Update on my grandmother
Thank you all for your messages of love and support - I'm sorry I haven't responded to them individually, but I want you all to know that they mean so very much to me!
Mama's out of ICU and in a regular room. Her heart is doing much better - they drained over 900cc of fluid out of the pericardium on Weds. and then put in a shunt to help keep more from accumulating. She looks and sounds so much better today than she did when we first saw her on Thursday. Laughing and teasing and trying to keep a stiff upper lip. She's more comfortable staying at this particular hospital than any of the others here in town because she worked there for years and years as a candystriper.
We know it's a type of B-cell lymphoma, but the exact type has yet to be determined. It's aggressive, and she's definitely stage III, more than likely stage IV. A bone marrow test is being done tomorrow (Monday); we'll get the results late in the week. It will tell us the stage and determine the course of treatment, maybe even tell us approx. how much time she has left.
If the cancer is in the bone, we hope to convince her to refuse further cancer treatment so she can come home and spend the rest of her time with Papa and her family & friends. If she tried to do the chemo, it most likely wouldn't extend her time with us that much and the quality of that time would be less than desirable. She wouldn't be able to have visitors, and she'd be in the hospital for an extended stay instead of at home with Papa.
If the cancer hasn't spread to the bone, we'll have another look at her heart and other organs to see if they could withstand the rounds of chemo and then let her decide what she wants to do. She watched her niece and best friend go two rounds with breast cancer, so she knows what's in store should she decide to do the chemo. One of the doctors seems to think that the damage to her heart might not be as bad as originally thought. If that's the case, Mama's a real fighter.
Moot point if the cancer's as far gone as we think it most likely is. She's been complaining about pain in her legs and losing weight for a while now, but she was attributing it to some other medications she was on and the stress of being Papa's full-time caretaker.
She's more worried about not being there for Papa than she is about what's really happening to her. Seeing the two of them together has been amazing. They hold hands and tell each other they love the other almost constantly. Fifty-eight years of togetherness, and they still coo at each other.
Pops wants to be up at the hospital as much as he can, but he's dependent on all of us to get him dressed and up to the hospital. He can't do anything for himself anymore. He was a pill yesterday, but today he was an angel. It's difficult for him to not be able to see her when he wants to, so we're trying to be patient with him even as we're trying to cope with our own emotions.
A nurse has been hired to come help Mom and Dad out during the day starting tomorrow. My sister B's staying until Friday, when my aunt, uncle and cousins come back (they went home today). She's going to be sleeping up at the hospital with Mama until we can make sure the quality of care will be good (Mom and Mama had a bad experience Tues. night, before Mama was moved to the ICU). I'm going to be in wait-and-see mode; I'll probably come back to Baton Rouge the weekend of the 16th.
I'm driving my sister K to the hospital and then the airport tomorrow, and then I'll be on my way back to Houston. So I'll be back at work on Tuesday morning.
Please keep the good thoughts coming - we've had a long week, and there's a lot more to come.
Mama's out of ICU and in a regular room. Her heart is doing much better - they drained over 900cc of fluid out of the pericardium on Weds. and then put in a shunt to help keep more from accumulating. She looks and sounds so much better today than she did when we first saw her on Thursday. Laughing and teasing and trying to keep a stiff upper lip. She's more comfortable staying at this particular hospital than any of the others here in town because she worked there for years and years as a candystriper.
We know it's a type of B-cell lymphoma, but the exact type has yet to be determined. It's aggressive, and she's definitely stage III, more than likely stage IV. A bone marrow test is being done tomorrow (Monday); we'll get the results late in the week. It will tell us the stage and determine the course of treatment, maybe even tell us approx. how much time she has left.
If the cancer is in the bone, we hope to convince her to refuse further cancer treatment so she can come home and spend the rest of her time with Papa and her family & friends. If she tried to do the chemo, it most likely wouldn't extend her time with us that much and the quality of that time would be less than desirable. She wouldn't be able to have visitors, and she'd be in the hospital for an extended stay instead of at home with Papa.
If the cancer hasn't spread to the bone, we'll have another look at her heart and other organs to see if they could withstand the rounds of chemo and then let her decide what she wants to do. She watched her niece and best friend go two rounds with breast cancer, so she knows what's in store should she decide to do the chemo. One of the doctors seems to think that the damage to her heart might not be as bad as originally thought. If that's the case, Mama's a real fighter.
Moot point if the cancer's as far gone as we think it most likely is. She's been complaining about pain in her legs and losing weight for a while now, but she was attributing it to some other medications she was on and the stress of being Papa's full-time caretaker.
She's more worried about not being there for Papa than she is about what's really happening to her. Seeing the two of them together has been amazing. They hold hands and tell each other they love the other almost constantly. Fifty-eight years of togetherness, and they still coo at each other.
Pops wants to be up at the hospital as much as he can, but he's dependent on all of us to get him dressed and up to the hospital. He can't do anything for himself anymore. He was a pill yesterday, but today he was an angel. It's difficult for him to not be able to see her when he wants to, so we're trying to be patient with him even as we're trying to cope with our own emotions.
A nurse has been hired to come help Mom and Dad out during the day starting tomorrow. My sister B's staying until Friday, when my aunt, uncle and cousins come back (they went home today). She's going to be sleeping up at the hospital with Mama until we can make sure the quality of care will be good (Mom and Mama had a bad experience Tues. night, before Mama was moved to the ICU). I'm going to be in wait-and-see mode; I'll probably come back to Baton Rouge the weekend of the 16th.
I'm driving my sister K to the hospital and then the airport tomorrow, and then I'll be on my way back to Houston. So I'll be back at work on Tuesday morning.
Please keep the good thoughts coming - we've had a long week, and there's a lot more to come.