Sandi Back Home

Sandi had an early doctor appointment with lab work today and we are finally home. She is running a significant fever and there remain other various issues that cause a lot of concern. She was extremely anemic so she had two units of blood today, a round of antibiotics, some steroids, and some other various fluids. She also now has an emergency PET Scan scheduled for Saturday.

Sandi's fever is still getting worse despite everything they have done. Today she was running about four degrees of fever. Her kidney function continues to indicate things are not going in the right way. What was thought to be a fever caused by the white blood cell shot is now thought to be something quite more significant. It could be another bacterial blood infection though she is not having a lot of the symptoms of that. Symptoms that we are very familiar with having gone through two bacterial blood infections in almost as many months. So, it probably is not that.

In all likelihood the fever is being caused by the cancer mutating and attacking somewhere. Where and what kind of Non Hodgkins Lymphoma that would now be is totally unknown. Because of  Sandi's urgent need for blood today they could not do the PET Scan today though they tried very hard to make that happen. Because of what they had to do to her with that with the steroids and all, tomorrow was out of the question. So, they are doing that scan on Saturday which means we will be there at least four hours if not way longer to get that done.

That is then and we will deal with it then. For this evening, she is going to try and eat a little dinner, watch a little football, and then head to bed.

Chemo Round 3---Day 2

Just got home from seeing Sandi at the hospital who was falling asleep due to the meds. She is doing okay at this point. She had a blood transfusion last night followed by her chemo premeds just after midnight and then the chemo started long before dawn.  When we arrived this morning she was sitting up and crocheting.

So far so good at this point. If things run like they did last time, in between the chemo bags, they will be doing multiple blood transfusions over the next several days. But, that is to come. For now, things are as good and stable as they can be.

Just Talked To Sandi

Just talked to her for a little while and she says that she had a blood transfusion earlier today and is awaiting platelets tonight. That is way different than what I understood earlier today. None of the therapy folks showed up so she did not do any of that either that she thought was planned.

Sandi Update 6/17/17

Been to the house with a load and then went and saw Sandi for a bit. Nothing new to report as she remains very unhappy and nothing has improved. Again today they are pumping units of blood into her and keeping her on a clear liquid diet.

So, she is not any worse right now, but she certainly is not any better.

Transfusion Update

We got home just a little while ago after spending the day at the hospital while Sandi received blood. Her numbers had dropped seriously since Tuesday so they ordered that she get two units of blood. She did and it took a lot longer than it should have as things were not at all running smoothly.

But, it is done and hopefully she will feel better tomorrow.

Another Day....Another Transfusion

Sandi had another blood transfusion today. We go back Friday to do blood work and see the doc. Most likely there will have to be another blood transfusion then.

Tranfusion Done

Sandi has now been topped off with one unit of plasma and two units of red blood cells. Whether this will hold at all so that we can avoid any more blood on Tuesday is anyone's guess. Odds are against her on that. We see the doc and do blood work early Tuesday to find out.

In the meantime she and I rest and try to recover.

In The Local Area? Looking for Something To Do?

Spending our Saturday down at the 9th floor infusion room of the South Tower at Medical City Dallas Hospital tomorrow while Sandi gets another blood transfusion. So, if you want to come hang out with me while she sleeps away the day the nurses would probably love it.

 Apparently they are tired of my repeatedly suggesting to anyone around that since it worked on TWILIGHT they ought to speed the whole process up by dumping the blood into a blender, adding ice, and churning out cold BLOODEEs for the patients to sip at their leisure.
 
They also don't like it when you refer to blood products as really cool BORG JUICE.

Transfusion Done

We do another one Saturday.

Update on Sandi

Been to the doc and are now home. Sandi is doing okay though the blood work is indicating that the normal drop in various categories is coming. That means blood transfusions Thursday and Saturday for sure and most likely next Tuesday as well.

Other than that everything else is in the usual parameters and will be watched.

Another Blood Day

Home with Sandi after she had more blood today. We go back Monday for, at the very least, a doctor visit, labs, and the white blood cell shot. Most likely more blood transfusion stuff as well.

Another Day--More Blood

Home earlier than Monday becuase today all she got was one unit of platlets. She was also one of two patients in the infusion room today so things went way quiucker than normal. The current plan is for more platelets  as well as two units of blood on Friday.

But, for now, we are home and out of the heat.

Blood Transfusion Monday

There has to be a better way to do this stuff. We are finally home after a very long day. As expected, Sandi's blood counts fell off a cliff again. Unfortunately, whatever momentum we had last week post chemo when her numbers were a little better than normal is now completely gone. She set new records today for how low she has gone.

So, that meant a unit of plasma as well as two units of blood over at main hospital. It took them almost four hours to finally get her started. Once they did get going things went okay. This time her blood pressure stayed up and did not drop in a hole like it has done before.

Unlike many patients who feel better after having a transfusion, Sandi does and will feel way worse. No doubt she will be very sick tomorrow.

We go back Wednesday to do it all again and then again on Friday.

