Hut-One

Having spent the night at the hospital last night, I have no idea what's happening at home -- except that Kathy's in charge, so things are probably OK. A slightly different update:

Brain

• The MRI results came back, and Rachel only has one brain tumor! Yipee! Actually this is relatively good news, as it allows for the potential for surgical/radiative treatment down the road (nothing urgent). And no, we haven't told her yet.

Lung

• Persistent fever today(102+) and persistent heartrate in the 140's, probably due to the e. Coli infection in her lung. Note that we see some of the same doctors every day, and with some services we see a variety -- the Infectious Disease doc yesterday/today is very very guarded about the potential effectiveness of the new antibiotic. This "Dr. Gloomy" spooked me a little bit today.

Procedures/General

• She slept pretty well last night, except for the old lady in the room next door who started screaming at 4am. This woke Rach up, and her heartrate went to 165, which then set off her monitor, which woke me up. But we all calmed down and got a little more sleep.
• Sleeping is aided (in theory) by tuning in to Channel 4, the hospital's plinky, New Age, "Lullabies for Weirdos" music channel. Think of taking the moving walkway to Concourse C at O'Hare.
• Lots of written questions this morning. Some were sensical, some not so much. She knows she's sick and in Evanston hospital, I'm pretty sure she knows she has cancer, but any details are lost on her right now.
• Dialysis this morning, both for general cleaning (BUN/creatinine) and to remove yesterday's MRI imaging dye. Also scheduled for tomorrow, to clear the chemo agents.
• Chemo Round 2 started around 5pm -- same regimen as last time, but with slightly higher doses. She'll probably get an additional chemo agent (etoposide) starting this weekend.
• I haven't praised the ICU staff recently, but let me repeat what great care I think she's getting. With the two main day shift nurses we get, Amy T and Cheryl, I'm constantly reminded a) how technically competent they are, and b) how much they really care for my wife and your friend, Rachel. And the attending docs, nurse practitioners, respiratory techs, and everyone else show similar care.
• And of course there's our friend Dell, too.

Abdomen

• Let me also repeat how frustrating it is to not really know what she's got. The folks down in Hyde Park did some additional work, and now think that "small-cell ovarian carcinoma" is the most likely culprit. This is driving the change to her chemo regimen (see above).
• Having sacrificed all of Rachel's privacy, let's talk about her belly. From the surgery she has a vertical scar about a foot long; in addition her surgeon gave her "retention sutures" -- several ties about 4" long going crosswise, with plastic "bumpers", to hold her together. The staples from the primary incision were removed earlier this week, but the retention sutures are still in place. They'll probably be removed in the next few days, depending on how she does with re-filling of fluid. I was reminded of all of this when she showed some curiosity earlier today, and I had to explain it to her. In the meantime her abdomen looks like a really big football. And yes, I know, she's going to kill me when she eventually reads this.

That's enough for tonight. Although "Lullabies for Weirdos" would be a great name for a band.

Pat