breaking news....Patrick Reporting from the hospital

What follows are two “guest” updates from Patrick as Peggy has been in the hospital from noon, Saturday the 23^rd until now, 7:00pm Saturday the 30^th. 

Here is the update from Saturday 23^rd thru Wednesday the 27^th.

Very quick update.... she developed a severe pain in her stomach and back on Saturday to

the point that we put her in the St. Josephs and got her an xray and morphine.  Xray showed

nothing obstructing. 

Sunday the pain increased twofold .... and more meds, but no answers.  She could not hold

down anything including water without spitting it back up and having GERD and tremendous

amounts of belching.

Monday morning she had an MRI that revealed significant build up of fluid in her stomach....

and her stomach looked very bloated.   Still lots of pain and no rest and no food.  At 10:00pm

when finally someone from her doctor's practice actually saw her, he ordered that she be

have a ultra sound and drainage of the liquid if possible.

Tuesday morning the procedure went well.....  over a gallon of fluid removed!  During most

of the rest of the day she experienced a significant reduction in pain....but still on meds.

That night, after I left her around 9:00pm to spend the night at home for the first time, her

pains returned, and she was not allowed any water because she was scheduled for procedure

on Wednesday to put a portal in her chest for future chemo.  Well, she got very upset with

the nurse and told her no surgery and to call me.  At 4:00am the nurse called with this information.

I got to the hospital before 5:00am and after seeing Peggy's stress and pain told the nurse,

no surgery.

By 8:00am Wednesday I had 15 questions for the oncologist team that I wanted answered....primarily

that after 4.5 days we were still doing the same thing, but no hope in sight.  Her primary

oclogoist, Dr. Lucas, her PA, and a nurse came to her room around 9:00am and made

observations and decided that since Peggy had not had a bowl movement in almost 2 days

(granted she had not eaten anything but was getting an IV), that maybe there was a problem

with her colon and ordered an Fleet enema and change in meds.  We able to do the Fleet

around 2;00pm today and it worked.  Peggy is doing much better,and will have her port

put in tomorrow.   We hope to have the pain in control to discharge her on Friday.

We now have an appointment with the Mayo Clinic in Jax on the 8th of November.

Update – Saturday afternoon – Oct 30^th

On Thursday Peggy got her chest portal put in……some pain, but successful.  Appetite still very low…..evening went reasonably well.  Both of us got a full nights rest except for the two vital signs readings.

Friday morning, major pain returned and her stomach showing signs of fluid build up again.  One of the doctors in the practice and who had recommended the first drainage, along with the PA, approached us about beginning chemo here at the hospital today.  It will begin late in the day and run thru Sunday evening….several drugs to be dripped into her new portal.  This would set up another session two weeks from now and we would be in Florida and able to use the Mayo clinic.  They think that the best way to reduce the pain is to reduce the impact of the cancer cells with the chemo.  And the effects would probably not be dramatic until after 2 sessions or 4 weeks from today.  We got the sense of urgency from them and agreed to begin the chemo that afternoon.  Prior to that Peggy got another ultra sound to see how much fluid was in her stomach.  Patrick was with her and saw the monitor.  Although showing up on the screen, the technician conjectured that the quantity was only about ½ a litter….. far less than the 4 liters plus removed earlier in the week.  So, no draining today.

Chemo officially began with some pre-procedure drugs to combat nausea.  Then 2 two hours IVs of two drugs that I will have to report later.  So, along about 10 pm, they hooked up a very slow dripping drug that will have two bags…..each bag to take about 24 hrs.    Thus, the process will take until Sunday evening to complete.

Happily, before the ultra sound and the chemo launch, we had a great 1.5 hr visit from our good friends, Linda and Jim Palmer.   Peggy was in little pain and the visit was better than any pain killer she had taken in the past 5 days.  Understandably, they turned down our offer of Peggy’s hospital lunch items.   Every Halloween, they decorate their B&B complete with a “grave yard” and get hundreds and hundreds of trick or treaters…… it was so much fun last year, but we will miss this year.

In the evening, Peggy was allowed and ate some soup and mashed potatoes…..the first real food she had had since we got the hospital.

Saturday morning, Peggy awoke with strong stomach pain and felt like throwing up.   Almost immediately after taking her morning meds, she threw up.   About mid morning the Dr. came by and was sorry that Peggy had thrown up. (We must have heard from almost every medical personnel in the past month that “with the new chemo drugs, there is very little chance of nausea or vomiting.”)  He conjectured that it came from the wearing off of the anti-nausea drug given the day before.  Anyhow, Peggy hung there and kept the IV chemo going.

Patrick took a break to go home after two days and clean up and run a couple of errands. (This was possible due in major part to Gil Calderwood ….who celebrated his birthday on Friday and having his and his partner’s 30^th anniversary party on Saturday…. coming to our house to walk, feed, and socialize with Reese and Allie while Patrick is with Peggy.) While Patrick was away, Peggy had a major vomiting incident, comforted by the nurse.  So, she is trying to not take any other medicine unless for pain until the chemo process ends Sunday.  Later in the day, she was transported down to take some more xrays of her stomach.’’ Results tomorrow.

Peggy wishes to thank everyone their prayers, thoughts, flowers and encouragements over the past week and she hopes to “post” to her blog soon after Monday when we hope to return home.