Sandi Tuesday Evening

She is a little stronger tonight and managed to eat dinner as well as stay up awhile. We are hoping that she will not have to have another blood transfusion tomorrow. That will be decided after she has labs and they see what the numbers are for the nearly 50 things they test.

Sandi Tonight

If you follow me or Sandi on Facebook you have seen most of this and can scroll to the bottom for the latest. If not, she had a very rough night last night.

About 9 AM

Sometime after midnight Sandi's port in her chest closed off and stopped working. They had to de-access it which is when they pull the needle out of it and then try to re-access. While the needle came out easy enough, they had no end of trouble getting the new needle in. It took hours as they had to get nurses from other floors to come and try because her port was being so difficult. Around 7 am or so when one of the supervisors came on duty they had her do it as she has fought with it before and won. She came and managed to get into it. Once that was done they had to do multiple injections over a couple of hours into the port to open it up again.

Flow into and out of the port has been reestablished. While all that was going on her fever went above 103 so they had to do multiple ice baths to try and get it down. She is still running fever this morning but more in the 101 range for now.

She is not able to eat anything as she continues to have the dry heaves from time to time. Not to mention all the coughing and everything else going on. She is still having severe headaches which is due to the fever as well as the infection. She is also very weak and having a hard time staying focused.

Now that they have the port back open they have pulled more blood from her to run tests on and are sending another IV antibiotic onto her. If her fever stays low enough they will attempt again to give her another blood transfusion.

Later today Scott and I will go down and deliver laundry as well as pick up stuff from her. We don't have to bring any crocheting supplies as she has been unable to do anything at all. She has asked them if they plan on moving her to ICU and for now that is not planned. At least that is what she believes she was told.

Having been awake since 1am she is exhausted and hoping that they can do what they will and let her sleep.


About 3 PM 

Just got home from the hospital. We were there for about thirty minutes. She was awake when got there but faded fast. She has had a little bit of food earlier today and has had some trouble keeping it down. Her fever is climbing again so they are holding off on the blood transfusion. Hopefully I will have a little better news tonight.

About 4 PM 

She just called and said they have given her the premeds for the blood transfusion. So, she is about to be asleep for the next several hours. Hopefully she can get the blood deal today as her fever is just low enough right now to try this again.

About 8 PM 

Okay, just talked to her and they got through the blood transfusion. Hopefully that will help. Right after that she started shaking and sweating and they discovered her blood sugar level was down to 46, so that meant no insulin for her, and instead the emergency shot to get it back up before she slipped into a coma. Fun times at the hospital tonight. She said everything was supposedly okay and she was going to go to sleep.




So that is where she is at as I have not heard from her again. Somehow, maybe because she has been sleeping so much, the premeds did not put her to sleep. She was very tired tonight when I talked to her so I hope she can sleep and have a quieter night than the last several. 

Saturday And It Is No Day In The Park

In less than an hour we are back to the hospital for the blood transfusion and IV antibiotics deal. Not a moment too soon as she has had a rough night.

I will update here when I can, but I won't be able to do that until we are back. Sandi may try to post an update from the hospital on her Facebook page, but she may not be up to doing that.

Sandi Update

What we had hoped was nothing more than a side effect of the white blood shot she got Tuesday has turned into a raging case of.....something. Sandi is very sick, running a fever, and tests are being done to see if it is a version of the flu, an upper respiratory infection, or something else. Chest x-rays were taken and things are being evaluated. At least some fluid is in her lungs at this point, which is very bad as it could easily trigger a return of the nuemenitis or something way worse.

The bottom line is that they know for sure she is very sick.....with what is the big question.

The rest of her blood work was also not good today. In fact, it was very bad.

So, she has received an IV antibiotic and fluids.

Tomorrow, we have to be back down there just after the crack of dawn so she can be given more IV antibiotics as well as two units of blood. Despite the fact she is so sick the blood transfusion has to be done because her numbers are so low. There is no choice on the matter.

It has been a brutally long day for both of us--we just got home having left just before 9 am--- and tomorrow promises to be way worse.

Medical Update

Further chemo is on hold while they work to get a PET Scan as soon as possible. As it stands right this minute, Sandi is scheduled for a doctor visit and probably admission to the hospital for the day on Monday while they do another blood transfusion. That will all be pushed back if they can get her in to do the PET Scan. We await a phone call....

Update

Sandi is doing okay. Tired and shaky, but otherwise she is doing okay.

A Sandi Update

Sorry for posting this so late, but I had to feed folks when we finally got home.

Sandi's blood work was very bad today with some of her worst numbers ever since she was first diagnosed on Thanksgiving Dad 2011. This was especially in terms of her red blood cells. Since Thursday her levels have gone off a cliff and she is in free fall for no reason. She was so low she was at life threatening levels. Meds were changed with a couple dropped, a couple added and then we were sent over to main hospital for a blood transfusion.

While they got her admitted in record time---less than ten minutes---it took another three hours before she actually started getting any blood. She finally got two units of blood. As the sun was setting on the Dallas skyline we were finally sent home this evening.

Chemo for Thursday and Friday has been canceled. We see the doc for the usual visit and blood work. If she does not show any improvement they will --at the very least--transfuse her with two more units again.