Hospital Fatigue

Pam is finally eating a little, meaning that the steroids are doing their job, getting the GVHD inflammation in her gut to calm down.  They will begin tapering her steroids and her TPN (IV nutrition) and are talking about discharging her this coming week. It still seems to be up in the air as to whether she will need to continue the TPN after discharge.  We are getting conflicting information.

Monday will mark six weeks since she was hospitalized.  That, my friends, is a long time. She has held up remarkably well during all of this, but the psychological stress of being sick, fatigued, and isolated for so long is beginning to show. She is a little irritable and broke down crying while visiting with her parents last night, and again later in the evening when I was getting ready to leave for the night. She is anxious to get out of the hospital and anxious about returning home, concerned about being "a burden".  She is fearful of getting sick again and not having adequate care.  I have assurred her that Mom Bonnie and I will be watching her 24/7, but I understand her concern.

Her ANC number is skyrocketing now, meaning she has a growing immune system. The medical team has told her one of the two umbilical cord stem cell implants is coming in "as the clear winner", so her new blood manufacturing system is continuing to build.  She still needs red cell and platelet transfusions, and probably will need them for several weeks until her infant system can do all of the work on it's own.