Another unplanned week

Well, nothing goes as planned. Sataurday night the wound vac said the tubing was blocked again so we redid the dressing and a new tube. Sunday was uneventful. Geri had IV fluids at home and watched some tennis. Monday the home care nurse came and re-packed the wound. Tuesday we has a scheduled visit to the cancer clinic for blood work. Geri's numbers were low so they gave her fluids there.

Tuesday night Geri started running a temperature, which is not uncommon the week after chemo, but anything over 10o.5F they want to know about. At 4:00am the alarm on the wound vac went off. After three re-starts it was still having problems so we removed the tube/dressing and put on a regular dressing as we knew Kathy would be there at 10:00am. The problem was the vacuum sucks skin at the edge of the wound into the tube and blocks it. The cavity is getting smaller so the edge of the opening is closer to the vac tube and more likely to get drawn in. We called the cancer clinic early Wednesday to report the elevated temp. Kathy came a did the wound proceedure, and then we started Geri on more IV fluids for 2 hours. The clinic called back and said the Dr. wanted Geri to go to the ER for possible addmission for antibiotics and fluids.

As soon as the IV finished we headed for the ER and arrived at 2:00pm. Two and a half hours later we see the triage nurse, two hours later we see a doctor. They start Geri on antibiotics and she finally gets to a room at 8:45pm (this was a lot faster than the last time in ER for the port wound infection). Geri has been on saline+ potasium and two types of IV antibiotics since admittance and they are going to give her a blood transfusion this evening. The nurse has just been to draw blood to check the antibiotic levels (vanc trough for you medical buffs) but is having difficulty getting any blood out the PICC line.

Geri is feeling tired but not too bad generally. She is getting fed up with being in hospital and wants to go home, but wants to be well when she does so we don't have to come back. All being well she should be out of the hospital in the next couple of days.

Geri thanks you all for your prayers and best wishes but while she is in this neutrapenic state (low white cell count so vulnerable to infections) she can't have visitors, or fresh fruit, vegetables or flowers.