Sunday Upate - Melba

T (transplant) +6 - Michelle, though very groggy from the morphine, was able to talk to Dr. Mathis, the hospitalist Saturday evening. Hospitalists are a relatively new thing I guess. Dr. Mathis works for Group Health Insurance and cares for their patients at Virginia Mason Hospital. Michelle has developed some infection in the Hickman line and with no immunities it must be taken seriously. The Dr. said they would know more once the cultures had grown (I guess in a petri dish) and Sunday morning they would decide which anti-biotic to add to her fluid IV. Since she can't keep food down they added Dextrose to her Potassium IV plus an anti-fungal anti-biotic. Drip, drip, drip - she has all kinds of lines dripping into her Hickman lines. She did tell the Dr. she felt fine - with the morphine - was expecting to feel a lot worse, although this is bad enough. The Dr. said she is doing very well at T+6 and her color looks good. Though she felt too groggy and unsteady on her feet to try and take a shower we did take a very short walk down the hall in the afternoon. A technician came by right after that to take her vitals and her pulse was about 150, which is quite fast and her temperature had gone up to 102 degrees. He rechecked that and it was 100 degrees, which shows she does have a fever. The RN said being a bit dehydrated would cause the faster pulse, although Michelle couldn't feel that her heart was racing. So they keep on top of each little thing with some added drug. The next 5-6 days will be the 'low' point until her stem cells start doing their thing.

My sister, Sharon, came from Auburn to spend time with Michelle Sat. allowing me to come back to the apartment to shower and have lunch, although I've been eating Michelle's meals cuz they keep delivering them. Sharon showed me bus schedules so I was able to take one back from the Northgate Mall Transit Center to the hospital - a nice gal named Meadow helped me with a bus transfer cuz I've never ridden the bus. There's no cheap place to park around the hospital - not like Seattle Cancer Care where they stamp your parking ticket to allow cheaper parking. Anyway, I managed to make my way back to the apt. on the bus, but did make a car trip back to VM cuz there were some things Michelle needed from the apt. - at least the parking garage is free after 6:00PM. She encouraged me to go ahead and sleep at the apt. as she's more comfortable with the routine and nurses now. Her attitude is good and we just pray for the stem cells to grow fast.