Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Update 3.12.08

Monday - Mom was still feeling pretty bad from the prior day. Her small intestine, though very inflammated, has no infection. That's a great thing. Now it's just waiting on it to return to normal. Until it does, we're to expect diarrhea. The urinary tract infection is being treated with antibiotics. Her legs began to swell quite a bit because of all of the fluids they were giving her. She wasn't releasing them so they had to put in a folie, a urine catheter overnight to release some of the fluids and pressure. If it's not one thing, it's another, huh?

Tuesday - Mom felt better than Monday. They removed the folie (sp?), and she was doing okay on her own. Her legs and body were quite swollen up to her waist. We're doing all the things they say to do - elevating her legs and talking walks. Oh, better appetite.

Wednesday - The doctor wanted to release her, but they decided against it because they needed to wean her off the pain medication they were giving her and transition to an oral med. They gave us a plan of how they'll do this. Up until this afternoon, she was feeling very well. In the morning, her legs weren't quite as swollen as yesterday, but they started pumping her with more fluids for fear of dehydration (the whole small intestine and diarrhea thing). Her legs and waist are big again, and she wouldn't even mind it except that it becomes uncomfortable and then even painful. So she had that kind of pain as well as the abdominal pain she's been having. The process of weaning her off of one thing and getting her onto another is...still going. Mom ate really well this morning and at lunch. Her mouth sores prevent her from eating 'hard' foods, but we're finding our way through it. She used some of that numbing stuff, but even that has it's ups and downs. Until she tires of them, poached eggs, linguini alfredo, and yogurt are our good friends.

So here's how you can pray:
Pain - pray that we learn how to manage this between today and tomorrow so that if she's released tomorrow, the transition is painless. Pray that the mouth sores (from chemo) will be healed so she can actually eat the things she wants (now that she actually wants to eat more).
Protection - pray that neither of us catches any of the hospital bacteria 'stuff.' She cannot afford to deal with anything else, and if I get sick, it puts me out of the picture. She needs care right now 24/7 so that would ...not be a good thing.
Peace - there are so many details that would take too long to go into, but things can get frustrating at times. This little problem can cause that, and that can cause the other thing, and the cycle can literall make someone crazy. Pray that we continue to lean on Jesus.
Rest - we really need some sleep. The crazyness of the infection and the inflammated intestine are enough to disturb our sleep every couple of hours at night. Then there are the doctors and nurses who need to check this or that. It's exhausting.
Inflammation & infection - pray that the intestine and bladder are healed QUICKLY.

The good news is that from here things should get better. That's what we're believing so please stand with us.

1 comment:

Chris + Lisa said...

yes, yes, yes & yes. we are praying accordingly!