Tuesday, August 26, 2008

More Chemo and More ER Visits

Sunday night we had to bring Mom to the ER at MD Anderson because she was vomiting so much (from the chemo). It's very easy for her to get dehydrated with the ileostomy so we didn't want to take any chances and came right away. We got here around 8:30 or 9 on Sunday evening.

They tried 2 different nausea medicines that typically work for her, but since neither was working, they went to a third one. That was bad news. She ended up having a reaction that only 0.1 or 1% of people get. There's a name for what her reaction was, but I can't remember. It happened very quickly, and she wasn't herself. First she couldn't stay still. Then her body started shaking as if she was having chills, but I knew that wasn't it because the shakes turned into spasms. Her heart rate increased, her muscles were really stiff and then she started acting confused. Pretty soon she just wasn't herself. Let me just say that it was a pretty intense couple of hours for me. I was trying to figure out what was going on along with the doctors...and it just wasn't the most pleasant time in the world.

When they finally figured out what had happened, they gave her something to counteract it. After a bit, she started sleeping and slept very soundly. She's still sleeping soundly. She's woken up only to use the facilities. I'm also trying to wake her up to drink something every 15 or 20 minutes and to try to eat a bite of breakfast. That's one of my main concerns right now - her weight. From the vomiting and not having really eaten in a couple of days, she's down to 87 lbs. I'm wondering if they'll put her on TPN for a few days...I'm not really sure what they'll do.

That's where we are - waiting on the doctors to come in.

Mom is still kinda out of it. Whatever they gave her yesterday to counteract the 'crazy' pill is working well, too well maybe. I don't know.

Please pray that they'll have wisdom as to what steps to take next.

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