AND ON THE HUMPDAY, DOC SAID, "LET'S GIT JIGGY WIT IT 2 - ELECTRIC BOOGALOO!"

After shuffling the schedule, we went from first up to getting started about 3.5 hours later than we were told. She finally went back @ about 1230. The procedure went well and the clot is covered. It took a little longer than usual to wrap up because of the heparin, they had to hold pressure on the incision site longer to stop the bleeding. She was already awake when I got to go to the recovery room and was ready to go back to the room quicker than expected. Now I get to fight with her to keep her leg flat 'til midnight to prevent possible clotting or bleeding.

Of course the usual caveats apply, but the risk is low and outweighed by other concerns. Now, just keep your fingers crossed that her foot and toes recover from the circulation problems.

Still on NPO thru tomorrow AM, scheduled for a PET Scan to get the lay of the land before starting treatment for the Endometrial Cancer.

Dr. Dago*, the doc who was here when Anna was admitted, just came in and pulled her PICC line. I knew it ran from her mid-upper arm all the way to her right atrium, but when you actually see how long that thing running thru her vein is, DAAAAMN!!

(*Before you get your PC-thong in a knot, know three things -

1: I ain't PC, and anybody that thinks I'm racist or afraid of words don't know me very well. If you let professional race-baiters and grievance-mongers use words and beliefs as cudgels to bludgeon you into submission, you're doing it wrong.

2: When I saw her last name on her ID, it was the first pseudonym to pop in my head, and in case you haven't noticed, the names have been changed to protect the privacy of the staff.

And C: The area that I can see from the window where you'll find some if the best food in St. Louis ain't called "Dago Hill" cause it's populated with Swedes...)

Let's hope tomorrow goes smoother than today... G'nite.

ON HUMP DAY, DOC SAID, "LET'S GIT JIGGY WIT IT."

Just got the word - Anna is first up to bat this AM. GYNO stopped by a little while ago and I asked about when Anna gets Atomic. She said it usually takes Radiation a coupla weeks to get their stuff in one sock and start treatment.

Looks like the thunder storm I've been wanting to see from up here is rolling in just in time for me to go to the windowless bowels of the building. C'est la vie.

BACK AT IT

Docs started rolling in shortly after 0600, mostly just checking in. They took her down to check her picc line and replace a stitch that had came out.

Diabetes Doc stopped by to see how well and how much she's eating. It's harder to control when she is NPO one day not the next. She's back on regular diet 'til midnight then back to NPO because the plan is to place the stent tomorrow.

Occupational Therapy came by and we got her to sit on the edge of the bed for a while and to stand for a minute or so. I got a list of exercises for her to do to rebuild arm strength, and I'm to get her to sit up on edge of bed while she eats,so we'll see how that goes at lunch.

That's about it for now, more Docs are making their rounds, so I'll do updates as I find out more.

UPDATE - Just paid a coupla hundred bucks for an arrogant, "Shut up, I'm God" doc to come in for 90 seconds, look at her ass and tell me nothing I didn't already know. And the jerk didn't even look at her bum, Dr. Trainee Barbie* did. They were looking for indications of bed sores. I tried telling Dr. Hot Shit that a skin care nurse was in earlier this AM looking for that very thing, but I guess when you're omnipotent you don't need information or to consult the chart for that day. Probably a liberal to boot.

As His Royal Big Shotness left, Dr. Trainee Barbie started babbling about what was going on, I quickly ran down the list she was trying to give me, so she turned and left. I think some of these docs see a guy that looks and sounds like some hillbilly and figure I ain't too bright. But I'd put money down that my IQ can whup their IQ. I remember the same reaction when I came up here for college - "Damn, hillbilly, talk faster. Screw you city boy, listen slower."

(*I think Dr. Trainee Barbie and I got off on the wrong foot. The first time she showed up, sometime during the exam she decided that the pad under Anna needed to come out. So she grabs the bottom of it and starts jerking the hell out of it trying to pull it from underneath Anna. I asked her, "What are you trying to do?" "I'm getting this pad out." There's an easier way to do it. "Well, this is how we do it in the ER."

Does her momma know she's playing doctor??

