Here's a window into the day of a life that I used to have:
FRIDAY APRIL 4 2014
It’s 03:11 AM as I type after yet another diarrhea and
vomiting crisis. Since Cecie fell down her confidence in being able to walk
safely has gone and so these activities have taken place while Cecie’s been
laid down in bed. Cecie has no energy and that’s because she’s not been eating
and no fuel is being fed to her body.
I’m now running my 4th batch of washing as I try to keep up
with the towels, rags, buckets and wash clothes that we have used. The good
news is that Cecie’s now sleeping again which is great but I’m still buzzed
from all of the activity and so I find myself typing away.
The clean up isn’t such a big deal after you’ve witnessed
Cecie going through these intense situations, she’s fighting to throw up or not
at the same time the diarrhea is also in action. At these times there’s no
relief for Cecie, absolutely no dignity, everything is just out there as she
continues to struggle and get through the attack.
The focus of today will be to try and get stable so that we
avoid any trips to the emergency room over the weekend.
Cecie continued to cough throughout the night, I tried to
get her to take a puff or two from her inhaler but my suggestions fell on deaf
ears. I guess she feels that her cough comes from deep inside her lungs and
that the inhaler won’t help but we really should give it a try.
Yesterday I went to GNC to see if I could get some meal
replacement shakes that would be good for Cecie. The lady behind the counter
was a cancer survivor and she told me to buy a certain shake that had kept her
alive when she was going through chemo. They had three flavors, chocolate,
strawberry and vanilla, the lady told me that chocolate was their best seller
and didn’t taste chalky. However she did say that the chemo drugs change the
taste buds and that it’s impossible to predict if a person would enjoy the
drink or not.
I told this story to Cecie when I presented the shake,
immediately I could see that even before tasting the shake she wasn’t going to
like it. I live through these situations regularly whenever I suggest watching
a TV series or a movie from the UK, instantly it’s judged as total rubbish by
Cecie. Although my dear American wife did eat some humble pie when her friends
and eventually herself became fans of Downton Abbey ;-)
Now for the rest of the story . . . .
I tried to take Cecie’s blood pressure using the electronic
device that our neighbor Debbie has let us borrow, of course I couldn’t get a
decent reading and just assumed that this was because I was a man but I tried
it on myself and the device returned the normal perfect result for a sporting
legend like myself. For Cecie I could only get 78 over 45 which I now know is
very low.
I’d emailed Dr. D’Amato’s nurse about Cecie’s situation and
she called me as soon as she’d read my description. Angela told me that I had
to take Cecie to the ER, it was a matter of urgency.
I was out walking the dog at the time and so I headed
directly home and told Cecie that we needed to go to the ER immediately. She
asked for 5 minutes to get herself together and so I started loading up the car
and parked on the grass so that Cecie wouldn’t have far to walk.
We should/could have called 911 but they’d have taken her to
Kennesaw and Cecie insisted that we go to Northside Hospital ER because that’s
where her doctors are. Now I must admit that I lost a bit of patience with
Cecie because trying to get her dressed took much longer than anticipated.
Mark : What type of pants do you want to wear?
Cecie : Any, it doesn’t matter
So I go the the closet and pull out a pair of black workout
pants
Cecie : Not those, black but a different pair!
For those of you that have had the pleasure of viewing
Cecie’s considerable clothing collection you’d know that this task was going to
be difficult. 5 different pairs of black workout pants later I found the
“perfect” pair.
Mark : What shoes do you want to wear?
Cecie : Any, it doesn’t matter
I go back to the closet and look down at the vast collection
of trainers and select a pair that would go with black workout pants.
Cecie : Not those, black and pink!
She has at least 6 pairs of black and pink trainers. Three
pairs of trainers later I find the perfect pair! It could have been worse like
six pairs later ;-)
Cecie : I need a black baseball cap
Mark : Which one?
Cecie : Any black cap, wait the one from Nike
Easy peasy lemon squeasy that’s the kind of instruction I
can follow.
I’m amazed by this, we need to get to the ER and Cecie is
concerned about what she’s wearing. Myself I’d have pulled on my lucky Nautica
Sailor Boy boxers, the closest top, a pair of shorts, some socks and shoes and
would have been ready in less than 60 seconds. Of course I wouldn’t be color
coordinated but who cares? Now I can answer that Cecie DOES!
It was a tremendous effort to get Cecie down our stairs, she
was very nervous because of the incident last night where her legs just gave
way. Somehow we managed it but it had taken a great deal of effort from Cecie,
just as we shuffled through our front door I felt Cecie’s legs give way again.
I could have grabbed Cecie and carried her to the car but that would have
involved me inflicting a lot of pain on her. I made a split decision to lay her
gently on the ground and let her have some time to recover.
