Lulie is home, however she is still very suseptible to infections. At this point she is not up for having visitors. Email and cards are the best way to convey your love, phone calls should be limited and short. She is still trying to rest and allow her body to heal. Please call me with any questions.
Jennie
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Christmas Eve
I just got back from the hospital. It is 9:00 on Christmas Eve
morning. Mom's ANC count was up to .8 so the doctor said she could
go home. Mom is feeling quite tired today. She didn't rest
yesterday afternoon but worked on her computer writing some letters
to people and then we kept her busy on Skype for most of the
evening. She had her first restless night last night. It seems like
it is really time to go rest in her own bed. I am getting Cami and
Ashlee to go with me to undecorate her room and haul out all the
"extras" we put in her room. Some of the nurses have volunteered to
help us. All the nurses that have worked with mom are excited that
"Lula Belle" gets to go home. I will let you know how tired mom is
and maybe make a suggestion or two about phone calls and visits after
we get her settled in. She does need to be up and moving to get her
energy back, but she also needs to be able to rest enough for the
same reason. She is feeling just fine about being home on Christmas
Eve and doesn't want anyone to worry about her or feel sorry for
her. I think she will probably sleep most of the afternoon, because
she really looked tired. I will spend the night with her and
Marshall and Nikki will stop by in the morning before they go to the
airport.
Valerie
morning. Mom's ANC count was up to .8 so the doctor said she could
go home. Mom is feeling quite tired today. She didn't rest
yesterday afternoon but worked on her computer writing some letters
to people and then we kept her busy on Skype for most of the
evening. She had her first restless night last night. It seems like
it is really time to go rest in her own bed. I am getting Cami and
Ashlee to go with me to undecorate her room and haul out all the
"extras" we put in her room. Some of the nurses have volunteered to
help us. All the nurses that have worked with mom are excited that
"Lula Belle" gets to go home. I will let you know how tired mom is
and maybe make a suggestion or two about phone calls and visits after
we get her settled in. She does need to be up and moving to get her
energy back, but she also needs to be able to rest enough for the
same reason. She is feeling just fine about being home on Christmas
Eve and doesn't want anyone to worry about her or feel sorry for
her. I think she will probably sleep most of the afternoon, because
she really looked tired. I will spend the night with her and
Marshall and Nikki will stop by in the morning before they go to the
airport.
Valerie
Friday, December 21, 2007
Yeah, Yippee, Hooray!
Mom's ANC count went up to .4 today. Yesterday it was .2. That is a
big jump in just one day. We are now back to where she was when she
came in the hospital. We are anticipating that her counts will
continue to climb rapidly. She has been trying to get up and walk a
lot, which is what the doctors have asked her to do. She is feeling
fairly sleepy in the morning and has enjoyed a couple of naps a day.
Dr. Wallentine told her this morning that she will continue to feel
fatigued when she goes home. She will need time to just recover from
the month long hospital stay, let alone what her body has been
through. If her counts keep going up she might be able to be home on
Monday. BUT we have learned to just take one day at a time.
Love, Valerie
big jump in just one day. We are now back to where she was when she
came in the hospital. We are anticipating that her counts will
continue to climb rapidly. She has been trying to get up and walk a
lot, which is what the doctors have asked her to do. She is feeling
fairly sleepy in the morning and has enjoyed a couple of naps a day.
Dr. Wallentine told her this morning that she will continue to feel
fatigued when she goes home. She will need time to just recover from
the month long hospital stay, let alone what her body has been
through. If her counts keep going up she might be able to be home on
Monday. BUT we have learned to just take one day at a time.
Love, Valerie
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Long awaited update!
Dear Family,
It has been a long time since we have sent out an update on Lulie's progress so I will try to recap some of the recent events.
Mom is on her 27th day in the hospital.