So as I stepped between her and Anna and took over the operation I explained, "I don't know what ER you worked in, but in all the rest of 'em you would be getting chewed out for aggravating any possible spinal injury. Even when spinal injury has been ruled out, it's easier on the patient to do it this way" which I then demonstrated. Roll patient to one side, roll up the old, roll up half of the new and put it under, then roll other way and remove old and roll out new.

And even trainee docs don't like being told they're wrong, ESPECIALLY by some country fried sumbitch.)

UPDATE - Another diabetes doc stopped by, nothing new there. Physical therapy stopped by, wanted her to do the same tricks as occ. therapy. What's the point of having two different departments, doing the same thing and sending me two different bills?? Nevermind, answered my own question.

Anesthesiologist stopped by to get briefed on Anna's surgical history and tolerance of anesthesia. Said something about the possibility of being moved to a surgical floor after the stent placement, but then said we're on a surgical floor that also happens to be an oncology floor. Seeing how she's getting surgery and needs cancer treatment, why not just leave her here? Besides, the surgical floor probably has a stunning view of the back side of the a/c plant....

Social worker came by to take an application for this, that and the other kind of aid for which we'll get turned down yet again. Someone explain to me how somebody who can truly use help gets shot down every time, but some filthy crack whore ghetto brood sow with a litter of future delinquents can get thousands of dollars a month in aid?? I'm thinking the standard reply of "too much money" is code for "too white".

What, me bitter and cynical??

PROLOGUE

This blog is for Anna's friends and family to have a place to go for the latest news and updates.  I was doing updates via text message, but I could only get info out to 10 contacts at a time, and typing on a phone keyboard sucks.  This way I can get out to everyone at once and use a real keyboard to do it.  It also frees up my phone.

I will be sending the url to everyone on the contact list and posting it to her Facebook page, so everyone can catch up and stay updated and have one place to leave thoughts and questions.

So check back often.  There will be daily updates, and "breaking news" updates as things progress.

Oh, the title and header pic were inspired by the fact Anna will be getting radiation treatments.  The picture is of "Atomic Annie", the worlds first atomic cannon, firing a 15kt, 288mm atomic warhead in the "Grable" test series at the Nevada Proving Grounds.

IN THE BEGINNING...

On 12 May I took Anna to the ER @ S.E. MO. Hospital because she seemed confused and disoriented. I thought it was from blood loss due to extremely heavy menstrual flow. At the E.R. she was examined, blood work was drawn and she was admitted to the Gyn floor.

No sooner than her butt hit the bed the lab results came back and showed that she was in diabetic keto-acidosis, so they rushed her to ICU. Due to the fact I got about 8-10 hours of sleep over 6 days, the next week runs into a blur, so events may not be chronicled in exact chronological order.

Because her body was working itself to exhaustion trying to breathe fast enough to burn off the acid, the decision was made to sedate and intubate her and put her on a ventilator and let the machine do the work. During the next 6 days CT scans, X-Rays and MRIs were done of her head, chest and abdomen. These showed shadowing in her lungs, a tumor in her uterus and that she has had a stroke.

Dr. Everybodies Feelings, the Gyno guesstimated late Stage II/early Stage III endometrial cancer, did a D&C, said she took biopsy samples and said the pathology report would be back in a few days. In the mean time she would consult w/ an Oncologist friend of hers and we should start looking for somewhere to get treatment. I said to send her to Barnes.

The folks @ Barnes Radiation examined her on 25 MAY, but could not take biopsy samples due to the location of the tumor. So WTF did Dr. Feelings @ S.E. sample?? A friggin' ham sammich??

(*UPDATE - OK, got the biopsy straightened out. I didn't think about Radiation NOT having the equipment to access the inside of the uterus like they can in a D&C, so that's why they couldn't get their own samples. Told you I'm sleep deprived.*)

While she was 'tubed, they biopsied her lung tissue to determine what was causing the shadows on the chest imagery. Before the results came back showing nothing more than pneumonia and a form of yeast infection, some 3rd world doctor veterinarian, Dr. M'Bufu, after consulting w/ Dr. Feelings, took it upon himself to scare about 7-10 years off my life by informing me it was their opinion that the cancer had spread to her lungs. This drops the patient's survival rate to 16.5% over 5 years.

The Most Excellent Nurse figured out I was dealing with more than just exhaustion, so I told her what M'Bufu said. She was like "WTF?!?" and pulled up the last 3 days x-rays to show me that the shadowing was clearing up. Cancer don't just clear up. That gave me back a few of the years M'Bufu scared off of me, and now I'm planning on spending them figuring out how to water board a goat beauty pageant judge reject with molten lead...

