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Sat. 1/31/04
Nothing much to report. Marge continues to regain
her strength a little each day and today we hit the local Farmers Market
and grocery store without using oxygen. She also continues to work
on some of her sewing projects and makes it upstairs with only a little
difficulty.
She's also continuing to regain her taste buds.
Watermelon is still at the top of her favorite list but she's slowly
adding other foods.
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Fri. 1/30/04
Not too much to report. Marge continues to regain
her strength a little each day and go without oxygen for
longer periods. She
again made it upstairs several times to work on her quilt projects.
We've also added short rides each day to combat her "cabin fever"
feelings.
She's also continuing to regain her taste buds.
She's now also becoming a Subway ham sub junkie in addition to being a
watermelon junkie.
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Thu. 1/29/04
Not too much to report. Marge continues to regain
her strength a little each day and go without oxygen for
longer periods. She's a little angry that it's taking so long to
regain her muscle tone in her arms and legs but continues to work at
it. She
again made it upstairs several times to sew some
quilt blocks together.
She's also continuing to regain her taste buds and eating
more and different types of
foods. But today was a repeat of one of my favorites when friends
took us out to dinner for Mexican food. We came home really stuffed
but somehow she found room later for watermelon.
Because of her past experience with allergic reactions to
different meds and her white count, Marge visited the clinic to give blood
for her weekly CBC.
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Wed. 1/28/04
Not too much to report. Marge continues to regain
her strength a little each day and go without oxygen for
longer periods through the day and night when she's sleeping. She
again made it upstairs several times to sew some
quilt blocks together. She says the sewing is helping her regain the
muscle tone in her arms and hands. She also had me oil the quilting
machine and is going to start spending time standing at it and getting
used to the weight of the bigger machine head.
She's also continuing to regain her taste buds and eating
more and different types of
foods. Today she made us spaghetti and again was only able to eat a
small amount. But of course she also left room for watermelon.
I think it's time to investing in some farm that grows them.
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Tue. 1/27/04
Marge continues to regain
her strength a little each day and go without oxygen for
longer periods through the day and night when she's sleeping. Her
biggest complaint is the muscle tone she's lost in her legs when standing
and she really has problems going up and down the stairs to the sewing
room. But she did make it upstairs several times today to sew some
quilt blocks together. She also made it to the garage and helped
(supervised) a few loads of clothes washing.
She's also continuing to regain her taste buds and eating
more and different types of
foods. Today she made us Tacos for lunch but was only able to eat
one followed by watermelon. I think she's becoming a watermelon
junkie because got up at 2 AM and had some.
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Mon. 1/26/04
Marge is home from the hospital and able to take short
phone calls.
Marge continues to regain
her strength a little each day and was able to go without the oxygen for
longer periods - about 4 hours total today. I knew as soon as she was able
she would be in the sewing/quilting room. We discovered her oxygen
line is long enough to reach upstairs and she went up there a couple of
times and used the sewing machine.
We didn't make it down the block with the wheel chair and
Marge pushing as planned but she still got the exercise she needs to
strengthen her legs. Today she went me to the grocery and drug
stores and was able to make it around them pushing the grocery cart.
And what was the first item she picked up at the grocery store?
Watermelon of course.
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Sun. 1/25/04
Marge is home from the hospital and able to take short
phone calls.
Not too much to report. Marge continues to regain
her strength a little each day and was able to go without the oxygen for
longer periods - made 2 hours today.
She's continuing to try and eat more and different types of
foods and today I had to take her out for fried zucchini. Got a
little help with keeping her supplied with watermelon when one of her
friends visited and brought some and chocolate cookies.
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Sat. 1/24/04
Marge is home from the hospital and able to take short
phone calls.
Marge is getting a little stronger each day. Today
she was able to do a little cooking and ran the vacuum in one room.
She is also now able to go without oxygen for short periods. We went
to dinner with friends and she was able to go without the oxygen for a
little over an hour.
She's continuing to try and eat more and different types of
foods and she added fish & chips to the list when we went out for
dinner -- probably because they served watermelon with the dinner :-).
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Fri. 1/23/04
Marge is home from the hospital and able to take short
phone calls.
Not too much to report. She relaxed all day with
minor discomfort from the chemo treatment. She's continuing to try and eat more and different types of
foods. The only problem with her eating every couple of hours is
that I think I'm putting on all the weight.
Had cleaning service in to do "Spring
Cleaning". This helped Mage mentally because she worried about
her house -- and it helped me too because I had really gotten behind in
the last couple of months.
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Thu. 1/22/04
Marge is home from the hospital and able to take short
phone calls.
