Update from Keith: October 3rd, 2008

After 3 nights and 2 days at home, Taylor is back in the hospital. She had a fever when we checked this morning at 6:30 am.

Admission is much tougher with Taylor now because she picked up an infection last time that is resistant to Vancomycin (this is the antibiotic that is the last line of defense for MRSA as I understand it). Thus, Taylor must be in relative isolation whenever she is in the hospital, meaning she can't have a roommate. Although we loved having the whole room to ourselves the last few weeks before Taylor's discharge, it makes coming back much harder because having just one available bed on 4 west is not enough. For Taylor to get admitted, they need 2 available beds so she can have her own room. Thus, we are a little worried that we could get stuck in the ER tonight.

For now, Taylor is in the day hospital, which is the outpatient clinic in the building behind the hospital. That's plenty comfortable (and is the advantage of her finally getting a fever in the morning rather than late at night which requires an ER visit). If they can find 2 beds upstairs, Taylor will move in there some time today. If not, I suspect that she will be in the day hospital until they close around 6 (although they've been known to keep it open until 8 or so) and then, probably, we'll have to go the ER which will be awful.

Taylor seemed to feel mostly OK today. She's been throwing up a lot lately which is not great as she really needs her food. She is emaciatingly thin, especially her legs. Moreover, her achilles (or whatever muscles/tendons are on the back of her calf) has shrunk considerably due to all the time she has spent in bed, making standing up and walking a near-impossible chore unless she does so on her tippy-toes. It is essentially impossible for her to stand with her heels on the ground and her feet pointing forward. I was hoping that the more walking and standing she did at home would improve the situation, but now she's back getting extended bed rest.

Oh well. I'd much rather face the problems of having to eat more and stretch her legs than cancer. After two more chemo treatments, I'm hoping that we can work on those and other minor problems and leave the cancer behind forever.

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