Enough Is Enough!

I wouldn't believe all this could happen to us if I weren't living it day by day!  It just keeps going on and on, this nightmare of Frankie's post op course.  He is STILL in the hospital as I write this post.  Right now, that is where he needs to be.  As I ended the last post, when I went to check on Frankie in our bedroom, he had another temperature, his blood pressure was in the basement and he just had a pale look about him.  I received a phone call from Cigna insurance (they make a courtesy call every time Frankie uses the ER or urgent care to follow up on how he is doing) right then and I told the case manager all that had happened to date.  She was extremely caring and offered to call Frankie's surgeon for me and fill him in on what was happening. I could never get past the switchboard, so I figured if she could get in to talk to him, more power to her and I appreciated the help!  She called me back within 30 minutes and said that the surgeon was in surgery (imagine that!) and that his nurse was texting him the information. But she said that I should just take him back to the ER with his pressure being that low.  She also asked me about home health care and I told her we kept missing the nurse because of having to take Frankie to the hospital all the time. I also couldn't flush his drain like I should have because the discharge nurse only gave me ONE flush and I had used that the previous day.

So, my mother-in-law and I took Frankie back to the hospital.  In the ER, his pressure was still very low, so they hooked him up to some fluids and it came back up to life sustaining numbers.  He still looked deathly pale to me. Maybe it was my eyes or the lights in the room, but he just looked like a ghost.  He had to provide a urine sample and couldn't even do that, he was so dehydrated.  And that was after a whole night of pushing liquids down his poor throat!  I just feel for him so badly, it hurts. When will this stop? ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!

We weren't in the ER very long (only about 5 hours) and they got him a room way up on the 6th floor on the progressive telemetry (heart monitoring) unit.  They put him there probably because he was going in and out of atrial fib and his heart rate was variable from 90's to 140's.  Yesterday (Saturday) they replaced his JP drain in his abdomen, thinking maybe that was a source of infection and that is was clogged.  Gee, I wonder why! One can only do so much with ONE flush!  I just feel horrible that he had to go through the procedure again of having that drain replaced.  But, being the trooper that he is, he went and never complained about a single thing.  In fact, he kept apologizing about this whole mess.  I told him that not one thing was his fault. It's not like he was making his blood pressure low on purpose!  Silly guy.  We also saw the medical oncologist (his regular oncologist is on vacation and doesn't go to the hospital Frankie is at) who was really nice and suggested that we wait on restarting his cancer medication until we see Frankie's regular oncologist. That will give his body a rest so it can heal. His lab report showed anemia...hemoglobin of 8.4 (norm for men 14-18), which is why he is so pale, and his white cell count is down, too, meaning his immune system isn't fighting off germs as well as it should.  I hope they give him a blood transfusion, but the nurse there said that each doc has their own range of when to give a transfusion and she would see what they had ordered up for him.  Hopefully they will start him on some iron or something!

So that is pretty much up-to-date at where we stand right now.  It's a drizzly-rainy mess outside and the sky is gray.  Hmmm...matches my mood at this point.  Things just have to start turning around!  I feel like I'm starring in my own soap opera!  I just can't believe all that has happened in one month. I sure hope August is better!!  As far as I'm concerned, they can take July and drop it from the calendar!  Ever since my mom died in July, 2008, every July since then has been a problem.  I had that monster blood clot in my leg and was hospitalized in July 2009 and now all this in July 2010!!!  So NO MORE July on my calendar!

My fibro has been so bad, I don't know where to even begin on that.  My leg muscles feel stretched beyond their limit and I walk like a penquin if I don't have my walker with me.  It's such a pain to keep getting it in and out of the trunk of the car, so I use it for long trips such as going to the hospital or the store.  I sleep off and on, maybe 5 hours at best, if I'm lucky.  I just ache from head to toe and my temperature gauge is off....first I'm hot and sweaty and then the next second, I 'm cold.  And then my back has to add in to the fun and ache like a toothache and my discs that are pressing on my nerves in my legs are going full tilt.  So, as you can see, I feel just wonderful! NOT!  My body always reacts to the events in my life, so I'm not surprised by any of this.  I just hope it ends soon and we can go back to normal.....whatever the heck that is!!

Hope you all are happy and well. Thank you again for your continued support and notes of encouragement and prayer. I appreciate each and everyone of you and so does my husband.  We love ya all!!!

Until next post,
Missy

PS...at least with this hospitalization, Frankie can eat all he wants. He's on a regular diet and no naso-gastric tube this time!  So there IS one small ray of sunshine in all this mess!!  :0)