Update 10/30/11

This weekend has been so drastically different from last weekend, and what a wonderful difference it has been. Mom needed to have dialysis on Saturday morning, but the doctors think that she may not need it again until Tuesday. Those numbers are starting to improve. Mom is also a lot more "with it" and less groggy. There were several family members that visited this weekend, but I'd guess her favorite visitors were Dominic and Andrew today (although she didn't say so!).

Mom is allowed to eat a "full liquid" diet--so juices, soup, jello, ice cream, etc. She also takes most of her medicines orally now so she doesn't have to be hooked up all the time. She's tolerating it pretty well even though we have to help her quite a bit. Her body is still pretty weak, so it takes a LOT of effort to do things. Like Mom said though, she is going to keep pushing through. She keeps saying "I was pretty sick", but it's more like a question or a reminder because, thankfully, she doesn't remember all of the 'stuff' she's been through. Physical Therapy came in today and helped her sit in a chair. She really liked that she didn't have to be in the bed! She didn't want to get back in bed, but she has to keep moving positions so that she doesn't get stiff or have sores from sitting in one position too long. Mom also said she wants to keep pushing so that she will feel well enough and be strong enough to have visitors.
The staff have all been great--no surprise--and are really encouraging all of us by continuing to notice all the areas that Mom has improved.
Mom's a little bummed that she's going to miss Halloween, but in true Mary form, she said she'd probably dress up like a patient:) She said make sure you take a bunch of pictures, so of course we will! We aren't too sure what the remainder of her admission is going to look like, how long it will be, or what the next step is, but we are just continually grateful to have all of that to think about! For those of you asking for her address, here you go: 3 East, Room A8, IUSCC (535 Barnhill Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46202).
Thanks to everyone for your support!!!

Wow!

Where to begin...I'll start with what I saw when I got to Mom's room today. No dialysis machine and no NG tube! Mom was taken off continuous dialysis overnight. She will still need to have dialysis until her kidneys start working again, but they will only need to do it a few hours and maybe not every day. She was also allowed to start a clear liquid diet. She took her medicines with applesauce today and she had some jello (and a few sips of diet coke!!)

The most exciting news is that they were ready for her to transfer out of the ICU. We thought she would need to go to the progressive care unit, but to our great pleasure, she moved to 3 EAST TONIGHT!! She's back in her "hospital home" where she knows the nurses and staff--and where they know us! It was a lot if excitement for one day and Mom was pretty tired, but she's making great progress!
Praise the Lord!!

Great news- 10/27/11

Today was the day they were going to remove the tube and take mom off the ventilator. They were able to do this around 10:30 this morning and she's done pretty well. They told Mom not to talk too much because her throat might hurt, she didn't seem to be in too much pain though because she was talking. When I came back later this afternoon Barb and Dad were reporting that Mom was talking throughout the afternoon:)

Mom is still very sleepy and disoriented--she usually knows who is in the room with her, but she has no idea how sick she is, so she keeps asking to go home and to get out of bed. As she continues to get better, that will likely start to clear up. We do know there's a lot of her old self inside though because she's already asking for Diet Coke!

Continued thanks for all of your prayers and support. How far we have come in one week!!

Update 10/26/11

Today was a good day! Mom used to have about 3 pumps running...today she's down to one. They also moved her back into a regular hospital bed and she's out of the air bed. Her vent settings are very minimal and they think they'll will try to pull out the tube (known as "extubation") on Thursday. The best part of the day though, is that Mom is more alert. She's not completely awake all of the time, but she opens her eyes and responds to us.
Now, of course, she can't talk because of the tube, but she CAN mouth words, and some of the words are very clear. Today, we could understand: "I love you" , "I want to go home"(I told her that she had a little more work to do before she could go home, but that she would get home soon), "Hi babe" (Joe walked in and said hello) and "Who's on the phone?" (That would've been James).
There's probably other good stuff too, but I just can't think past being able to communicate:)
Thanks for all of your prayers...they are working!! Praise the Lord!!

Update 10/25/11

Mom continues to make improvements each day. She will remain on dialysis for awhile until her kidneys are able to function again, but her liver is starting to make a comeback. They are weaning the vent settings so that she can breathe on her own. She's doing pretty well with that, but they are still providing vent support while her systems heal...maybe she'll be able to breathe without it completely soon (fingers crossed!). They are also changing some of the medications so that it's not a continuous delivery of meds, but now doses of the ones that she needs. Mom's also requiring less pain medication, so that means she is starting to be just a little more alert when they do something to arouse her--like cleaning her mouth, suctioning her, or changing her position in bed. Today we saw her open her eyes a little more and she was able to nod her head just a little bit to answer questions.
Dad had some of his cousins visit today and I think that was a good distraction--thank you for coming up and making that LONG drive!! Continual thanks to everyone for their support and prayers. We hope to just keep the good news coming!

