Mondays and Uvulas Always Get Me Down

Gotta Hate Monday

Monday was pure hell for Pam: Throwing up, retching, and having severe pain in her right hip. At one point, I had to help her walk from the bathroom to her bed. On the suffering scale, it was right up there with the period right after her diagnosis when she was in ICU last July.

Tuesday

Since the vomiting was getting worse on Sunday and Monday, she had a sigmoidoscopy and upper GI scope and biopsy early this morning. They want to rule out GVHD as the cause of the gut problems.  We should get the results tomorrow (Wednesday).

Uvula is Not a Dirty Word

During the upper GI scope, Pam's uvula (the little boxing bag thing at the back of your throat) was bruised.  It looks absolutely raw. I was going to take a picture, but didn't want to push my luck after taking the picture of her Chia Pet Tongue, so I inserted this clip art instead. Trust me, it looked gross. I'm sure it will heal quickly, now that she has some white cells on board, but she has a hell of a sore throat.

I HAD to get some work done, so I picked up Pam's Mom, Bonnie, early this morning to stay with Pam at the hospital.  I had our air conditioning/heating system serviced today as part of the prepration for Pam's discharge from the hospital while I was working from home, then rode my bike to the namby pamby tram and got back to the hospital at about 5:30 PM.

In spite of having the procedures today, she felt much better than the past two days. It looks like her nausea and vomiting worsened dramatically because her anti-nausea medication was switched.  Now that she is back on the old standby (Zofran), she was actually quite comfortable this evening and we were able to watch a movie together.  Her hip pain is also noticeably better. Huge relief.

Our favorite test result, the ANC is in the low normal range at 1800.  OUTSTANDING!!!  She is making her own red blood cells and platelets too, but they take longer to recover, so she will probably need several more blood and platelet transfusions over the next few weeks.

Popsicle

I forgot some big news.  Pam ate a popsicle while we were watching the movie without blowing chunks.  If they can keep the blowing chunks frequency (BCF) down to a tolerable level, she may begin eating again soon.  The popsicle was just a start. They brought her a special "GVHD" menu today:  Three phases.  Phase 1 is things like chicken broth, popsicles and hard candy.  Phase 2 includes scrambled egg whites and some tea.  Phase 3 includes some actual meat.  For some reason, reading the menu was entertaining.   Don't know why.

Downhill is Better

After the movie, I rode my bike down Terwilliger and back home. No rain, comfortable temperature. I really enjoy it.

A Biking Tip: Find your own namby pamby tram type set up and minimize the uphill stuff.