending
to her and giving her new meds. They said all of her labs are still good but
she’s pretty weak from everything that has hit her so far. Her kidney is
struggling to do its job and they are watching that closely as a lot of the
filtration work is harder to do with one functioning kidney. The polycystic
kidney disease has long ago rendered her two natural kidneys useless, so she’s
always been dependent on the new one for everything. But so far, so good.
Sunday, Feb 23rd, 2020……
She had another tough night and is still pretty much
needing the constant care. Her numbers are good but they can’t get the fluid
down in her system. This would be absorbed by normal processes but she is
compromised. They gave her Lasix again to help with the water retention. They
also have her on a catheter to closely monitor output. The doctor told me that
he is going to be giving her more blood. They do not have a kidney specialist
here but he is consulting with the team in Corvallis. They may want to transfer
her there. TBD.
Ok, I
received a call after I left the hospital this morning. The folks in Corvallis
want her to be transferred to the CCU there so they can monitor her. They are
concerned that the one lonely kidney is not enough to get rid of all of the
fluids she currently has. And the meds are doing the job as they hoped. The fluids
are causing her stress and heavy breathing, which exacerbates her issues. The Corvallis
facility can do dialysis which should help in that regard.
They
called me an hour or so later and said that they had sent a non-critical ambulance
and picked her up and I should allow an hour or so before heading there so they
can set her up in the CCU and evaluate her. I went and picked up Penny and we
left but stopped by the Lebanon hospital to pick up some personal effects
missed by the ambulance crew. When we got to Corvallis, they had already
determined that she needed dialysis and I signed the consent form so they could
put in another shunt for that. They took her down to the dialysis center for
her four-hour treatment and we left for the night. We stopped and had a meal at
the Mongolian BBQ place in Corvallis and then headed back to Lebanon. We will head back
tomorrow morning.
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