She has had various infections crop up but they have been treated with a number of antibiotics and are remaining under control. A week or so ago, she developed a rash around her mid-section that was itchy and very sensitive to the touch. For a while they were thinking that she had developed a case of shingles, but the doctors now think it was an allergic reaction to one of the antibiotics. Mom has not had to have another picc line inserted, but the IV line in her left arm has been moved a few times. That arm has become very red, swollen and sore and the IV line was moved to her right arm. On Monday the 17th, she had an ultrasound of her left arm and discovered that she has two blood clots in her arm. The doctors don't seem to be overly worried about them but she is keeping heat on her arm most of the time. Today her arm is not quite as red and sore but it is still tight and swollen. She had a little fever spike on the 14th but it came down quickly. She has developed an infection called "enteroccus" which came from a bacteria that lives in the body, but in her case has moved to parts of the body where it shouldn't be. This infection is very resistant to most antibiotics and she is receiving one antibiotic that should control it, but we now have to gown when we go in to see her. That is so we don't get the infection ourselves and take it to other parts of the hospital.
Mom has been having increased nausea and has a hard time eating anything. Mealtimes are the hardest times of the day. She has been receiving IV nutrition for several days--amino acids and electrolites. Today she was given a new medicine by mouth (a little hard to swallow) called Meg-ace that is supposed to stimulate her appetite.
She has been feeling more tired over the past few days but yesterday (Tuesday the 18th) she received two units of red blood and another unit of platelets. The red blood has made her feel better. It bumped her hematocrit from 27.6 to 32. Her platelet count yesterday was 15 and now it is at 53. The other blood count that they are tracking every day and posting on her wipe board is the part of the white blood called Neutrophils. These are the white blood cells that fight infection. Since she has had the chemo, this reading has been at zero (.0) but on Monday this count finally made a little movement and went to .1. It has remained at .1 for three days and we are getting impatient for it to really get moving up. It needs to get up to 1.5 or 2.0 before she can leave the hospital.
Mom's hair has been falling out for a week or so and she is now wearing hats. She looks festive in her Santa hat.
Her room looks very Christmasy and everyone comments on it when they enter the room. Grandma's forest is getting bigger and looks really good on her red wall. She was so happy today to receive trees from the Thompsons, Stuart and Susanna, and Brooklynn and Emma. Grant explained to Grandma that his tree was an isosceles triangle and a square. :) Grandma loves her forest.
Things are going okay, but we need to cheer those Neutrophils on and get the count way up. Keep sending cards and emails. I'm sure I don't need to remind you to keep praying hard for our Mom and Grandma. She gets much comfort and strength from the love of her family.
It has been a long time since we have sent out an update on Lulie's progress so I will try to recap some of the recent events.
Mom is on her 27th day in the hospital.
She has had various infections crop up but they have been treated with a number of antibiotics and are remaining under control. A week or so ago, she developed a rash around her mid-section that was itchy and very sensitive to the touch. For a while they were thinking that she had developed a case of shingles, but the doctors now think it was an allergic reaction to one of the antibiotics. Mom has not had to have another picc line inserted, but the IV line in her left arm has been moved a few times. That arm has become very red, swollen and sore and the IV line was moved to her right arm. On Monday the 17th, she had an ultrasound of her left arm and discovered that she has two blood clots in her arm. The doctors don't seem to be overly worried about them but she is keeping heat on her arm most of the time. Today her arm is not quite as red and sore but it is still tight and swollen. She had a little fever spike on the 14th but it came down quickly. She has developed an infection called "enteroccus" which came from a bacteria that lives in the body, but in her case has moved to parts of the body where it shouldn't be. This infection is very resistant to most antibiotics and she is receiving one antibiotic that should control it, but we now have to gown when we go in to see her. That is so we don't get the infection ourselves and take it to other parts of the hospital.
Mom has been having increased nausea and has a hard time eating anything. Mealtimes are the hardest times of the day. She has been receiving IV nutrition for several days--amino acids and electrolites. Today she was given a new medicine by mouth (a little hard to swallow) called Meg-ace that is supposed to stimulate her appetite.