Update 10/23/11

Today showed a little more stability. They took her off of the blood pressure medications and her blood pressure remained above the goal number. They also were able to pull a little bit of fluid off during dialysis. The other thing they were able to do was wean the sedation medications (a combo of anxiety and pain meds). Mom fluttered her eyes a little bit today and did briefly squeeze Amanda's hand. She was also able to nod a little when they asked if she was having pain...so they did start the pain med up again, but at the lowest dose--and not "sedation" because they didn't start the anxiety medication again. There is still a long way to go, but she needs to improve a little each day! Thanks for the prayers--they are working!!

Update 10/22/11

Wow, what a wild day Thursday was! Fortunately, things seem to be a little more calm right now. After Thursday, we weren't to sure what Friday would bring. Mom has been stable, but still critical. The septic shock that has caused all of these issues is very difficult to bounce back from, so we look for little victories. Late Thursday night they also started dialysis, because of acute kidney failure. This is pretty typical when considering all of the medications and fluids Mom is requiring right now. The dialysis will help filter her blood so that everything isn't just stuck inside of her body. The other thing the dialysis has done is made her core body temperature drop, so no fevers (although there is likely still infection, at least her temp isn't up).

Friday, the doctors were able to start weaning a med for her blood pressure and they did some tweaking on the the vent (that is helping her breathe). She also had an ANC...woot woot! The ANC is one of the numbers we look for in the blood work to know how her White cells (the infection fighters) are responding...it was 200 on Friday and Thursday it was undetectable. They didn't have to add a lot of other medications, but they did order a special bed. I wish you could see this contraption--it is like a bed/bounce house (imagine poofy and full of air). Mom is lifted and moved by the air, so it's a little like laying in a bounce house while someone walks around you...low on one side, then another. Anyhow, this is done to help make her more comfortable so they don't have to physically lift her all the time to keep from getting pressure sores. This also will help her lungs so they are just stuck in one position. The doctors really encouraged Dad (and all of us) to go home and get some rest...they were comfortable with how mom was doing and promised to call if we needed to come in...so we did.

On Saturday morning I got a call from the ICU doctor to let us know that they had moved Mom to a different room. She is still on the ICU, but they have them divided into a few different specialties. When mom needed an ICU room, the one that was available was on the Transplant ICU, so that is where she was, but now she has been moved to the Medical ICU. It's still on the 6th floor at University hospital...they are a little different on the visiting rules though--no one in the room between 7a-8:30a and 7p-8:30p while they do shift change and only 2-3 people in the room at a time--good thing there's plenty of waiting room! Also, the doctor said that her ANC had gone up to 400 (again, small victories)! Today they took her off the blood pressure medication and she seems to be holding her own in that regard. Her heart rate has been a little abnormal, but not high, just bouncing around alot so they stopped weaning the heart medication to see if that would help. Everything else seems to be stable, so that is good. The attending doctor in the ICU said that she was pleased with Mom's improvement.

So that is where we are for now. No doubt all of the prayers and love are being felt by Mom and our whole family!! Thank you to everyone for your support!! (By the way, if you are on facebook, I started a "Prayers for Mary" page. You can like this page and post prayers (0r read other prayers and well wishes that people have posted for Mom). We're going to read them to her (of course), but we can't wait to show her all the love and support when she starts to wake up.