Marge had her first chemo treatment today. Although
her white count was a little high, they went forward with the
treatment. It was scheduled to last 6-6.5 hours but only took about
5 hours. The reason the first treatment takes longer is because they
checked to see if there was any allergic reaction to the drugs as they
gave them to her. After her experience in the hospital with
antibiotics we were a little apprehensive. Fortunately there was no
reaction and all subsequent treatments should only take 2-3 hours.
Because of her past experience with allergic reactions to
different meds and her white count, Marge will have to give blood for a
CBC each week for the next 8 weeks.
She's continuing to try and eat more and different types of foods.
On the way home from the hospital she said she had the desire for chili-cheese
fries and we made a stop at one of our Mexican food places known for their
chili-cheese fries. I thought it was going to be a day without her eating
watermelon three times a day but I later found that she has taken some
with her to her treatment...
Marge continues to have an allergic reaction to something
and it only shows on her arms, hands and legs. So far we've stopped
using the udder cream and switched the shower soap. Yesterday we
decided it might be the washing machine soap and made a run to the store
for a different brand. Unfortunately I didn't know our new
high-capacity super-duper machine we got for quilts required a High
Efficiency, low sudsing detergent and I screwed up the machine on the
first load. According to the machine error codes I might have used
too much soap and it did something to the drain pump. After an hour
on the phone with the machine manufacturer a service call was scheduled
for next Monday.
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Wed. 1/21/04
Marge is home from the hospital and able to take short
phone calls.
Nothing much to report. I took her to the lab to
have blood drawn to test in preparation for first chemo treatment on the
22nd. She's continuing to try and eat more and different types of foods.
Of course she's still having watermelon
three times a day.
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Tue. 1/20/04
Marge is home from the hospital and able to take short
phone calls.
Nothing much to report. She's continuing to try and eat more and different types of foods. Today's
new foods included chicken pot pies and spinach. Of course she's still having watermelon
three times a day.
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Mon. 1/19/04
Marge is home from the hospital and able to take short
phone calls because she still runs out of oxygen if she talks too long.
It was a relaxing day with an enjoyable visit with Marcia
& Tom Stevens in the morning. Marge finally made it upstairs
with Marcia to show her our IS installation. Marge later commented
that her legs began to give out about half way up the stairs as a result
of almost two months in bed. Looks like we need more walking
exercises.
She's continuing to try and eat more and different types of foods. Today
for lunch her appetite was for some Mexican food and this evening it was
for some chicken from KFC. Of course she's still having watermelon
three times a day.
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Sun. 1/18/04
Marge is home from the hospital and able to take short
phone calls because she still runs out of oxygen if she talks too long.
It was a lazy sort of day and showering, dressing, a nap,
was able to take a few short phone calls from relatives and friends.
She's continuing to try and eat more and different types of foods. Today it was
soft boiled eggs, chicken and dumplings and strawberries. Watermelon
still remains at the top of the food favorites and she has some at each
meal.
We found that her coughing spells, usually occurring
around 2 AM, were reduced if she moved to the recliner chair.
Another allergic reaction also surfaced in the morning. After
showering she applied udder cream to her whole body and shortly after that
she began to itch. So Benadryl may have to be added to the list of
items to pick up at the store on a regular basis.
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Sat. 1/17/04
Marge is home from the hospital and able to take short
phone calls because she still runs out of oxygen if she talks too long.
For the second day she was able to take a shower and get dressed without and
help. And for the second day, that was a little too much and
she then slept for 3 hours.
With the help of the appetite enhancer, she's trying to
eat more and different types of foods. Today it was a pasta casserole,
popcorn and later a little ice cream with Sanders hot fudge topping. Her favorite food
sill remains watermelon and it looks like that will require a run to the
store every couple of days to stock up.
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Fri. 1/16/04
Marge is home from the hospital and able to take short
phone calls because she still runs out of oxygen if she talks too long.
It was a very good day! The "blotchy" red skin problem
is basically gone and she's her taste buds are slowly returning so she's
able to eat more and different solids each day. Although she's
still weak she was able to take a shower and get dressed without and
help. Of course she then went too far and tried to clean up
the kitchen a little and that put her down for a couple of hours.
She said her goal for the weekend is to make it upstairs to help sort out
the customer quilts that have to be sent and those that could be picked
up.
The appetite enhancer seems to be working and that's good
because there's little room left in the refrigerator and freezer because
of all the food brought in by friends. Her favorite food right now
is watermelon and I had to make another run to the store to stock
up. The biggest surprise as far as lost taste for chocolate. I
never thought I'd see the day she would not eat it in one way or another
and it was one of the first tastes to go and still hasn't returned.
