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Thursday, 11/12/98
Yesterday Paige went in for CT scans from head to pelvis. Late last night I spoke to Dr. Katske about the results. All were good:
1. Head: negative. Nuthin up there ('cep her brain). No embolism thingies.
2. Chest: Fluid still gone from the lung cavities. Looks good.
3. Abdomen/Pelvis: Fluid from the 2 abcesses that were drained last Saturday gone and staying gone. Those abcesses appear to have collapsed and have not reappeared. yay!
Paige's white blood cell count (WBC) yesterday dropped to 21,000. Today it's back up to 23. It's been hovering in the 23 range all week. We want it to go back down, which would signal the end of the infection. A count of 10 or 12 would be ideal.
Her heart rate is 113 and has been in that range all day. Why would it be elevated? she's not feverish. One nurse said that even though she's been off the brevibloc (heart rate controller) for a couple days now, it could have lingered on in her tissues and has now finally really worn off. This is not a heart rate to worry about. They took out the NG tube from her nose! now she has nothing at all foreign on her face. yay! one step closer to normalcy.
7:30pm - Paige moved to the Women's Cancer Center (WCC) from the CCU! Out of the CCU!!!
She's in a shared room for tonight. Ultrasound was scheduled for sometime this weekend.
8:00pm - Sometime is now. Paige wheeled down to ultrasound. They're checking the key organs for infections etc., liver, kidneys, gallbladder, pancreas. Dunno results.
9:15pm - Paige went #2!! I know this is not exactly glamorous news, but is a good sign that her fistula is healing. The doctors said that this event would be a key milestone on the way to her recovery. They said this like 10 days ago, so this is has been much anticipated.
Paige's eyes are a little more normal now. Both pupils are closer to the same size, and her droopy eyelid has picked up a little. Her upper incision has some fluid in it. Lately it's been dry but today it looks slightly infected. Also her sutures appear to be biting quite deeply into her skin. She says it doesn't hurt so I won't worry about it. Also the doc's saw it and were not concerned, so neither am I. really. I'm ok with it. fine. perfectly calm. haha. :-)
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Friday, 11/13/98 aaahhhghgghg! Friday the 13th! :-)
Today Paige looks good. Ultrasound came back ok. All systems go. Her spirits still seem a little shaky but we'll work on that. She keeps on insisting that it will take forever for her to get out, etc.
I keep reminding her that she should be happy that she's doing well enough to be out of the CCU and in her own room. I also reminded her that everything we've been praying for over the last 3 weeks has happened or is happening. I told her last night to consider this the halfway point to going home, and to be mentally ready to have it take that long. If she gets home sooner then that's a bonus. She responded well to all this and seemed to really cheer up. I also did my silly stick person jumping for joy impersonation for her, which also helped. :-)
\O/Her WBC was at 23.6 today, which is still up there, and is slightly up from yesterday. The 'reserve troops' are still being called up into action, it seems. This probably indicates residual infection somewhere in her, most likely in her abdomen. Dr. Posthumous is confident that the abdomen is the hot spot. He said she probably has 6 to 20 abcesses in her abdomen, and a CT scan won't find them unless we add contrast to her system. I don't know about that number, but she probably has some in her. The typical contrast substances that they would normally use are too much for her system right now so they are looking into other stuff.
Her temperature has been that of a low grade fever, 99-101 ish. They said if her temp. spikes this weekend then they'd do some more scans, maybe with contrast. Otherwise they'll stay the course and let her keep healing.
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She is sleeping much better now. The room is so quiet compared to the CCU. She's basically been sleeping nonstop since last night. The only period of time I've seen her continuously awake is when she went outside today. She walked around the WCC today and out into their garden. We all sat out there for like 45 minutes until she was ready to come back in.
I guess I was pretty worried about her sluggishness today, but probably should not be. She's basically been sleep deprived for 3 weeks now from the CCU, so she can sleep for 2-3 days straight and it's ok. I still have that nervous feeling in my tummy today, like we're overlooking something, but I guess I should relax.
I'll likely stay something of a basket case until that damn Fistula seals up. It has slowed, and her bowels are pumping, so we're going in the right direction.
It could be as much as another month until she's ready for chemo, though. We'll have to wait & see. today 4 doc's saw her, Spirtos, Posthumous, Gold & Majunder, and all were upbeat. She takes that to heart, but is still emotionally fragile. A 'neutral' appraisal from the lead nurse Jenny left her tearful. Jenny gave her a middle of the road update like 'Here's where you are, not out of the woods yet, could be home by X, but don't take it for granted, etc etc...' Paige extracted all the negatives out of that and remembered it as a sad update.
Perhaps she just needed to be sad for a while, I don't know. I told her she could be sad to me anytime and I'd listen, but that I would not contribute to it. I was careful not to sound like I was lecturing (well that's my story. ask paige for her side later :-)
she said the sleep felt good and that she was enjoying it. that's good enough for me.
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Saturday, 11/14/98
Well she survived Friday the 13th unscathed. She looks great today. She went outside again and is walking more confidently. Still sleeping tons too. When the nurse changed the dressing on her incision today it looked great. The fluid from the upper part was gone and it looked to be healing very well. Additionally, the drainage from the bottom was almost nil, and that's after like 8 hours! The damn fistula seems to be healing!