Fri, 7.25 - 2 Weeks. Tough Times

Expect a tough 10 - 12 days as Mom continues to battle these infections and some marrow regrows. Ganguly says over 12 years of treating leukemia patient, he's only had one perfect one. So this is not unexpected. That being said, we got the stiff doctor with the high starch shirt to make actual contact with her (mind you it was minimal but that's a lot for 2 weeks)! It's clear to me from watching the staff interact that they value her as a patient, especially her constant 'thank yous' and remembering their names.

- Mental: Tough
- Physical: Tough
- Medical: Tough

Mentally it's tough for her as her brain's a bit scrambled. It's become a matter of carrying her and keeping her strong. She often drifts into different stories and has trouble connecting the exact dates of when things happened since arriving. Or she talks and chuckles in her sleep. We did update her wall calendar and began adding some different milestones on there to help remember.

Her sense of humor's still there though. When the respiratory therapist came in this afternoon and said she looked better than lunch time, Mom responded (an ESPN highlight of a Chiefs / Bengals game was on the TV) that 'yes she did. But that's about like the two jerseys on television being two different shades of orange.' Always keeping us laughing. Then she drifts off to sleep. I have no doubt when she's back on her toes we'll get a good laugh on these stories. She also said the Packers are stuck between a rock and Brett Favre's ego shortly after asking if the Favre situation would impact Green Bay's salary cap. It's moments like those that remind you how diverse her interests are!

Physically she's a trooper. She needs assistance going to the bathroom and it takes a lot out of her. Yet she really powers through it. There haven't been bike updates yet although we're hoping soon. I am planning to get her a t-shirt regarding Olympic swimming as well. There are mutliple iterations on the lung issues remaining. Which leads me to Medical.

Medically they're still dealing with rising and falling fevers and lung issues. They were able to rule out 2 big lung infections, which is good. But they're still looking at them to confirm what they are. There's a chance it's blood in there. You can't determine that without another bronchoscopy though, and there are no plans to do one immediately.

One of the nausea drugs they were giving her was dangerous for the kidneys so they changed it up. And the kidneys responded positively.

I do have another set of blood counts to help understand additional progression:

- WBC: 0.2
- Hemoglobin: 7.6

We're bringing up clippers tomorrow to buzz her hair per her request. She's pretty sure the hair's about to fall out anyway so this will make it more manageable. Then again last Sunday she thought it would be gone by Tuesday. I go back to the original post though, and we're actually right on target with the 3rd week...one of the few predictable occurances so far.

Last but not least I wanted to update on last night's 'panic attack'. Mom did not have a panic attack. She was just alarmed by the 'men in white coats.' The comment she made to me was she thinks there's a minimum height requirement of 6'4" to work here (sounds more like a basketball team)! I can assure everyone that's not the case as Ganguly definitely is not pushing 6'4". He may be even shorter than me. Anyway it was just overwhelming to have them all in here when she was dead asleep. There will be someone staying with her every night until they're more comfortable with what's in there though. We didn't have someone here originally (Mari came up right after that happened) last night, and just like the transportation issues we'll overcome it.