Easter means that Spring
is here or very close by.
New growth, new life, time.
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
In and out in four days...
Last Wednesday evening Carol had a fever and diarrhea.
Called the doctor. She said to come to the office
Thursday morning.
Thursday she was tired, pale. Bloodwork showed
low numbers again (she got two pints of blood recently
because her hemoglobin dropped to 7.0).
Her doctor decided to admit her, do more tests and
another blood transfusion.
Test results showed she had C. Diff. - bacterial infection.
From what I read, we all have the C. Diff bacteria in our
intestines, along with other bad bacteria and a bunch of
good bacteria. In a strong, healthy body the good bacteria
keep the bad bacteria in check. In a body that is getting
beat up with chemo drugs and/or dosed with lots of strong
antibiotics (she's had tons of strong antibiotics several times
over the last five months), too many of the good bacteria get
killed off and the C. Diff bacteria take over and cause infection
and irritation in the colon. This is also contagious, so we had to
wear masks and gowns when we visited Carol in the hospital,
not to mention clean the house and do laundry with bleach.
Of course, they had to give her an antibiotic to kill the C.Diff
but there are only a few that work. They put her on Flagyl.
With that and the blood transfusion, things seemed to get better
quickly. They sent her home Sunday with a Rx for another five
days of Flagyl. Monday was good but Tuesday she was extra tired
and her stomach was kinda yucky. No fever.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she isn't heading for relapse.
This made four hospital stays in six months.
The day she came home was birthday #65 for me, but by the time
we were able to sit and take a deep breath it felt closer to #95.
Her oncologist wants Carol to have three more treatments with
this chemo mix and then try giving her Herceptin alone.
She has a treatment scheduled for next Thursday so it will be
nine more weeks of the hard stuff beating her up.
Called the doctor. She said to come to the office
Thursday morning.
Thursday she was tired, pale. Bloodwork showed
low numbers again (she got two pints of blood recently
because her hemoglobin dropped to 7.0).
Her doctor decided to admit her, do more tests and
another blood transfusion.
Test results showed she had C. Diff. - bacterial infection.
From what I read, we all have the C. Diff bacteria in our
intestines, along with other bad bacteria and a bunch of
good bacteria. In a strong, healthy body the good bacteria
keep the bad bacteria in check. In a body that is getting
beat up with chemo drugs and/or dosed with lots of strong
antibiotics (she's had tons of strong antibiotics several times
over the last five months), too many of the good bacteria get
killed off and the C. Diff bacteria take over and cause infection
and irritation in the colon. This is also contagious, so we had to
wear masks and gowns when we visited Carol in the hospital,
not to mention clean the house and do laundry with bleach.
Of course, they had to give her an antibiotic to kill the C.Diff
but there are only a few that work. They put her on Flagyl.
With that and the blood transfusion, things seemed to get better
quickly. They sent her home Sunday with a Rx for another five
days of Flagyl. Monday was good but Tuesday she was extra tired
and her stomach was kinda yucky. No fever.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she isn't heading for relapse.
This made four hospital stays in six months.
The day she came home was birthday #65 for me, but by the time
we were able to sit and take a deep breath it felt closer to #95.
Her oncologist wants Carol to have three more treatments with
this chemo mix and then try giving her Herceptin alone.
She has a treatment scheduled for next Thursday so it will be
nine more weeks of the hard stuff beating her up.
Saturday, March 05, 2016
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