Prayers needed--update 10/20/11

***I Have added more, because this was "Published" before it was finished, be sure to read all the way to the end***
Well this morning has been very eventful, so I'll try to get everything in without getting too confused.
Dad decided to come home last night to get some sleep...Joe brought him home and I brought him back this morning. We were in her room by 7:30 this morning. She had gotten 2 units of blood and bags of fluid with protein to try to increase her blood pressure. It was in the low 80s/high 70s for the top number. The doctors decided they needed to add a blood pressure med and get a ventral blood pressure (what we typically hear about are arterial pressures). They had weaned some of the sedatives in an attempt to make her less sleepy, but still keep her asleep. When the doctor tried to get her to respond, she was still too sleepy.
Her nurse started to put the head of the bed down to hook up the ventral pressure and when she did Mom's heart rate skyrocketed into something called ventral tachycardia (aka "V Tach"). This is certainly a major concern that requires immediate attention. To get immediate attention in the hospital setting, staff call a "code blue". This allows all staff to be on hand to assist as needed. So, Mom "coded" this morning. The response was immediate and the doctors and nurses were able to get her heart back into normal rhythm--but that did require that she was shocked twice. Fortunately, Dad, Granny, and I had been ushered out of the room at that point and did not see THAT happen.
Dad stayed in the hallway until things calmed a bit. They inserted an arterial line (art line) that will give the medical team constant feedback about her blood pressure. They also added a triple lumen central line to get more meds in as needed.
Right now Mom is stable, but she is still quite sick. They will need to help her fight this infection (whatever it is), but in the meantime, that may mean fighting smaller fires that pop up (i.e. blood pressures, heart rates, kidney function, etc.).
Currently she is on: several antibiotics, 2 sedative medications, a med to regulate her heart rhythm, a med for her blood pressures, they gave her another 'booster' for her white count, and I think she's on steriods for something too. In addition, they have numerous lines running in and out of her poor body--she would definitely freak out if she could see all of this stuff, but it is all there to give her the meds and fluids she needs, to monitor her vitals, and to help her excrete all the extra 'stuff' inside. There is no doubt that she is in the best place, getting the best care. There are multiple different medical services consulting with her team and getting information to and from my dad. They are trying to make sure they have everything looked at...and so we wait. Wait for the blood cultures to return the results. Wait for her white counts to come up and start fighting the infection. Wait for her pressures to come back up and her heart rate to stay normal. Most importantly we wait for her to be able to talk back to us and tell us that she doesn't like this tube, or this unit (we know she would want to be on 3 East--you all spoil her), or that she's ready to giddy-up on out of here.

On a side note, we certainly would be remiss if we didn't take the time to thank everyone for the love and concern that they have shown throughout, but especially today. I don't want to name any names for fear of forgetting someone, but you know who you are!! And to Mom and Dad's friends in dietary--those of you in and out of the room bringing her the diet Cokes and the catfish--THANK YOU for the tray of goodies that you provided us to day. You don't just care for my mom, you care for the whole family. YOU are Awesome!!
It's been one heck of a day--a day I'd rather not have to do again--but another day to give thanks for your prayers and to the Good Lord for watching over us!!

Update for Mary 10/19/11

Still fighting fevers and infections. She has not been making any progress on her breathing in the last three days and her heart rate and respirations continue to run high. So early this morning they moved her to Intensive Care and put a tube down into the lung and they have sedated her to keep her from pulling it out. She is calm of course and her rates have come down to correct level. They are scheduling a bronchoscope today at 1:00 PM to irrigate the lung and collect material to find out what type of infection it is so they can hit it with the correct antibiotic. She of course cannot talk or recognize anyone in the room. She also still has the infection in the blood stream which will be dealt with when they get her breathing better. Will update when I find out more.
 
Windford

Mary 10/17/11

Good News is that Mary DOES NOT have C-diff. She does have some type bacterial infection in her blood. They are waiting for the blood cultures to finish their results so they can identify where it is coming from. That is what is causing the high temperatures. Temperature was up to 103.3 earlier today, but it is down to normal now so they are giving her the platelets she needed. They couldn't give them when her temp was high.
 
The infection may be from the port they put in her chest, if so it has to come out. Then maybe be replaced in a month or so.
 
Her breathing is really difficult aand her heart rate is  up, so they are going to take another chest X-ray, checking her arterial blood gas, maybe some blood or increased liquids. This just going on now so I will update more on Tuesday if needed.
 
Windford

Mary's update 10/16/11

I hadn't updated in awhile,but since Mary is back in the hospital I thought it would be a good time. She had been going through a drop in her blood counts as expected since she was released from her last chemo on 10/07/11. She received two units of blood and one unit of platelets on Friday 10/14/11, she also had low potassium so they gave her some potassium. She woke about 4:30 AM on Saturday 10/15/11 with a very high temperature (105 at first then dropped to 103.4 when we left the house). Got to the Emergency room between 5:30 and 6:00 AM and it was still about 103. ER got it down to around 98.9 and then it started going back up. They admitted us and we got in a room in the cancer unit about 5:30 PM. While in the ER she started having severe diarrhea. The temperatures and diarrhea have continued throughout the night. This morning her temperature is around 102.1. They have taken samples to check for Clostridium difficile (C-diff) so they can decide whether to give her an antibiotic for C-diff or give her something to stop the diarrhea. They have also taken another set of blood cultures to check for other sources of infection or bacteria. Doctor said we will need to stay until fevers are done and her white count starts to go up. Maybe several days.
 
Windford

Chemo Admission--10/3

Mom was admitted on Sunday (10/2) to start her next scheduled chemo treatments. She will be in the hospital until Saturday (10/8). After that she will have to get bloodwork done a few times each week to watch her counts. As they start to drop, she will have to watch for fevers and possible infection. If she gets a fever or infection, she will get re-admitted for antibiotics, etc. We will be sure to keep everyone updated. Thanks to all for your prayers and support!!