Her sister even had some Sanders hot fudge topping sent and she wasn't
ready to try it on ice cream.
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Thu. 1/15/04
Marge is home from the hospital and able to take short
phone calls because she still runs out of oxygen if she talks too long.
Everything is about the same as yesterday and I've decided
to drop the AM/PM report because circumstances have changed. Her "blotchy" red skin problem is
almost completely gone and she's beginning to eat a little more solids
each day. She had a doctor appointment today and was given a
preliminary approval to start the chemo treatments on the 22nd. The
only hesitation was due to results of her blood work from Monday and it
showed her white count was back up to 17,000. Marge was running a slight
temperature. Another lab for blood is scheduled for the 21st and
depending on those results, the treatments will start.
To help Marge with solid foods, the doctor gave her a prescription
for an appetite enhancer. Someone also suggested watermelon for her
taste buds so I picked some up at the market, along with some tomatoes
that she said she was craving. For dinner she was able to eat a
couple of open face "red devil" sandwiches and several slices of
watermelon. The enhancer med seemed to be working because she was
able to eat a couple scoops of ice cream a few hours later and just before
midnight she said she wanted some pretzel sticks.
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Wed. 1/14/04
AM
Marge is home from the hospital but still unable to take phone
calls because she still runs out of oxygen if she talks too long.
Nothing much has changed. Marge had good night with only a few coughing
spells early this morning, her temps are still normal, her "blotchy" red skin problem is almost
gone and she was able to eat some oatmeal for breakfast and drink a glass
of juice. That was the first real breakfast. In the past the best I
could do was a 1/2 glass of juice.
No tests or doctor appoints today.
PM
Continued good news in regard to solid foods. She's
now trying to eat something every couple of hours. and was able to eat
1/4th of a sub sandwich for lunch and some ribs for dinner that were
brought over by friends.
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Tue. 1/13/04
AM
Marge is home from the hospital but still unable to take phone
calls because she still runs out of oxygen if she talks too long.
Nothing much has changed. Marge had good night with only a few coughing
spells, her temperature stayed normal through the night and continues to
have trouble swallowing solids. The good news is that the med
reaction that gave the "blotchy" red skin problem is almost
gone.
She's scheduled for a "virtual CT scan" in Los
Angeles later this morning.
PM
After reviewing the results of the "virtual CT scan"
it was decided to hold additional radiation treatments until after 3-4
chemo treatments and then do another CT scan.
Good news on the solid food. She was able to eat
small portions at dinner and keep it down. The doctor suggested
eating a little every couple of hours until her digestive system is back
to normal.
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Mon. 1/12/04
AM
Marge is home from the hospital but still unable to take phone
calls because she still runs out of oxygen if she talks too long.
Nothing much has changed. Marge had good night with only a few coughing
spells, her temperature stayed normal through the night and she still has
the "blotchy"
skin problem. She also continues to have trouble swallowing solids.
I just found out that she has to go to the clinic today to
have blood drawn and that will be a challenge. Since she's so weak
and can barely walk down the hall to the bathroom, I'm trying to arrange
for a wheel chair with oxygen tank setup. A good friend across town has
one that we can use today but I can see a continual need for a while.
PM
Temps are staying down but the solid food she managed to
eat did not stay down.
With borrowed wheel chair and portable oxygen, was able to
navigate into the clinic to have the blood drawn. Ordered wheel
chair with oxygen setup was delivered at 10 PM.
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Sun. 1/11/04
AM
Marge is home from the hospital but still unable to take phone
calls because she still runs out of oxygen if she talks too long.
Marge had good night with only a few coughing spells.
Her temperature stayed normal through the night but her "blotchy"
skin problem is still with us.
This morning she's having trouble swallowing so back to
the liquids and soft foods.
PM
Nothing new to report. Temps staying down but
getting solid
foods down is still a problem.
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Sat. 1/10/04
AM
Marge is home from the hospital but still unable to take phone
calls because she still runs out of oxygen if she talks too long.
Marge had good night with only a few coughing spells.
Her temperature stayed normal through the night but she is still
"blotchy" on her arms and legs as a result of some meds she had
been taking. When they discharged her from the hospital they didn't
send any meds home and that was good.
Since her hospital stay was extended because of the
medication reaction and the pneumonia, her chemo treatments were
rescheduled to begin 1/22. Then she's scheduled for six of them
every 21 days. On those days she will go into the clinic for 6 hours
and receive the treatment via IV.
