Hi Friends!
I had a rough night last night and kept ending up on the floor without enough strength to stand up again. You know, kind of like -- "I've fallen and I can't get up!" At 9 a.m. Home Health Services came and set me up with my first examination. They cleaned and flushed my PICC line and did vitals, and that sort of thing. We were impressed with their professionalism and they will continue to come and care for me at home with home-based nursing. That should be nice.
I had an appointment at noon with Dr. Cohen today, so Bill took me into Thousand Oaks. It was decided that my lupus is in a very active flare -- not good news, but not really a surprise either! So, Dr. Cohen SOS'ed Dr. Menco, and I am starting high-dose steroids at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. Other than that I am continuing on an "alarming" (according to Dr. Cohen) amount of pain meds every 3 hours and just trying to survive.
Back to bed for now. I'll let you know how tomorrow goes. Annie is coming tonight. She'll take me in for treatment for the next few days. Mom will stay here with the homeschoolers and Bill will work and take care of getting Cam to and from school. Prayers, as always, are much appreciated. I am definitely not handling all of this well. Quite frankly, I think it sucks, but I will strive to develop a better attitude by tomorrow.
Much Love,
Michele
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
HOME AGAIN :-)
Hi Friends!
It took most of yesterday, but I arrived home home safely yesterday from the hospital. After 26 days in the hospital, I am overjoyed to be back home again! Praise God!
I am a little overwhelmed by how BAD I feel. I am currently on more than 20 daily meds again. I am set up with a Home Health Care Services. They just called to say that I will have all needed supplies delivered today between 4- 6 p.m. They will be flushing and taking care of my PICC line. And tomorrow I have an appointment with Dr. Cohen to go over all my new meds and protocol. I'll be doing Chemo #2 of Rituxan in 2 weeks.
Today my sole goal is to take a bath. Soundslike not a big deal -- but with a PICC line and all the pain patches, etc, that are taped onto me -- It is a major production, but it will feel SO good to be clean~
Bill's Mom is a big help, and the kids are just thrilled to have me home again. They are hoping to make it to the public library today and get some new books for schoolwork, too.
I'll try to blog more tomorrow. Please pray for health and sanity for all of us.
Much Love,
Michele
It took most of yesterday, but I arrived home home safely yesterday from the hospital. After 26 days in the hospital, I am overjoyed to be back home again! Praise God!
I am a little overwhelmed by how BAD I feel. I am currently on more than 20 daily meds again. I am set up with a Home Health Care Services. They just called to say that I will have all needed supplies delivered today between 4- 6 p.m. They will be flushing and taking care of my PICC line. And tomorrow I have an appointment with Dr. Cohen to go over all my new meds and protocol. I'll be doing Chemo #2 of Rituxan in 2 weeks.
Today my sole goal is to take a bath. Soundslike not a big deal -- but with a PICC line and all the pain patches, etc, that are taped onto me -- It is a major production, but it will feel SO good to be clean~
Bill's Mom is a big help, and the kids are just thrilled to have me home again. They are hoping to make it to the public library today and get some new books for schoolwork, too.
I'll try to blog more tomorrow. Please pray for health and sanity for all of us.
Much Love,
Michele
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
One Day at a Time
I stayed with Michele last night at the hospital due to her colonoscopy which revealed a blockage and it is likely the cause of her pain. Her endoscopy today revealed a small ulcer in the remote part of her stomach.
So, her kidney's have healed, her bladder has healed, her liver problem was medication related and fixed by discontinuing the offending meds. Her GI blockage will be treated with meds. Dr. Sanders who performed the procedure likened it to concrete and was totally surprised by it because he was expecting something more serious because of the level of pain Michele was experiencing. I laugh at it because it meant that Michele was full of sh** all the time and nobody new it :) Seriously, the hospital staff thought that she had the opposite problem and kept trying to solidify her stool. I just have to laugh!
One more thing remains to be done before she is cleared by Dr. Cohen, her lead physician, to have the Rituxan which is supposed to put the lupus back into remission. A cardiologist needs to explain why her resting heart rate is 100-140 beats per minute. We hope that will be explained tomorrow so that she can get the wonder drug going by the end of the week.
