Mom first had an appointment with a skin doctor. She developed several (about 5) spots on her body in mid-February. The radiation people couldn't figure out what it was. They thought it had something to do with the chemo. The chemo people thought it was some kind of fungal or bacterial thing like ringworm. During one of our trips to the emergency center, one doctor thought it was ringworm and another didn't have a clue. So they decided my mom should see the skin doctor just in case...just in case what? They were basically checking for skin cancer. Well, she is free and clear of that. The thing about 'rashes' is that there can be like a gazillion forms of them, and so the doctor was honest and told us it wasn't anything to worry about and to put such and such cream on it.
The surgeon - it seemed there was some sort of misunderstanding. See, the surgeon came in and immediately started telling us that Mom can't go into surgery in her condition, that she needed to be on her own, and he was very insistant about these things, the bottom line being that she doesn't have enough protein to heal afterwards. She would be at extreme post-operative risk for infection and all kinds of problems. We knew all of that. I was actually quite concerned that he would be soooo concerned. I mean, I thought Mom was on her way to getting stronger, etc. According to the other doctor, she was headed in the right direction. Well, then the doctor says something like, "...so, we can't go into surgery this Thursday or next Thursday, whichever one it was..." I guess at some point they had scheduled Mom to have surgery, but we had never been told about the date. See, when she was admitted to the hospital both times, her doctor kept the surgeon abreast of everything that was taking place. The surgeon was well aware of Mom's condition; they had just forgotten to remove the surgery date from her schedule. So the surgeon came in thinking that we were thinking she'd go into surgery this week or next. We weren't thinking that at all. In fact, we knew that it would still be several more weeks. All that to say that we were relieved to know that the surgeon's major concern was trying to go into surgery now. We definitely know that's not possible.
He did say this - mom needs to eat. In order for her to be surgery ready, she needs to be eating on her own and eating WELL. That doesn't mean eating good-for-you food. It means she needs to gain weight and be at a place where she's not being sustained nutritionally by the TPN. Yes, she must start slowly, but she must start now. She still has to do the soft diet thing for now, but she has to just do it. He wants her eating all day long rather than meals.
So this is how I ask that you pray:
Pain - Yes, I've said the pain is pretty much under control. What's painful for Mom now is 'passing' the food (having a BM). She can feel the food going through her intestines, and that's the painful part. So pray that they (he intestines) would heal completely, and that she wouldn't be fearful of eating because of the pain that she'll have later.
TPN - We need to wean her off of this. It'll be a slow process, but it must be done. In the meantime, we don't want her to have any kind of infection from the TPN. That's one of the main concerns when it comes to the TPN - infection. Our bodies were not meant to be fed this way, and the doctors don't like to keep patients on these longer than they have to because of the somewhat high risk of infection.
I think that's it for now. Oh, good news - Mom gained one whole pound since they weighed her at the hospital last Wednesday. Considering she had not eaten hardly anything at all since that time, it's great news. We want this to continue!
I like pictures, so I'll try to do better with posting more. I just don't feel right about taking pictures when Mom's not feeling well. I mean who wants a camera in their face when feeling awful? I have, however, been able to take a few here and there. Hope you're enjoying them.
This is Mom showing off her new haircut, color, and how she sports around her food (the nightly TPN).
This is the medical supplies we use to connect the TPN and change her dressing.
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