Sunday, March 6, 2011

Increased Pain and Dad is Still in the Hospital

I've been getting increased pain and am trying to figure out the right dosing schedule to keep me relatively pain free. I take the gabapentin (generic neurotin) in the morning with breakfast then a few hours later, I'll take Tylenol, then gabapentin with lunch, then Tylenol, then I guess I took Tylenol in the evening since gabapentin makes me tired - so I'll take that right before bed and I end up sleeping really well.

I think I may have mentioned that OHSU will not be able to get me in for a surgery until April 22. Since I think the lesions are continuing to grow, 7 weeks seems a long time to wait. So, I decided to try turmeric - I tore apart the capsule and am now sprinkling the spice on my dressing and putting it directly on the wound. I started it last night. We'll see if it makes a difference. I think it might be making it drain less, but I don't know that for sure.

Also, I may have caught some kind of respiratory infection - I seem to be coughing more but usually only after I eat any hint of sugar (even a clementine made me cough) or dairy.

As for my dad, she "crashed" on Friday night - her heart rate went really low (into the teens), so the "rapid response team" came into her room (all 6 of them) and worked on her. Good thing she hadn't come home yet since they could get help to her really fast. She also went low again last night with a heart rate in the 40s. She's also nauseous, probably from the antibiotic (Levaquin - which made me nauseous) and is back to not eating much. The docs decided to give her a permanent pacemaker, which we thought might happen tomorrow, but dad's white blood cell counts are high, so she may have an infection. If so, they don't want to operate until that's under control - they could infect the heart. They are taking blood cultures and doing other lab work to see if she has an infection. They won't know the results until Tues, which means the earliest she could get the pacemaker is Wednesday.

And, so we wait . . .

3 comments:

Joanna said...

Dee,

Seven weeks is unacceptable. I am hoping that accommodations are made for you since you cant deal with this pain (and the anxiety associated with it) for that long. Could your oncologist get the "surgery machine" revved up? You need an advocate who can get you to the front of the line.

Thinking of you and hoping for a responsive medical team.

Joanna

Dee said...

Hi Joanna,
The surgeon's scheduler told me what she's up against, but also said the doctor was out of town until this week. She said that he wasn't going to like the 7-week wait either. Her own hands are tied, but he may be able to pull some strings to get the surgery to happening earlier.

In the meantime, I'm going to call my own doc's office and see what can be done . . . so thank you for that encouragement, as I was waffling about it!

Joanna said...

I just worry about you.