She has been feeling more tired over the past few days but yesterday (Tuesday the 18th) she received two units of red blood and another unit of platelets. The red blood has made her feel better. It bumped her hematocrit from 27.6 to 32. Her platelet count yesterday was 15 and now it is at 53. The other blood count that they are tracking every day and posting on her wipe board is the part of the white blood called Neutrophils. These are the white blood cells that fight infection. Since she has had the chemo, this reading has been at zero (.0) but on Monday this count finally made a little movement and went to .1. It has remained at .1 for three days and we are getting impatient for it to really get moving up. It needs to get up to 1.5 or 2.0 before she can leave the hospital.
Mom's hair has been falling out for a week or so and she is now wearing hats. She looks festive in her Santa hat.
Her room looks very Christmasy and everyone comments on it when they enter the room. Grandma's forest is getting bigger and looks really good on her red wall. She was so happy today to receive trees from the Thompsons, Stuart and Susanna, and Brooklynn and Emma. Grant explained to Grandma that his tree was an isosceles triangle and a square. :) Grandma loves her forest.
Things are going okay, but we need to cheer those Neutrophils on and get the count way up. Keep sending cards and emails. I'm sure I don't need to remind you to keep praying hard for our Mom and Grandma. She gets much comfort and strength from the love of her family.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Date at the Hospital
Thought you all would be interested in this picture. Dad had a little date with mom last Friday. We sent them up with a computer and speakers so that they could watch a movie together. They had dinner together and watched "Seabiscuit".
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Tuesday Morning Update
Dear Family,
I'm sure you are wondering how Grandma is doing today. I was at the hospital for several hours this morning and she was doing quite well. She had a little fever spike during the night, but it was treated quickly and her temp has stayed in the normal range. She is on three antibiotics and is being closely monitored for any further infection. She also was given an injection today of a drug that is supposed to help her bone marrow begin to produce blood cells again. Grandma loves all the things you send and also the emails.
Kathie
I'm sure you are wondering how Grandma is doing today. I was at the hospital for several hours this morning and she was doing quite well. She had a little fever spike during the night, but it was treated quickly and her temp has stayed in the normal range. She is on three antibiotics and is being closely monitored for any further infection. She also was given an injection today of a drug that is supposed to help her bone marrow begin to produce blood cells again. Grandma loves all the things you send and also the emails.
Kathie
Monday, December 3, 2007
Monday Evening Update
This morning Mom was feeling "normal" and looked good. She was scheduled to receive two units of blood and the new procedure is to pre-medicate Mom with Tylenol and Benadryl before she gets a transfusion. She received both units today and didn't have any trouble with them. She hasn't been able to eat a lot of the food they have been giving her--too much meat and foods that just don't taste good any more. She is slightly nauseous most of the time and doesn't like the sight or smell of some of these foods. Today the dietitian came up to talk with her about foods she could tolerate. She is now receiving a list of all the available foods for each day and she can order just the things that sound and taste good to her. One thing that she enjoys is chocolate milk and the dietitian suggested she might like milkshakes. That sounded good to Mom and they are a good thing for her to have because extra nutrients can be added to them. She had a chocolate milkshake at lunch and she enjoyed the whole thing.
At 2:00 this afternoon, Dr. Abolnik, an infection control doctor, came in. He confirmed that Mom has a serious blood infection--something like gram negative bascilli. He doubled the dose of antibiotic she has been on since last night and added two more antibiotics to treat the infection. Two of these are administered by IV and the other one comes in a pill. The doctor said he wanted the picc line removed so they could test it and make sure that there wasn't infection harboring in it and causing the infection in her blood. He also ordered an ultrasound of her heart to see if there is any infection there. The results of the ultrasound should come later tonight.