The additional radiation treatments have not been
scheduled yet. She has a "virtual CT scan" scheduled for
1/13 and then they will decide on the type and number of treatments.
PM
The pneumonia apparently finally beginning to break up and Marge is
coughing up a lot of "crud". The only bad side of this is
that her stomach muscles hurt from all the coughing. Her temps were
normal all day and the "skin blotches" on her arms and legs from
the med reaction are beginning to go away. Eating solid food is
still a problem because swallowing is difficult. Interesting now
that all the meds have been discontinued is her taste buds are
reacting. She says her tongue feels like if you burned it drinking
anything too hot. She says anything carbonated feels like it's
burning her tongue.
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Fri.1/09/04
AM
Marge is still in the hospital and unable to take phone
calls.
Marge had a bad night with coughing spells. This
could be good news because it could indicate that the pneumonia is
beginning to break up. Good
news also in regard to her temperatures -- no overnight spikes.
PM
All good news. Her white continues to stay down -- 13,600 this
morning. Also good news regarding her platelet count -- not only back up to
normal but way above normal - 238,000. So it does not look like she
will need any platelet transfusions until perhaps when they start the
chemo or second round of radiation treatments. Saving the best for
last.... At noon they kicked her out of the hospital. They were
satisfied with all the lab results and her blotched skin problem from the
meds seems to be going away. I still have to be regularly checking
on her temps but they felt not IV meds needed to be sent home. She's
still on oxygen and will be until the pneumonia is completely gone.
Hopefully this time she will not have to go back into the hospital again. She
has some more tests scheduled for next week and the following week she
will start chemo. All went well in the afternoon and evening. Her
temps are staying normal and she's getting lots of rest. She said
the best part of coming home was being able to take a long, long
shower. She is
eating a little and we're still trying for get her taste buds back in line
because she still has some of the meds in her system that change how
things taste.
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Thu. 1/08/04
AM
Marge is still in the hospital and unable to take phone
calls.
Marge had a good night without being
awakened diarrhea but did complain of a few coughing spells. Good
news on her temperatures -- no overnight spikes.
Her white count is staying down -- 13,900 today. Also good news regarding her platelet count -- back up to
normal so they are still on hold for an additional platelet transfusion.
She was a little weak this morning and again discouraged
because the new med combination is still causing blotches on her arms and
legs.
PM
Nothing new to report for the afternoon except she had trouble with swallowing
solid foods and continued to have
temperature spikes up to 100. In an effort to determine which med
was causing the reaction and the skin blotches, they stopped all meds for
24 hours.
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Wed. 1/07/04
AM
Marge is still in the hospital and unable to take phone
calls.
Lots of good news this morning! Marge had a good night without being
awakened by coughing or diarrhea. She did have one temperature spike
of 101 around 2 AM but it was then normal until noon.
Her white count was it's lowest in over a month -- down to
13,000. Also good news regarding her platelet count -- back up to
89,200 so they are still on hold for an additional platelet transfusion.
The only negative things to report are in regard to the
new antibiotic meds. One or both are continuing to cause blotches to
her arms and legs and also some occasional diarrhea. Two of her
doctors came in and are scratching their heads because they claim these
two symptoms are not usually associated with either of these meds.
Just before noon Marge, the portable oxygen system, her IV
stand and I took a stroll and she made it 1.5 times around the whole
hospital floor.
PM
Nothing new to report for the afternoon except she continued to have
temperature spikes up to 101 and reaction to the latest med combination.
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Tue. 1/06/04
AM
Marge is still in the hospital and unable to take phone
calls.
Good new! Marge had a good night without being
awakened by coughing or diarrhea. Maybe the switch in meds is
finally going to result in her getting some rest. Also good was her
temperature this morning -- 99.
Results of upper GI and bone marrow biopsy due back in the
PM.
PM
Visit/call from all four of Marge's doctors. Results of upper GI
revealed no problems. The bone marrow biopsy showed all ok -- good
pre-cursors to platelet so no problem in bone marrow. They believe
the platelet problem was due to one of the meds so cut back on it and will
wait on additional platelet transfusion a couple of days -- latest platelet
count back up to 53,000.
With latest change in antibiotics Marge again had allergic reaction but
not as bad as before. They were able to give her something for the
itching but she still has some red blotchy areas on her arms and legs..
More good new on the white count -- continuing to drop -- down to
16,000.
Afternoon temps stayed down but increased to 100-101 in late
afternoon/evening. Since her condition seems to be now going in
the right direction and to get her strength back her diet was changed to
solids. But Marge couldn't bring herself to eat the hospital
food. So I told her I'd go out and get anything she wanted.
