Every 12 hours is different!

It is Sunday night, and Pam is still here at DHMC. It has been a very frustrating few days for her. Her counts have risen dramatically and been right on track. The problem is that she is continuing to run a fever, not high (100.8 to 101), but too high for release. They have been trying to figure out what is causing this because they cannot release her until it is gone.

On Thursday, Pam was moved out of the special care unit to make room for another patient. Her counts are high enough so that was ok, she would have actually been sent home except she has the fevers. They decided to pull her central line on Friday because of suspicion that the fever could be coming from a possible skin infection around that. This of course means that all IV fluids now had to go through IV lines (which is less comfortable).

They placed a line on Friday afternoon and needed to pull it by Saturday morning because the anitbiotic had infiltrated the vein and seeped into surrounding tissue. After 5 shots to control the seepage they got the swelling down. So they placed 2 new lines on the other arm and those were both pulled today because of swelling and burning again. Pam veins are little, thin and pretty much shot from all the chemo she has received in the last year.

So the IV team sent a person up who tried 3 places and couldn't get a line to go, they sent a second person up who managed to get one line in back on the original arm. This line is being used for Magnesium only, and the antibiotics are being given orally. They took a CT scan this afternoon to rule out any chest infection. Sound confusing? Yes. Sound painful? Yes. Hence the tears and frustrations from Pam, who 3 days ago thought she was headed home.

Soooooo, we wait until tomorrow and see what it brings.....
In the meantime....Pam has started losing her hair by the handful. She is sure that this means it is time to leave the hospital, as the same thing happened in February and May, and she wants this mess left here for their cleaning crew. Which brings me to this....

THANK YOU to all the angels who came and cleaned our house in anticipation for our return soon! Pam also had a couple of great visits to raise her spirits during these tough times.