Well it's March
Madness time again. While I won't say it's madness in the Bowden family,
there seems to be a lot of craziness.
If you have been
following closely Tracy's 2nd round of treatment has been going kind of crazy.
Wednesday night was dose #1 of her second treatment of IVIG and we never
got it completed. About 2:30 AM they decided that Tracy's blood pressure
was too low to complete the treatment. So they resumed her treatment
Thursday afternoon amidst one of the most severe thunderstorms I have ever
seen. Those of you from outside of Michigan may or may not have heard
about the tornado in Dexter Michigan, but it was only 10 miles away and reports
were that it was headed right for us here at the hospital. So all of the
patients were moved into the hallways to get away from the windows. We
were in the hallway for almost two hours before we got the all clear.
Tracy finally finished her first IVIG dose around 11PM.
Friday was a very
good day for Tracy. She was very alert and conversational. It was
such a beautiful day here that I ate lunch outside in the courtyard. That
evening right before we started dose #2, the doctor came in told me that Mayo
had contacted her and told her that they were still waiting on one more test
result. But that they had changed their mind on the paraneoplastic
syndrome, as Tracy's numbers were not to far out of range to be completely positive
(.02 is normal and Trace was .04). However since the IVIG treatment had
worked so well the first time they agreed with continuing the 2nd dose that we
had already started.
Drew showed up
around 8PM Friday night shortly after they started Tracy's second treatment.
Dosage #2 didn't start so well, Tracy's blood pressure was fluctuating a
lot but not too low, so they kept the dosage down and trudged on. At the
rate they were administering the IVIG it was going to take 24 hours to complete
the treatment. But about midnight they were able to double her dosage and
about 2AM they were able to raise it another 50%. The nurse administering
it said that she would spend the rest of the night in Trace's room and that I
could go to bed. So I did.
Saturday morning
I woke up at my customary 6:15AM, to call and check to see how Trace was doing.
Darlene, the nurse who spent the night with her, said that it had
been a good night and that she had been able to increase the dosage so that
Trace would be finishing up her dosage around 7AM. Relieved at hearing
this I went back to sleep.
Drew got up
before me and had his stuffed hash brown’s and then went to Tracy's room.
It was one of his best visits with her. He was able to talk to
about his schoolwork and his induction into the National Honor Society.
Now a little bragging, Drew is on track to a very successful 2nd semester
at school. So it was good for Tracy to
hear it from him.
Dosage #3 started
late also. I just don't understand why they start it so late. I
believe that anyone's blood pressure would drop during the evening and
nighttime hours. I think they should start the dose around noon or a
little earlier and or at least start at the beginning of the 3PM shift change
so that the same nurse can follow it through. Tracy’s blood pressure
bounced around again but, around midnight Tracy started to tolerate the dose
fairly well, so Drew and I left for bed.
Today was another
good day for Tracy. She was not a cognizant as Saturday but so much more
alert. At times she would even read notes on the wall and was able to
correctly identify her flashcards.
Below is a
picture of Tracy's room and my room.
As I close this
blog, Tracy is receiving dosage #4 and is tolerating it very nicely. If
all goes right she should be through around midnight.
Once last thing.
I need to ask a favor of someone. I do not like to leave Trace
alone while she is awake and I need to leave Tuesday afternoon for a dentist's
appointment back in Rochester. So if anyone is available to sit with her
Tuesday afternoon in to the evening, I would be so grateful. To put it in
Tracy's actual words, "this place is boring". I hope it is the
hospital and not I!
God Bless and
"Never Give Up... Never Ever Give Up!"
Rob
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