Now this is where the meds have really screwed up her system -- her
request was for liver and onions :-). She was able to eat about a
quarter of the food and keep it down so this was a positive start.
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Mon. 1/05/04
AM
Marge is still in the hospital and unable to take phone
calls.
Marge had a relatively good night except for the stuff
they gave her to clean her out for the GI that had her up about every
hour. Her temps were down until about 6 AM when it went up to 103.
She had the upper GI exam at 7:30.
We talked to her chemo doctor and the first chemo
treatment has tentatively been scheduled for 1/14/04.
PM
It was another good/bad news afternoon. The first good news was
Marge was able to eat some solid food (not hospital food) taken in and
keep it down. The second piece of good news was that her white count
was down to 17,200. The first bad new was that reviewing the results of
her morning blood test, decided she needed second platelet transfusion
(received at 9:30 PM). Her platelet count was 8,000 after the
transfusion -- should be around 100,000 -- and little change from prior to
the first platelet transfusion. The doctors believe one or both of
the antibiotics they're giving her via IV for the pneumonia (caused by the
tumor) could be
causing the problem and they've changed her meds again. The theory
is that with the meds her system is creating antibodies that are eating up
the platelets. At 5:30 in an effort to try and find out what
was going on with her blood, they performed a bone marrow biopsy. Her temperature still continued to
be a problem during the
afternoon and evening. It was normal for a couple of hours early in
the afternoon and then it was 101-103 in the late afternoon and evening.
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Sun. 1/04/04
AM
Marge is still in the hospital and unable to take phone
calls.
Marge had a relatively good night until around 4 and then temps of
101-102. and complaints of coughing and diarrhea
problem. Her white count is back up to 19,500.
The upper GI exam they had scheduled today is now rescheduled
for tomorrow. Funny, they rescheduled because Marge had not been
given some stuff to clean her out last night -- thought the diarrhea was
doing that nicely.
PM
After reviewing her blood tests from this morning, decided she needed
another blood transfusion - platelets this time.
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Sat. 1/03/04
AM
Marge is still in the hospital and unable to take phone
calls.
Marge had another bad night -- temps of 102-103 and they
used ice packs most of the night to try and keep her temp down. No
complaints of coughing or throwing up but she's still got the diarrhea
problem. Her white count was down to 17.100.
No treatments scheduled today.
PM
Marge had a fairly good day until about 5 when she had trouble with
coughing and then diarrhea again. The good thing was that she did
not throw up so we managed to keep some food in her system. When the
doctor made rounds there was some discussion of meds to speed up
digestion. The was also some discussion of a possible transfusion
because of he did not like the results of her latest blood tests.
Just as I walked into the house at 9:30 I received a call from Marge
that they were getting ready to give her a blood transfusion - packed red
cells. So
back to the hospital and I stayed with her until 3 AM while they gave her
the unit of blood. The nurse also said that the doctor had scheduled
an upper GI.
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Fri. 1/02/04
AM
Marge is still in the hospital and unable to take phone
calls.
Marge had another bad night -- temps of 102-103 until
around 3:30 and they used ice packs most of the night. No complaints
of coughing or throwing up but she's still got the diarrhea problem.
At 9:30 her temp was back up to almost 103.
She was transported to the hospital in Los
Angeles for her 10th and final radiation treatment for this round at
10:30.
PM
Marge came back from her treatment feeling great! She even said
all the way back in the ambulance that all she could thing about was a
good hamburger. So I got her from a place that several of the
hospital staff recommended and she was able to eat about half of it and it
stayed down. And she only had a slight temperature until around
3:30. However, just when I thought we had turned the corner, around
5 the hamburger came back up and her temperature went up to 103 and even
with ice packs and meds, stayed right round that number until 8. We
talked to the doctor about her condition and got the word that her white
count had gone back up to 21,000. We also discussed the
"G" tube and one may be inserted on Monday if she continues not
to be able to keep food down.
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Thu. 1/01/04
AM
Marge is still in the hospital and unable to take phone
calls.
Marge had bad night -- temps of 103-104, diarrhea and
throwing up. Everything they gave her for the temp she threw back
up. Because of the diarrhea and the throwing up they're trying to
get some potassium into her system.
Because of the holiday, radiation treatments scheduled.
PM
Her temperature continues to be a problem -- temps this afternoon running around
100-103. Her white count was back up a little to 18,100 so it looks
like she probably will not be coming home this weekend. She's also
continuing to have a problem eating and keeping it down. Since she's
loosing so much weight, we'll be talking to the doctor tomorrow about
feeding her through a "G" tube.
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