Again, we could use all the prayer you can muster...
-Bill
So, her kidney's have healed, her bladder has healed, her liver problem was medication related and fixed by discontinuing the offending meds. Her GI blockage will be treated with meds. Dr. Sanders who performed the procedure likened it to concrete and was totally surprised by it because he was expecting something more serious because of the level of pain Michele was experiencing. I laugh at it because it meant that Michele was full of sh** all the time and nobody new it :) Seriously, the hospital staff thought that she had the opposite problem and kept trying to solidify her stool. I just have to laugh!
One more thing remains to be done before she is cleared by Dr. Cohen, her lead physician, to have the Rituxan which is supposed to put the lupus back into remission. A cardiologist needs to explain why her resting heart rate is 100-140 beats per minute. We hope that will be explained tomorrow so that she can get the wonder drug going by the end of the week.
Again, we could use all the prayer you can muster...
-Bill
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Discharged for less than 24 hours and back again
Hi Everyone,
I am blogging for Michele. She wants you to know what is happening. I'll work on a way for her to blog from her hospital room in the near future.
Well, she came home overnight last Wednesday and then went right back into the hospital on Thursday. We suspect that they pushed the discharge due to insurance limitations. But we had no problem readmitting her because her Lead Doctor, Cohen, was very concerned for her and made it all work out.
Her kidneys seem to have healed but there is concern that the medications she took to kill the infection have also damaged her GI tract. She gets the joy of an endoscopy/colonoscopy Tuesday morning to find out the extent of the damage.
Due to her infection, the Lupus has majorly flared up again (so much for the remission last month). If she is cleared of all infection, she will be taking a different chemotherapy drug called Rituxan. She is having a PICC line put in in Tuesday morning. A peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC or PIC line) is a form of intravenous access that can be used for a prolonged period of time (e.g. for long chemotherapy regimens, extended antibiotic therapy, or total parenteral nutrition). A PICC is inserted in a peripheral vein, such as the cephalic vein, basilic vein, or brachial vein and then advanced through increasingly larger veins, toward the heart until the tip rests in the distal superior vena cava or cavoatrial junction. Dr. Cohen believes that this medication will not have as dangerous side effects as the Cytoxin she previously took. For one thing, it doesn't have "toxin" in its name.
So, she needs your prayers, phone calls, and visits. She is very scared and home sick. I can't be with her every minute of every day but with the help of our friends and family, someone can be there to talk to her and make her feel better most of the time.
-Bill
I am blogging for Michele. She wants you to know what is happening. I'll work on a way for her to blog from her hospital room in the near future.
Well, she came home overnight last Wednesday and then went right back into the hospital on Thursday. We suspect that they pushed the discharge due to insurance limitations. But we had no problem readmitting her because her Lead Doctor, Cohen, was very concerned for her and made it all work out.
Her kidneys seem to have healed but there is concern that the medications she took to kill the infection have also damaged her GI tract. She gets the joy of an endoscopy/colonoscopy Tuesday morning to find out the extent of the damage.
Due to her infection, the Lupus has majorly flared up again (so much for the remission last month). If she is cleared of all infection, she will be taking a different chemotherapy drug called Rituxan. She is having a PICC line put in in Tuesday morning. A peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC or PIC line) is a form of intravenous access that can be used for a prolonged period of time (e.g. for long chemotherapy regimens, extended antibiotic therapy, or total parenteral nutrition). A PICC is inserted in a peripheral vein, such as the cephalic vein, basilic vein, or brachial vein and then advanced through increasingly larger veins, toward the heart until the tip rests in the distal superior vena cava or cavoatrial junction. Dr. Cohen believes that this medication will not have as dangerous side effects as the Cytoxin she previously took. For one thing, it doesn't have "toxin" in its name.
So, she needs your prayers, phone calls, and visits. She is very scared and home sick. I can't be with her every minute of every day but with the help of our friends and family, someone can be there to talk to her and make her feel better most of the time.
-Bill
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