Then I looked around and started to panic, I didn’t really
know what I was going to do next. At that moment our next door neighbor Mary’s
boyfriend (or friend with not enough benefits - he, he, he) Sir Eric drove up,
he stopped his car quicker than Vandy’s Tesla that’s run out of electricity. I
hear lots of clanging as our knight in shining armor rushed to our aid. Sir
Eric helped me get Cecie into the car and we set off for Northside.
On the drive down to the hospital Cecie told me that when
she was on the ground she’d actually seen the bright white light and came back
to earth listening to Sir Eric and myself discuss how to get Cecie down the
front steps and into the car. With two people this turned out to be a very easy
thing to do, also Cecie was determined to get into the car and go to Northside.
The journey was uneventful, Cecie and myself talked but I
could see that she was struggling, trying not to throw up or evacuate. When I
wheeled Cecie into the ER they were expecting us as promised and we went directly
to the treatment area. The nurse realised that Cecie was having difficulties
and took her back to a room and started to hook her up.
The doctor arrived with lots of nurses, both Cecie and
myself answered a lot of questions and I was politely pushed out of the room.
Of course I sneaked a peek through the gap in the curtain and was shocked to
see the blood pressure reading of 55 over 35. They put a saline drip in her
left arm, then a port specialist arrived and he got both ports opened while
another drip was attached to Cecie’s right arm.
By the time I was allowed back in the room she had 4 bags of
saline being infused at the same time. I was relieved to see that Cecie’s blood
pressure had improved to 81 over 40 and that Cecie was starting to get some
color back in her face. The only thing that kept me calm was that Cecie was
always awake and answering questions correctly.
Gradually Cecie’s blood pressure started to climb,
throughout this process I was surprised that her heart rate was fine and very impressed
that her blood oxygen level was 100% which makes me think that the left lung is
fully operational. Once the blood pressure climbed to 90 over something or
other I could feel the tension leave the room.
Then the blood results came back and they were bad, no white
cells, very low platelets, very low potassium and some other bad stuff. The
doctor told me that Cecie would be admitted, he had a call out for Dr D’Amato
to discuss Cecie’s situation and while that was going on he wanted to give her
two drips of antibiotics just in case she had any infection, even though there
had been no signs of infection or fever.
After talking to Dr. D’Amato it was decided to admit Cecie
into the ICU, not that she was in any imminent danger but to be on the safe
side and to be able to make certain that she did not get any infection. It was
the lack of white cells that was the cause for concern and so after another
drip of potassium was added they moved us up to the ICU and room 23.
The two nurses in charge of transportation and myself
exchanged a bit of banter while making the journey to the ICU ward and I was
pleased when Cecie laughed and joined in with the jokes. That was the first
time I’d seen the $1,024,000 smile that day.
It was strange to be back in ICU again, they hooked Cecie up
and replaced the empty fluid bags. Cecie managed to drift off to sleep now and
then. Dr. D’Amato visited and talked to Cecie about what had happened, once
again Dr. D’Amato was on great form with her incredible bedside manner. She’s so
patient and always finds a way to describe the most technical medical thing in
simple terms that even I can understand.
I told Dr. D’Amato that I couldn’t believe how quickly
things had deteriorated and why was it taking 10 days for the chemo to cause these
issues. In simple terms the body normally replenishes itself all of the time,
it create white blood cells that replace white cells that die naturally after
10 days or so. Chemo kills everything and prevents the new white cells from
being created, so after 10 days when existing white cells die Cecie is left
with no white cells because her body hasn’t been creating any new replacements
- she hits the wall. This kind of scenario is true for all sorts of stuff in
Cecie’s body.
So the plan is to keep hydrating Cecie, to give her some
platelets to speed up her recovery and to get her body kick started on creating
new cells. Cecie will be in ICU for a couple of days, then perhaps released to
a general ward and only allowed home when her blood is back in good shape.
Dr. D’Amato told us that she might have given Cecie chemo
that was just a bit too strong but she wanted to be aggressive because she
wants to go for the cure. Cecie told her that she likes the idea of being
aggressive but that we should have been more aware of the consequences and
reacted at the first sign of any major issue. Looking back I told the Dr. that
the signs were there but we didn’t understand the consequences of not reading
the signs correctly.
The Dr. told us not to beat ourselves up over this situation
and that the reality is that we can expect multiple visits to the ER while
“enjoying” chemo treatment. There was nothing unusual about Cecie’s situation
and nothing to be concerned about now that she was in hospital and getting
treatment.
There’s a few more details but for now that’s where I’ll
leave the diary today.
Thanks so much for all the offers of help. I’ve no doubt
that I’ll be getting back to our friends and taking them up on their kind
offers but for now we’ve got things covered. Cecie asked me to tell you that
sending prayers her way is all that she wants and needs!
Michael is with Cecie tonight and I’ll take over from him at
7:00 AM in the morning. I’ve just taken Sadie for a nice long walk, we’ll do
the same in the morning before I leave for the hospital.
I’m looking forward to a poop free night of sleep ;-)
Unfortunately that was my reality,
Jobsonian
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