Mom has done well today--her vitals have been good and she hasn't run a fever or had chills. She went for a walk around the floor this morning and sat on the couch for a while. The Benadryl made her a bit tired but she couldn't take a nap because there was so much going on during the day. She finally nodded off late in the afternoon and was asleep when I left. She didn't get her second blood transfusion until this afternoon because the unit had to come from Salt Lake. The nurse said that as soon as it was finished, they would remove the picc line and insert a peripheral line for now. She will need to have a new picc line within a few days. Her infection is a serious thing but she is getting really good treatment for it and she still has a very positive and upbeat attitude. She enjoys receiving emails and feels strenghth and comfort from your faith and prayers.
Love, Kathie
At 2:00 this afternoon, Dr. Abolnik, an infection control doctor, came in. He confirmed that Mom has a serious blood infection--something like gram negative bascilli. He doubled the dose of antibiotic she has been on since last night and added two more antibiotics to treat the infection. Two of these are administered by IV and the other one comes in a pill. The doctor said he wanted the picc line removed so they could test it and make sure that there wasn't infection harboring in it and causing the infection in her blood. He also ordered an ultrasound of her heart to see if there is any infection there. The results of the ultrasound should come later tonight.
Mom has done well today--her vitals have been good and she hasn't run a fever or had chills. She went for a walk around the floor this morning and sat on the couch for a while. The Benadryl made her a bit tired but she couldn't take a nap because there was so much going on during the day. She finally nodded off late in the afternoon and was asleep when I left. She didn't get her second blood transfusion until this afternoon because the unit had to come from Salt Lake. The nurse said that as soon as it was finished, they would remove the picc line and insert a peripheral line for now. She will need to have a new picc line within a few days. Her infection is a serious thing but she is getting really good treatment for it and she still has a very positive and upbeat attitude. She enjoys receiving emails and feels strenghth and comfort from your faith and prayers.
Love, Kathie
Sunday
On Sunday Laurel was with mom all morning. Her counts were down and we were especially concerned about how fast her blood platelets had been falling each day. The counts from the blood taken at 4:00 a.m. were low enough to need some more platelets. Laurel left to attend church at 1:00 and the doctor still hadn't stopped in yet. The doctor finally came around 2:00 and ordered platelets and a blood transfusion for mom and wrote orders that if the counts came in that low again they should just go ahead and order what was necessary. Mom's temperature went up in the afternoon and she received some tylenol. Her platelets were finally started about 7:00. After that she was given a transfusion. Shortly into that transfusion her temperature spiked to 103+ and mom started to shake uncontrollably, she also remembers feeling disoriented. The transfusion was stopped and a sample of mom's blood was sent to the lab to determine if she was having a reaction to the new blood. Kevin called Grandma Blackham sometime around this event and could tell that she didn't sound like herself. He called Merlin and Pat. We all happened to be at Pat's house so we had Nurse Laurel call and see what was happening at the hospital. The nurse told Laurel what had been happening and also stated that mom was doing okay then and didn't seem to be confused to her. We decided that Laurel would go down to the hospital and make sure everything was okay and would probably spend the night with mom, which she did.
(Note from Valerie)
(Note from Valerie)
Sunday, December 2, 2007
December 1st
Dear Family,
Grandma finished her chemotherapy today and has done quite well all week and has a very positive attitude. She is starting to have some of the side effects that the doctors have predicted such as more fatigue and body aches and some nausea. This coming week will be harder than this past week.
Laurel called to say good night to Mom around 8:30 this evening and found out that the nurse had checked her vital signs and that Grandma's temperature was up to 101. They drew a blood culture and will start some antibiotics right away. After 24 hours the blood culture will be evaluated to see what type of infection it is and they will adjust her antibiotics accordingly. We will continue to give updates as soon as we know them.
We know you are all praying for Grandma and are certainly including her in your Fasting and Prayers this weekend. Grandma draws much comfort from the love and strength of the Family.
Love,
Kathie
Grandma finished her chemotherapy today and has done quite well all week and has a very positive attitude. She is starting to have some of the side effects that the doctors have predicted such as more fatigue and body aches and some nausea. This coming week will be harder than this past week.
