Collaboration and Deductions

The first thing on my mind is how Steve is doing.  Today, he's bright, alert, and on top of all that's going on medically and doing an excellent job supervising the nurses in his collaborative way.  It's so nice to see him in action!  Also on the plus side; he's now in a quiet private room!  What an improvement over his last room.  Think noisy, irritating roommate while you are weak, exhausted and stressed out. 

The medical picture is next.  The medical team here, and including his oncologist at Virginia Mason,  are postulating that he may have an infection somewhere.   They started him on IV antibiotics this morning.  High on the suspicion list is his bile duct or the area of the stent.  So he's getting an abdominal CT scan this afternoon.  They ran a battery of blood test to look for disseminated intavascular cooagulation (DIC).  The results were not consistent with DIC.  I'm glad to see there is medical sleuthing happening!  

I hope this gives you all a clearer picture of what's being done even if there are no answers yet.   I do understand how not knowing is hard. 

Paste Frowny Face Here

Dog gone it! Steve's blood counts are not cooperating and the hospitalist says he will stay where he is for now. She is uncertain why this is happening and will be discussing what's next with us. I don't know how worried to be right now so it's good to be under constant observation. Wish it were  better news.  

Better Today

Steve is better today. We are pretty sure he'll be home from the hospital tomorrow. Yay!

What's Happening Now

We are seeing  a welcome stabilaztion of Steve's blood levels which means the internal bleeding is much less. He's headed in the right direction.  Today, the doctors felt he did not need to be in the special care unit and was moved to the regular care unit. He will stay tonight and be assessed tomorrow. I know you are all anxious to hear news. Right now, we are uncertain of the implications of all this and will share as we learn. 

Back in the ER

Last night, Steve started having apparent GI bleeding again so we took off for the hospital at 2 am.  It seems like the same thing that happened when he was admitted into the hospital in June.  So, right now, he's resting comforably, has had transfusions to help his blood levels recover.  The plan is that the transfusions will help his blood clot and the bleeding will stop.  Right now, no one knows where the bleeding is in his GI or why.  We'll see what the doctors propose about that tomorrow.  I'm glad to see him more comfortable and he's resting better than he has for a long while.  They have managed his pain pretty good which is relief for both of us.  Once we find out more, we'll let you know.  Thanks, everyone for your ongoing support!  It means a lot to both of us.  

Oxycodone Ughh!

Tried Oxycodone in place of Vicaden last night- yeow! Be side effects of Oxycodone kept me up last night. Will be getting back to Vicaden ASAP

New Infusion Cycle, Doing Okay

Steve's infusion went as planned. The doctor prescribed stronger pain relief so Steve can be more mobile and sleep through the night. Steve'll try it! Hope it doesn't make him hazy.

So far 24hrs later Steve is feeling like he's got the flu coming on (typical) we'll see what the next day will bring.

We still need to share Steve's birthday at the beach (that happened last week! Stay tuned.