Tuesday Update - Melba

Dennis went down to Seattle Sunday night and I came home to work for a couple of days. I think I mentioned that my sister Sharon had come over to the hospital on Saturday to give me a breather. I figured as an RN she'd know what to ask nurses etc. It's not like she could visit since Michelle mostly sleeps. She wakes to go to the bathroom, rinse her mouth with salt water to help keep it clean and the mucositis under control - they don't want her mouth to get septic.

Talked to both her and Dennis Monday morning and hope I've got it straight - apparently when she went to the bathroom the pole that all the bags of fluids of various sorts hang on tipped over and she called for a nurse and no one came right away which sort of freaked her out because all these tubes are connected to her Hickman catheter. She later heard nurses in the hall talking about being blamed and she wasn't sure if they were talking about the fact that no one helped her to the bathroom and they'd be in trouble. She also didn't think the morphine line was working right and in the 'morphine state' of mind got a little upset and called Dennis about 8:00 and asked him to come right away. She knows that while on the morphine she doesn't understand all that is going on and wanted to make sure everything was working the way it should be. The new day nurse was very reassuring she said - we understand more than ever the need to have a caregiver with a patient at all times to ask questions and to help with the little things while nurses are busy with other patients. They have added IV nutrition now and more anti-nausea medication because, even though she doesn't feel nauseous, her stomach gets nauseated causing her to throw up, which is never pleasant. Denny said her pulse is down to 104 so that's reassuring. It still needs to get down to about 60 eventually.

Our prayer request is that the stem cells will hurry up and start kicking in to re-form her blood so she can begin to eat and drink the regular way and that the immune system will begin to be in place.

As to visitors - she mostly just sleeps so there isn't much point at this time. As to telephone calls - she's so groggy she can't always comprehend although I did talk to her about 6:00 Monday night and she sounded quite coherent. So, for a few more days we'll not encourage any visitors or phone calls. We've learned to take it a day at a time and to be patient. Thanks again all of you.