Laurel called to say good night to Mom around 8:30 this evening and found out that the nurse had checked her vital signs and that Grandma's temperature was up to 101. They drew a blood culture and will start some antibiotics right away. After 24 hours the blood culture will be evaluated to see what type of infection it is and they will adjust her antibiotics accordingly. We will continue to give updates as soon as we know them.
We know you are all praying for Grandma and are certainly including her in your Fasting and Prayers this weekend. Grandma draws much comfort from the love and strength of the Family.
Love,
Kathie
Friday, November 30, 2007
Friday Afternoon Update
From Valerie: Good news, mom has been feeling really good yesterday and today. She has been responding very well to her nausea medicine and that has helped her feel good. She didn't want to eat anything last night. The pork didn't look appealing and she feels like she has eaten so much meat which she usually doesn't do. She opted to have chocolate milk instead. There are many of us from the Blackham gene pool who drink chocolate milk when we have a bit of an upset stomach. :) She received some blood yesterday since her red blood cell count was down. She hasn't lost any hair yet. Laurel got here yesterday and brought Dad down to see Mom. Dad is enjoying his stay at Pat's. Today is Mom's last day of chemo. I guess this means she has jumped through the first hoop.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Some Pictures
Here are some pictures from the hospital that I thought people might like to look at. ~Lisa
Grandma's Hospital Room
Decorating her room
Grandma's PICC line, there are 3 ports through which all of her treatments go, and where they can draw blood from (I think!!) to do blood tests.
Nurse checking on and talking to Grandma
Another picture of the PICC line that may be attached to Grandma for a very long time (up to a year maybe??)
Grandma's Hospital Room
Decorating her room
Grandma's PICC line, there are 3 ports through which all of her treatments go, and where they can draw blood from (I think!!) to do blood tests.
Nurse checking on and talking to Grandma
Another picture of the PICC line that may be attached to Grandma for a very long time (up to a year maybe??)If only live flowers were allowed in Lulie's room...
This amaryllis has 8 blooms. It is absolutely amazing (thanks Kevin) and I'm sure that Grandma would love to have it with her...if live plants were permitted in her hospital room.
Tuesday Morning Update
I just got off the phone with my mother who had just left the hospital and now I have some information to share. Valerie and Kathie were at the hospital this morning putting the finishing touches on the Christmas decorations. I should have some pictures this evening so we can see what the room looks like. One of the nurses did mention that her room has more decorations than the other rooms. I know this is not a surprise knowing Kathie was there. :) Grandma loves the decorations and is in good spirits. She has some Christmas music thanks to Pheobe and will have more music by the end of the week.
Lulie has finished one of the chemotherapy drugs and now will go through 7 days of another one. She has had some heartburn, which can't be fun, and also some bleeding which indicates her blood count is low. She received a blood transfusion yesterday and will receive some platelets today.
She is well taken care of. The nurses want her to eat 3 big meals a day (they say it will help later) and grandma is trying her best to comply. I can imagine this will be hard because sometimes I would go over there at 11:00 and she would barely be eating breakfast. She is able to read email, but because of a computer problem is not able to send out any emails. This problem will probably get fixed right when she feels too rotten to write emails!!!
Grandma, if you read this we love you and are glad you are surrounded by people who know how to care for you!
Jennie
Lulie has finished one of the chemotherapy drugs and now will go through 7 days of another one. She has had some heartburn, which can't be fun, and also some bleeding which indicates her blood count is low. She received a blood transfusion yesterday and will receive some platelets today.
She is well taken care of. The nurses want her to eat 3 big meals a day (they say it will help later) and grandma is trying her best to comply. I can imagine this will be hard because sometimes I would go over there at 11:00 and she would barely be eating breakfast. She is able to read email, but because of a computer problem is not able to send out any emails. This problem will probably get fixed right when she feels too rotten to write emails!!!
Grandma, if you read this we love you and are glad you are surrounded by people who know how to care for you!