After a few days and some Weapons Grade Antibiotics, the pneumonia cleared up, and the acidosis and her diabetes was brought under control.

The stroke was brought on by a blockage in one of the blood vessels in her brain. The damage progressed so slowly that no one noticed anything amiss, and she was able to adapt to it as it happened. Most of the damage is in the part of her brain that processes what her right eye sees, some in the memory and cognitive centers as well. There appears to be very little if any impairment in her muscle control and no paralysis, so she should make an excellent physical recovery with the exception of loss of vision in the right eye. But we can't make a full assessment until she has had some time to recover.

They removed the tube mid-day Sunday, 20 MAY and transferred her to Barnes Monday night.

AT BARNES

Night view from the room looking down South Kingshighway.

We got to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, MO. @ appx. 0230 22 MAY, and get to the room on the 17th floor. For those of you that don't know, I was a Paramedic for about 10 years back in the 80's, so somewhere during the admission process the nurses realize I'm giving them a patient report, not just answering questions. They say, "You're not the average husband we get up here." And it turns out to be a big help to both me and the nurses. She was set to be admitted to a semi-private room, which means no over night visitors, which means no rest for The Ol' Man because he's crawling the walls.

The nurse asks if there is something they can do for me, "A place to stay?" sez I. Nurse sez just a minute and walks out. Comes back in a few minutes and offers me a proposal. If I'd be willing to blow the dust off of my past experience and help in her care and be a familiar face and voice in the most confusing time of her life, they'll move her to a private room so I can stay 24/7, and because I'll be earning my keep, they'll waive the $60/day guest fee on the room. After considering their offer for about a Yoctosecond, I accept.

And that's how we got the view we have.

We get settled in the new room and have about 1.5 hours to catch our breath before representatives from almost every department in the joint start showing up. For the rest of the day it is an almost non-stop stream of Doctors, nurses, techs and therapists, oh my. The next few days are a plethora of lab tests, imagery, and consults about what's up and what to do about it.

At this point, here is how things stand -

Diabetes - Under control for the most part. Now that she is eating, it's gonna take some re-adjustment in the treatment because now there is more variation in blood sugar levels than there was when she was just on fluid alone.

Stroke - It has done all the damage it's going to do, now we have to figure out the extent of the damage and start rehab to get her back on her feet and get her brain re-wired to work around the damage as much as possible. The neurologist was in earlier and he said that Anna's is looking at an excellent chance of physical recovery w/ only minimal deficit if any at all. Only expected problems will be in vision, memory and cognitive abilities.

Speaking of rehab, the speech therapy girl was in the other day. They stop by every so often and try to get her to do tricks, to which Anna doesn't respond well. But I have seen her get on the phone with friends and carry on a conversation. Anyway, she's here doing her thing and Anna's not playing along very well. I told the girl, "Wait a minute.." and got Marsha on the phone, and the conversation takes off. The Therapist is standing there not believing what she's seeing and taking notes like a mad woman. I recorded a 3-way phone session w/ Marsha and LaDonna to show the head therapist next time she shows up.

Circulatory Problems - There is a clot located in her descending aorta that is about half the size of the vessel. Tiny clots that have broken of this clot are the main suspect in the problems in her left leg and foot. The foot and leg are being treated with heparin, and we are shooting for WED, 30 MAY to put a stent in her aorta to control the main clot.

Endometrial Cancer - Because of the heparin, surgery is a NO GO unless in a dire emergency, so the game plan is a combination of implanted and external source radiation to treat it. You know you're in deep kimchee when cancer is the least of your worries, but because of it's suspected stage and slow rate of progress, Big C got kicked to the bottom of the list.

Due to Memorial Day, this weekend has been pretty slow, and that's good for 2 reasons - time to rest up for what is gonna be a busy week, and if the situation weren't stable, things wouldn't be slow.

So, now y'all are caught up. There will be daily summaries and "breaking news" as things happen. Feel free to leave get well wishes, thoughts and questions in the comment sections of the posts, and I will relay them to Anna, and I'll try to answer all the questions I can.

We are starting down a long and hopefully not too bumpy road, so all the good vibes she can get are welcome.