Tuesday, Oct. 11

Treatment was scheduled for 10:00.  Yesterday went well, but we only had time for 1 unit of blood (another detour--antibody stuff). The second unit was scheduled for this afternoon.  May still happen tonight.

 

Dr. Kumar first needed to visit because the final culture for TB (taken Oct. 1 I believe) showed positive. However, an Infectious Disease Center follow-up determined around 2:35 that there was no TB.  Her journey is on a road that only has detours.

 

Kathy started Saline around 10:30 and then the anti-nausea bag, but chills were growing and a fever took over.  The Vidaza bag was stopped at 11:15, only 8 minutes finished out of a 30 minute bag.

 

The short of it is that the fever was strong and tenacious at by 12:30 Dr. Kumar said she would be best served in the hospital.  Kathy ended up in a private room around 3:30, wearing a mask again to keep her as germ-protected as possible. 

 

They can't pinpoint the cause of her current fever, and aren't sure that pneumonia was the culprit in the Sept. 25-Oct. 3 hospital stay.  So here we go again.

 

Kathy felt better by the time she got to the hospital room, especially compared to how she felt between 11 and 2:30-ish.

 

She lost a lot of fluids when she vomited in the early afternoon but is happy to have cups of ice chips.

 

Sometime in the midst of all this, Kathy wondered out loud: "Am I bringing this (fever) on myself?"  I blame the mask and her sickly state on the fact that I heard her words to be "My brain is on the shelf."   We had a good laugh at my confusion, and she graciously pointed out that I often say "What?" to something she says even when there is no mask or fever in sight.

 

Around 1:45, with a fever around 105 and a stomach still unpredictable, Kathy struck up a conversation with a lady across the room (most of the patients had long since finished) and found a lot of common ground (the lady was in brother Rob's grade school class).  An unusual time and place to make a new friend.

 

For now, visits won't work.  Even our 3 kids will stay away.  It's a germ thing.

And my ability to return phone calls seems to be diminishing from a high point of unreliable to a lower point of undoable. I plan to spend more time at the hospital.

 

However, I will try to post something every day and hope that will keep you in the loop. 

 

Be well.  Stay the course.

 

John