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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)