Very happy to say that Alison is now home. Safe and sound (more or less).
First of all, it is great to have her home. A day or two earlier than I thought but great news nonetheless. Without wanting to waffle on about how happy I am, she is now settling in back to the lifestyle of living at home. The hospital bit was necessary but you wouldn't wish it upon anybody.
Basic stuff like reading a menu and delivering the right food seemed a little out of reach.
From here, Ali will have some tests to assess how effective the treament was.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
In hospital
A few eventful days. On Saturday morning Ali decided that she'd had enough and it was time to go to hospital. I drove her in and she walked into the Emergency area. Luckily she was triaged quickly, taken to a bed and hooked up on a drip within the hour.
One of the nurses arrived to take all her details, and heard about how Ali couldn't eat or drink and how much pain she was in every time she tried to swallow something. After the nurse had finished taking her notes she turned to Ali and asked if she would like the nurse to arrange a sandwich and some juice for her lunch as she was likely to be there a while! Without repeating verbatim what Alison said, it suffices to say she was not impressed.
Throughout the day Ali received fluids via IV and they started to improve the way she felt.
After waiting until around 9:30 pm Ali was then moved to the renal ward with a prescription for some morphine to help her with the pain. Problem was that she was prescribed oral morphine while at the same time was 'nil by mouth'. Eventually this was all sorted and And she managed to get some sleep.
Sunday was spent pretty much lying in bed resting and trying to recover.
By Monday Ali was hoping that she would have been booked in for a gastroscopy to take a good look at what was wrong with her and work out what to do. But alas, nobody books diagnostic tests during a weekend so she had to wait until today before she joined the queue.
It now looks like she may get the tests done either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Latest thinking is that her problems are related to her earlier treatment and most likely that she had ulcers in her oesophageous. No idea yet on when she will be allowed out.
One of the nurses arrived to take all her details, and heard about how Ali couldn't eat or drink and how much pain she was in every time she tried to swallow something. After the nurse had finished taking her notes she turned to Ali and asked if she would like the nurse to arrange a sandwich and some juice for her lunch as she was likely to be there a while! Without repeating verbatim what Alison said, it suffices to say she was not impressed.
Throughout the day Ali received fluids via IV and they started to improve the way she felt.
After waiting until around 9:30 pm Ali was then moved to the renal ward with a prescription for some morphine to help her with the pain. Problem was that she was prescribed oral morphine while at the same time was 'nil by mouth'. Eventually this was all sorted and And she managed to get some sleep.
Sunday was spent pretty much lying in bed resting and trying to recover.
By Monday Ali was hoping that she would have been booked in for a gastroscopy to take a good look at what was wrong with her and work out what to do. But alas, nobody books diagnostic tests during a weekend so she had to wait until today before she joined the queue.
It now looks like she may get the tests done either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Latest thinking is that her problems are related to her earlier treatment and most likely that she had ulcers in her oesophageous. No idea yet on when she will be allowed out.
Friday, August 17, 2012
SIR spheres
Well, it's been (much) more than 12 months since the last post.
Life has been pretty good for a while. Kids doing what kids do. I started a new job at the end of March 2012 (with SKM) and Ali has been fine. In fact, so good that she returned to work around June.
Unfortunately, the same time we got the results from one of her scans. It showed numerous new growths in her liver and this was not agood sign.
Fast forward to Monday 16 July and she has just had a hepatic angiogram (needle in the groin to inject dye to check bloodflows).
First drama was a trip to the Emergncy Dept when she passed out and collapsed just after eating breakfast luckily, she was caught. Not too sure what caused this, possibly a mix of stress, lack of sleep and dehydration. Anyway, around midnight we were on our way back home (thanks for looking after the kids that night Rach)
Second drama was a mix up with ordering the isotopes for the treatment, this pushed things back by a week.
The following week when she had the treatment (on Monday) she came out the other end feeling more sick than she has ever felt. Much worse than the chemo and throwing up most of the night, not a very nice time. The Tuesday was still pretty miserable and there was no way she was coming home, even though an overnight stay was postulated as a possibility.
Wednesday morning, I was getting texts about making sure kids were ready for school, asking what I'd packed for their lunches and urging me to hurry up or they would be late. I'd say 5-6 texts within 40 min with things to do or check of my list. I knew that day that she would be heading home.
Slowly she recovered and even went to work for a few hours during the 2nd week of August.
In the last couple of days however it seems to have caught up with her. She's struggling with indigestion which is likely caused by radioactive leaking from her liver to stomach. Not to be unexpected but she sleeps with a bunch of pillows propping her up. The other problem is esophageal spasms, these are causing pain and stopping her from eating (and discourage drinking which brings on dehydration which causes other problems). Already she's lost weight so not eating is not good.
Picked up some new medication today so hopefully that will help her.
From here we are very much in the wait and hope she gets better soon. There is no reason to expect that the effects won't wear off in the near future. Next step will be another scan, probably around the end of Sept or early Oct.
That is pretty much where we are up to for now. I will try a little harder to keep up to date with posts but when there is nothing to report, it seems a little mundane. On the flip side, it means I'm only posting when there is something negative to say and that doesn't seem right either.
Regardles, stay well.
Life has been pretty good for a while. Kids doing what kids do. I started a new job at the end of March 2012 (with SKM) and Ali has been fine. In fact, so good that she returned to work around June.
Unfortunately, the same time we got the results from one of her scans. It showed numerous new growths in her liver and this was not agood sign.
Fast forward to Monday 16 July and she has just had a hepatic angiogram (needle in the groin to inject dye to check bloodflows).
First drama was a trip to the Emergncy Dept when she passed out and collapsed just after eating breakfast luckily, she was caught. Not too sure what caused this, possibly a mix of stress, lack of sleep and dehydration. Anyway, around midnight we were on our way back home (thanks for looking after the kids that night Rach)
Second drama was a mix up with ordering the isotopes for the treatment, this pushed things back by a week.
The following week when she had the treatment (on Monday) she came out the other end feeling more sick than she has ever felt. Much worse than the chemo and throwing up most of the night, not a very nice time. The Tuesday was still pretty miserable and there was no way she was coming home, even though an overnight stay was postulated as a possibility.
Wednesday morning, I was getting texts about making sure kids were ready for school, asking what I'd packed for their lunches and urging me to hurry up or they would be late. I'd say 5-6 texts within 40 min with things to do or check of my list. I knew that day that she would be heading home.
Slowly she recovered and even went to work for a few hours during the 2nd week of August.
In the last couple of days however it seems to have caught up with her. She's struggling with indigestion which is likely caused by radioactive leaking from her liver to stomach. Not to be unexpected but she sleeps with a bunch of pillows propping her up. The other problem is esophageal spasms, these are causing pain and stopping her from eating (and discourage drinking which brings on dehydration which causes other problems). Already she's lost weight so not eating is not good.
Picked up some new medication today so hopefully that will help her.
From here we are very much in the wait and hope she gets better soon. There is no reason to expect that the effects won't wear off in the near future. Next step will be another scan, probably around the end of Sept or early Oct.
That is pretty much where we are up to for now. I will try a little harder to keep up to date with posts but when there is nothing to report, it seems a little mundane. On the flip side, it means I'm only posting when there is something negative to say and that doesn't seem right either.
Regardles, stay well.
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