Monday, October 09, 2006
And then when you do, watch out!
For 7 days I've pretty much been on a clear liquid diet. I have managed to sneak in a few servings of step 1 baby food (Karen says less than her 10 month old grandaughter eats). My sweet sister Karen has foregone the opportunity to see her new twin grandaughters enter this world yesterday, October 8 - the ultimate sacrifice to be here in this hell hole with me...that is love.
(So now it's Karen writing for Kathy as she has neither the strength nor desire at the moment)...Today is Monday, we arrived at Wake Forest Cancer Center at 9am as scheduled. At 1pm Kathy was finally given a bed in the Day Hospital on the 5th floor. At 3:30pm the IP infusion was started and it is now 8:30pm and she still lies attached to the IV's. This is Kathy's 2nd treatment in the study, two more to follow on the schedule now of this Friday and next Monday. What small amount of baby food Kathy ate earlier today has just resurfaced. Eating is not possible at the moment and drinking is minimal. But that hasn't kept her from watching a program on TV today about pizza and dreaming about eating some. The other night she dreamt about feta cheese, smoked turkey and german mustard. Just reminding her now, she says YUMMMM, followed by feta cheese and sundried tomatoes.
The treatment is harder on her she thinks because of more gastrointestinal disease so the instillation of the fluid compresses on things and adds to misery of gas and extreme reflux. It's an unknown how much this will respond to the treatment as well as the decrease in ascites, hopefully a big impact.
We've had discussions about the treatment here, lack of sticking to a schedule, slow response with anti-nausea drugs. Dr. Miller, Kelly and the other nurses who have cared for Kathy have been nice, but this machine moves slowly. We hope we've worked out things for the next treatment, to move the schedule along more efficiently, such as having her blood work done on Thursday, coming into the Cancer Center Friday at a later hour and me being the transporter of Kathy in the wheelchair as opposed to waiting for official transport to arrive.
As it looks right now we will be staying in Winston-Salem until next Tues.
(So now it's Karen writing for Kathy as she has neither the strength nor desire at the moment)...Today is Monday, we arrived at Wake Forest Cancer Center at 9am as scheduled. At 1pm Kathy was finally given a bed in the Day Hospital on the 5th floor. At 3:30pm the IP infusion was started and it is now 8:30pm and she still lies attached to the IV's. This is Kathy's 2nd treatment in the study, two more to follow on the schedule now of this Friday and next Monday. What small amount of baby food Kathy ate earlier today has just resurfaced. Eating is not possible at the moment and drinking is minimal. But that hasn't kept her from watching a program on TV today about pizza and dreaming about eating some. The other night she dreamt about feta cheese, smoked turkey and german mustard. Just reminding her now, she says YUMMMM, followed by feta cheese and sundried tomatoes.
The treatment is harder on her she thinks because of more gastrointestinal disease so the instillation of the fluid compresses on things and adds to misery of gas and extreme reflux. It's an unknown how much this will respond to the treatment as well as the decrease in ascites, hopefully a big impact.
We've had discussions about the treatment here, lack of sticking to a schedule, slow response with anti-nausea drugs. Dr. Miller, Kelly and the other nurses who have cared for Kathy have been nice, but this machine moves slowly. We hope we've worked out things for the next treatment, to move the schedule along more efficiently, such as having her blood work done on Thursday, coming into the Cancer Center Friday at a later hour and me being the transporter of Kathy in the wheelchair as opposed to waiting for official transport to arrive.
As it looks right now we will be staying in Winston-Salem until next Tues.