Jennie
Monday, November 26, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Dad at the American Fork Hilton
Jennie suggested that I let everyone know how Dad is doing. We've been pretty busy since I picked him up Friday afternoon. We enjoyed Thanksgiving leftovers at the Adams and then settled in here. He is sleeping in Marci's twin waterbed (or is it Susanna's or Olivia's?) in the bedroom upstairs and seems to like it okay. Yesterday we worked ourselves silly watching the BYU/Utah game and went to visit Mom in the late afternoon. We then picked up Merlin at the airport (he had helped Kevin move his stuff to southern California Friday to Saturday). Today we went to church (I know he was relieved to not have to answer a lot of questions like he would have had to in his ward--Jennie and Kent were left with that job.) and had dinner with the Burrows. Tomorrow we will visit Mom again and probably go to dinner with our friends Larry and JoAnn Tolman. So you can see that Dad is getting plenty of good food and enjoying excellent company. He has only had time for one real nap, and thank goodness that came before the game yesterday. I think we're keeping him up too late, but he does seem to be somewhat of a night owl. I'm trying to make sure he gets all his meds, and I only have one pill left today; tomorrow he'll get them all! Right now Merlin is reading him the articles in the paper about the game, and he's pretty conversant about what went on. I think he's doing well and is content here.
Decorating the Hospital Room
Yesterday Dr. Bott explained to us that even though Mom feels good and appears healthy, we need to remember that her condition is very serious. She is as depleted now to fight infection as she will be two weeks from now.
Mom started her chemo medications Saturday afternoon around 4:00. The nurses are taking good care of her. We started to decorate her room for Christmas yesterday. We took the "Gift of Love" Christmas tree to her room and brought in some tables and a lamp. We put up some of her nativities and are going to get some good Christmas music for her to listen to. We are going to put up some garland, etc. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in her room.
Valerie
Mom started her chemo medications Saturday afternoon around 4:00. The nurses are taking good care of her. We started to decorate her room for Christmas yesterday. We took the "Gift of Love" Christmas tree to her room and brought in some tables and a lamp. We put up some of her nativities and are going to get some good Christmas music for her to listen to. We are going to put up some garland, etc. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in her room.
Valerie
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Lula Belle gets checked into the Hospital
I just thought I would send out a quick update on Lula Belle. Since I wrote this past Monday, things have moved faster than originally anticipated. On Wednesday Val took Mom back to the clinc for additional blood tests. While they were there, Dr. Wallentine called, having received priliminary results from the bone marrow biopsy, and confirmed that the disgnosis was indeed AML (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia). He told her to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner and to be ready to enter the hospital Friday morning. Thanksgiving evening we gathered at Katie's to give Mom and Dad blessings and to discuss the best options for Dad's care while Mom is in the hospital and even beyond. (Dad will be staying with Pat and Merlin for a few days until Laurel comes into town next Thursday.)
This morning (Friday, November 23, 2007) Val and I went with Mom down to the Utah Valley Regional Medical center and got her checked in. She has a nice, oversized room that she will call home for the next few weeks. We had hoped to meet with Dr. Wallentine's assistant this morning before we checked in, but she was not available. But when we got into the room, the chemotherapy nurse was very helpful in answering questions. We peppered her with questions for about an hour on topics from how Mom would likely react to the medication, to whether or not we could decorate her room for Christmas. She indicated that Mom would probably feel OK for the first several days of treatment, and then would start feeling the ill effects of the chemo. That would last a week or so and then she would start to feel better. There are a couple key measurements that need to be achieved before she can be released--one is the white blood count (must be over 1.5) and the other is the neutrophil count (which should be 1.5-2.0).
As far as the events of today are concerned, they inserted a triple lumens (sp) picc line and then did an xray to make sure the line was proprely in place. They pulled blood to establish baselines for the key measurements and were scheduled to do an EKG to make sure her heart was strong and to also establish a key baseline. They were going to start a IV solution of sodium bicab and potassium that acts as a buffer for the kidneys against the chemo. That has to run for at least 24 hours before the chemo begins. So that should probably start tomorrow afternoon or evening.
