Dear Family,
I wanted to give you a quick update on how things have been going for Lulie since she returned home from the hospital last week. Things have been improving and Mom seems to be getting stronger and feeling better each day. She still is rather weak and a bit trembly, but her appetite and taste for food has improved and she is eating quite well. Within a few days of being home and off all the IV meds and fluids, she got rid of about 20 pounds of excess water in her system. That made a big difference. A little thing happened on the day Mom was being released from the hospital and looking back, it seems like one of those real tender mercies. The doctor had just left the room and Mom was sitting back down on her bed. I noticed that she had some blood on her hospital gown near her left arm and further examination showed that it was coming from her picc line (3 port) and in fact, the tape around the picc line had come loose from her arm and the line had come out a few inches. I went out to tell her nurse and Dr. Wallentine was still on the floor and he told the nurse to just pull the whole thing. She pulled out the line and Mom's vein really bled. The nurse put pressure on the site, but the blood filled the gauze bandages and she needed to get some more gauze. I put on a pair of gloves and took over holding the pressure on Mom's arm until the nurse returned with more gauze and took over. In less than a minute, the bleeding completely stopped! The great thing about all of that is that Mom hasn't had to deal with the annoyance of the picc line ports dangling from her arm and getting in the way and it is so good that she won't have to worry with that when we go on the Sisters Retreat next week.
Val and I went with Mom to her appointment on Tuesday (the 19th). She had a chest x-ray so they can determine the status of her pneumonia but there wasn't time for the radiologist to compare this x-ray with her previous one. However, Mom seems to be improving although the pneumonia isn't completely cleared up. We were excited when we got the results of her labs: WBC 3.61 (almost to the normal range); RBC 4.73, HGB 14.7 and Hematocrit 43.8--all in the normal range!! That is a first since before this whole mess started. Mom's platelets were at 139 (one point under the normal range of 140 to 440) and her neutrophils were at a whopping 2.82!! Her albumin was finally back in the normal range at 3.5 which indicated that she was getting some good nutrition in her. The doctor started her on coumadin again to thin the blood because she still has blood clots. With all the nightmare of things that have happened with this last round of chemo recovery in the hospital, Mom has had some real anxiety overwhelm her and so the doctor prescribed some Lorazepam for that and it seems to have been helping. As the effects from the oxycotin she received in the hospital have worked their way out of her system, Mom has felt better and clearer in her thinking. Every day she has sounded more like her real self. Every day she is able to eat more variety of foods and do more "chores" for herself. At the doctor's office, she was able to keep her oxygen level at 93 on room air, but she still is using the oxygen at night and occasionally during the day while she continues to fight off the pneumonia. We are so happy for these improvements and continue to pray for her strength to return. Even if she isn't at peak performance, she will still be well enough to head out to Houston with us girls on the 28th. Thanks for all your faith and prayers.
Love,
Kathie
