Hubby and I returned from our weekend “away” and went straight to the hospital to see Mom. I put the word “away” in quotation marks because I was being texted by my brother and sister-in-law nearly every hour yesterday regarding Mom. I understand that they don’t know what to expect or ask, so it didn’t bother me. I’d rather be in the loop anyway than come back to some catastrophic issue.
Mom’s still not doing well. It seems to be one thing after another.
Mom was having blood pressure issues yesterday. Since she has such severe mouth sores and nothing topical has been helping, she has been unable to take her medications by mouth. She takes a very large dose of blood pressure medication twice a day, and the IV version just isn’t up to par with what she had been taking.
Her labs today look like this:
WBC 0.4 (WHY won’t this count go up?? She’s getting neupogen!)
Hgb 8.6
Platelet: 9
Obviously, Mom needed a platelet transfusion with a count of 9. So they gave her the transfusion and she has a bad reaction. Blood pressure through the roof (210/108), heart rate in the 140s, burst capillaries in her right eye. Her blood pressure is still up (175/102) and her eye looks really creepy, so the night nurse is working to get her more medication.
Current IV medication list (more for my benefit of record keeping):
PCA Dilaudid 2 mg continuous, 0.5 mg demand every 6 minutes
IV Lopressor
IV Vancomycin
IV Mertopeneum (incorrect spelling)
IV Fluconazole
TPN
IV Benadryl
IV Sodium Phosphate
IV Gancyclovir
Normal Saline
Mom was very quiet today, mostly because of the mouth sores hindering her speech. I made a large list of things she may need so she can point to them for the nursing staff. Her night nurse is extremely knowledgable and compassionate, and it’s just what we need. Thankfully, Mom was finally transferred to the oncology unit. I think a lot of her silence, though, is from her depression. She has been unable to take her medication for the past 7 days and I can see the difference in her. It can be downright scary when she’s not on her depression medication, so I hope they’re keeping a close eye on her (which I’m sure they are). Just another concern to add to the list.
Today marks 1 month since Mom’s diagnosis and tomorrow marks 1 month since I got married. The time has flown by in a chaotic hurry. I can’t help but apologize to my husband about how our marriage has started out. I sure hope that what doesn’t kill us will make us stronger. I feel so bad for him and for us. Being newlyweds isn’t easy to begin with (although our newlywed phase passed long ago, since we’ve lived together for the past 3 years). I can’t imagine going through this and living with each other for the first time. That would have been a nightmare. When Patrick said “and stand by her side through whatever may come” in his wedding vows, he wasn’t kidding! I’m glad he wasn’t – I couldn’t do this without him, even if I’ve been cranky and irritable towards him lately.
So for now, hubby is driving us home and we’ll get ready for the begin of the rush of the week tomorrow. I work tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday. Mom doesn’t want me to be there all day on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’ll see if I can bring something mind-numbing with me, like crochet work or needlepoint. I’ll figure it out, just like everything else. I think I also have an appointment with my therapist tomorrow, which will help.
As always, I am grateful for the kind words and advice everyone has been providing. It brings a comfort to me that I didn’t expect and I appreciate it so much.