Dr. Bott, an associate of Dr. Wallentine, will check on Mom in the morning and give the orders to begin treatment. The chemo treatment will likely consist of two medications--Cytarabine that will be administered with a constant IV drip for the next 5-7 days, and Mitomycin which will be delivered by injection through the IV each day for about three days during the other treatment. This represents phase one of the chemo treatment. During the following three weeks or so, Mom will be closely monitored against infections and to see how the blood levels improve. The picc line will remain in for several months and will be used to draw blood and administer subsequent phases of chemo on an out-patient basis (primarilly Cytarabine in lower dosages). These treatments will occur on about a monthly cycle.
Mom is in good spirits and continues to amaze the people she encounters--they can't beleive she is as strong as she is and in such a good frame of mind. Mom is convinced that she will do better than most in her treatments and recovery because of her postive mental attitude. She has things to do to keep her occupied at the hospital--she took her computer and has internet access so that she can do some geneology and other things she has wanted to get to. After a few days they will tightly monitor her visitors. I think Val is identifying all kinds of ways to decorate her room and make things nice for her.
Please don't be mad if anything here needs to be corrected. I am just trying to recall as best as I can the things we dicussed and the process going forward as I understand it. Val may be giving more information later, since she was the one taking careful notes during out discussions today. Keep Mom in your thoughts and prayers.
Udell
This morning (Friday, November 23, 2007) Val and I went with Mom down to the Utah Valley Regional Medical center and got her checked in. She has a nice, oversized room that she will call home for the next few weeks. We had hoped to meet with Dr. Wallentine's assistant this morning before we checked in, but she was not available. But when we got into the room, the chemotherapy nurse was very helpful in answering questions. We peppered her with questions for about an hour on topics from how Mom would likely react to the medication, to whether or not we could decorate her room for Christmas. She indicated that Mom would probably feel OK for the first several days of treatment, and then would start feeling the ill effects of the chemo. That would last a week or so and then she would start to feel better. There are a couple key measurements that need to be achieved before she can be released--one is the white blood count (must be over 1.5) and the other is the neutrophil count (which should be 1.5-2.0).
As far as the events of today are concerned, they inserted a triple lumens (sp) picc line and then did an xray to make sure the line was proprely in place. They pulled blood to establish baselines for the key measurements and were scheduled to do an EKG to make sure her heart was strong and to also establish a key baseline. They were going to start a IV solution of sodium bicab and potassium that acts as a buffer for the kidneys against the chemo. That has to run for at least 24 hours before the chemo begins. So that should probably start tomorrow afternoon or evening.
Dr. Bott, an associate of Dr. Wallentine, will check on Mom in the morning and give the orders to begin treatment. The chemo treatment will likely consist of two medications--Cytarabine that will be administered with a constant IV drip for the next 5-7 days, and Mitomycin which will be delivered by injection through the IV each day for about three days during the other treatment. This represents phase one of the chemo treatment. During the following three weeks or so, Mom will be closely monitored against infections and to see how the blood levels improve. The picc line will remain in for several months and will be used to draw blood and administer subsequent phases of chemo on an out-patient basis (primarilly Cytarabine in lower dosages). These treatments will occur on about a monthly cycle.
Mom is in good spirits and continues to amaze the people she encounters--they can't beleive she is as strong as she is and in such a good frame of mind. Mom is convinced that she will do better than most in her treatments and recovery because of her postive mental attitude. She has things to do to keep her occupied at the hospital--she took her computer and has internet access so that she can do some geneology and other things she has wanted to get to. After a few days they will tightly monitor her visitors. I think Val is identifying all kinds of ways to decorate her room and make things nice for her.
Please don't be mad if anything here needs to be corrected. I am just trying to recall as best as I can the things we dicussed and the process going forward as I understand it. Val may be giving more information later, since she was the one taking careful notes during out discussions today. Keep Mom in your thoughts and prayers.
Udell
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