Sandi at Rehab--Day 8

Small update as I am worn out and in a lot of pain---- they will release her to home on Tuesday. Then, Thursday morning, she will have a blood work/ office visit to see how she is doing. Based on how things are then, they will make a determination when to admit her back in for chemo. I have a sense that it won't be until the following Monday at the earliest.

Sandi at Rehab--Day 7

Earlier today Scott and I went down to the hospital and spent some time with Sandi. While there the doctor and the social worker popped in for a very brief visit. The plan is to release her next Tuesday.

Beyond that we don't know yet.

She will either come home for a day or two or will go straight to chemo. Since the tumors on the scalp are back and growing with a vengeance and her sinus tumor is clearly growing making things worse again (and those are the tumors we know about and can gauge things off of), she would much prefer to go straight over to the South Tower of Building A and get the chemo started again. Whether the doctors and Medicare will allow that to happen remains to be seen. We have made it very clear to all involved we would like to get the chemo started again asap. In just the two weeks the scalp tumors that could barely be seen and almost appeared to be gone are now was bigger across as well as vertically than they ever were before the first round of the aborted chemo. Pink in color, they are now bigger than a quarter and stand out on the surface of her scalp like eyes on the back of her skull.

Time is clearly of the essence based on what we can see and her symptoms. She is at least two weeks late on the chemo, if not three, at this point, based on the previous treatment plan. With her, when things get delayed the cancers explode in growth and run wild like a spark in the wilderness that becomes a raging inferno. This also gives the cancers more time to mutate and this resist the current chemo. So, they really do need to get on with things as soon as they possible can.

She thinks she is ready now. Considering the fact that she is still on a liquid diet only and can not have hot tea or soda (which is making her crazy) as well as the fact that she is shaky on the walker, I don't think she is ready. I think she is better than when she started last Friday. Will she be ready by Tuesday? I don't know? Is she ready for chemo? I have no idea.

I do see what is happening and I realize the situation they have to consider. It is because I do see what is happening as well as knowing her history, I worry.

Sandi at Rehab--Day 6

Rehab continues and might be a bit better today as staff members apparently have communicated to each other and straightened out some things. She is back getting another two units of blood by transfusion. That means she made it a week without a transfusion. Way better than the 48 hours or less that was much of the last four weeks.

Sandi at Rehab--Day 5

Been out and about to the house with another load and then to the hospital where we spent about an hour and a half  with Sandi. Things are progressing. They will continue to evaluate her each day and then have a staff meeting Thursday morning to discuss the plan for her next week. We should know something by noon on Thursday. After five full weeks in the hospital and five days of rehab and a host of issues there, she is more than ready to get home. Whether she is medically ready is a far different question.

Sandi at Rehab--Day 3

Today was special as Jacob Ryan came down to spend time with his grandmother. When we all got to the hospital early this afternoon we found Sandi dressed and sitting up for the first time in nearly a month. She was in her room and between therapy sessions so we got almost an hour with her.  Mentally she was fully present though at times she was clearly flustered for a word and tended to repeat some things. It was clear that today was better than last Friday so hopefully that will continue.

Baby and grandmother had a good visit as did the rest of us. Her therapist told me Sandi is doing fairly well. She is shaky using the walker so they have her using a guide belt (the pink belt in the picture below) and the therapist makes sure to hang on to her as they go down the hall very slowly. Slow is fine with me and my cane so I went with them to the huge physical training room. Other than her walking ability, the therapist said that everyone is very pleased with how well she is doing after everything she has been through.

Her main complaint, beyond the liquid diet that she absolutely hates, is the fact she gets cold. They limit patients to two blankets provided by the hospital. She can have more if we supply them, so we brought to the hospital three more blankets that she wanted. We also brought clothes for five days so she is set for that. I offered to bring a couple more caps as she has some here, but she is happy with the yellow one she made awhile back. As it happened, she deliberately took it with her when going to the hospital as she was worried her head would get cold and had expected her hair to go away very quickly once chemo started. Because they also gave her steroids with the chemo, it took about ten days longer to fall out than expected.

At this point, things seem to be going well. Hopefully, that will continue.

Sandi at Rehab--Day 2

Talked to her earlier today and she was in good spirits and doing as well as can be expected at this point. Spent a lot of time with various therapists and all seemed to have gone okay. Beyond the fact she is still on the heavily restricted liquid diet, her main complaint was that she was cold and wanted some extra blankets brought from home as they limited her to two blankets and that was not enough.

Sandi in Rehab

Been a long and hard day but, Sandi is now in the rehab unit at the hospital. It is not home, but it is a step closer.