Hospital

6 February	Mary is out of her cage (When asked by the doctor where she was she replied -" In a cage"). They told me people sometimes get that feeling while in ICU. She was moved to the regular rooms at 3:00 and is free of all the meds. While she had to be assisted to sit up, she sat on her own for about 5 minutes twice today. Her strength is coming back although her back is still tender. She is still having trouble with food. She did not like anything in her lunch except the pudding and ice cream (she does not like pudding or chocolate ice cream) and I knew she would not eat chicken breast. Sandra brought her a meal from Chicks (a local rotisserie chicken place she likes) and she did not like that either, but ate the vanilla pudding, the lemon sorbet, and honeydew melon with peaches (she hates peaches). I guess her taste buds have been compromised because she hardly ever eats sweets. Now we work on physical therapy and see when she can come home.
7 February	Mary ate about 1/4 of the hospital food today. She is still experiencing confusion and short time memory loss as a result of the anesthesia. She was able (with help) to get out of bed and sit in a chair for an hour. It was exhausting for her and she slept for a couple of hours afterward. Not as much was expected of her for the second session but it tired her out as well. I got a chance to see the bandages taken off her back and the stitches appear to be healing well with only slight bleeding. Today is the seventh day after the operation. Every day there is more and more progress.
8 February	Mary lacks upper body strength and remains a little disoriented. The physical therapist tried to help her stand, but to no avail. She falls asleep easily. Sandra commented that she and Gooby noticed that after Mary took a pain killer at home, she reacted in a similar way. The doctor has reduced the level of pain killer since Mary no longer complains of pain except when she sits up. She ate better today and seemed to be better mentally before nodding off. Hopefully she is more alert tomorrow.
9 February	When I got to the hospital at 8AM, Mary7 was already finished with her scrambled eggs. I then helped her with the oatmeal and Ensure pudding. This was the most she had eaten since she was admitted to the hospital. Her eyes were bright and mentally she was as coherent as on New Years day. We talked about why she was in the hospital and who had sent flowers (she got about half right as opposed to not remembering any the day before). The therapist came in and worked her hard and helped her into the chair where she had lunch. She ate about half. After 50 minutes in the chair, she was tiring and was helped back into bed. About an hour later she complained of pain and received a pain killer which put her out for a few more hours. She did not do as well with dinner as breakfast and lunch, but was still a little groggy. I think if we can keep the pain killers at a minimum that she will be more alert. She seemed very alert as I was leaving at 8PM. Today was definitely a day of progress.
10 February	Mary had a very good day. While she cannot support her own weight, she did enough to help a nurse her own size to move her to a chair along side the bed and she sat there for about an hour without any pain. Most of the swelling (possibly from the steroids) in her arms has gone down and she has better coordination and range of movement. At noon she went to get an MRI in order to make sure that the problems in her arms is not from the tumors compromising anything in the cervical region. I think most of her problems are a result of the anesthesia and pain killers as each day she shows improvement.
11 February	Today was similar to yesterday, and Mary again sat in a chair, although for a shorter time. Her hand eye coordination is improving as is her arm strength. She has developed a pain either in her stomach or just above her diaphragm. They did a cat scan and will have a gastroenterologist look at her tomorrow. This pain has kept her from concentrating . The school district has told me I must return to school tomorrow (even though I have 340 sick leave days left). This may be a good thing as Mary was getting tired of me (pushing her to do more). I think she is thinking coherently and can make decisions by herself now. Sandra has requested to work nights during the week and will come in until I get off school. Monica will be down on the weekends.
12 February	Since I had to report to school today, Sandra kept Mary company. Mary had physical therapy three times and sat in a chair (assisted) each time. Before lunch she had an exam done on her upper GI tract. Results were negative. When I arrived Mary was pretty tired and she spent her time dozing off and waking up when the nurses came in. About 7PM they moved her to another room on the side that treats cancer patients. I did not get a chance to talk to her doctor but I imagine she is going to get her second dose of medicines.
13 February	Steady progress, Mary continues with her exercises and shows steady improvement, but is not ready to put full weight on her legs. Arm and hand movement is continuing to improve also. She seems happier in 2-South as the TV gets Telemundo and her favorite soaps. She ate a good dinner - a large bowl of chicken soup.
14 February	More steady progress, but still not able to put much weight on her feet when trying to stand. The oncologist would like to see Mary going downstairs for physical therapy. This would mean about an hour twice a day. Mary said she would try. From the day Mary was diagnosed , she has been given steroids. They have been discontinued and a different anticancer drug will be administered. Later Mary will be given thalidomide (thank goodness she is not pregnant). It's ironic that a drug with such a terrible reputation (causing birth defects) would be found to be an effective anti cancer treatment. Tomorrow they are also going to begin radiation therapy. Radiation should be for two weeks. I don't know how that will interfere with her physical therapy.
15 February	Today was the beginning of radiation and Mary looks like someone was playing Tic-Tac -Toe. The entire process took over four hours because they had to x-ray all of her bones, then locate the "hot spots", then determine how they would administer the radiation most effectively and then do it. The calculations and programming of the computer took 3 hours and the marking of locations and the irradiation took another hour. Tomorrow's session is only supposed to take half an hour. After that, there will be 15 more sessions. Upon return to the hospital, Mary was hungry as she had missed lunch and ate half a chocolate bar (she dislikes candy especially chocolate) and half of an apple. At dinner she ate well.
16 February	Second day or radiation went well. Mary doesn't seem to be showing any after effects. The chemotherapy drug has not been started yet, as it has been ordered, but has not arrived. Mary ate well for breakfast, lunch and dinner - a good sign. She practiced her physical therapy twice with me and once with the therapist. Her strength is coming back, but very slowly. She still can't support her own weight. Unfortunately the therapist who can get the most out of her is off for the next two days - guess that I'll be working with her a little more this week end.
17 February	Anticipating an 11 o'clock arrival of the physical therapy people, I had Mary exercise at 9. When physical therapy showed up at 9:30 Mary was tired. Even so, they were able to help Mary to sit in a chair for a half hour. They came again at 3 and again helped Mary with sitting and doing her exercises. Mary received her first (second) round of chemotherapy. For some reason the oncologist does not consider the first medication administered as chemotherapy, but this one is chemotherapy. I don't know if some early morning sleeping was from chemo, exercise or the effects of radiation, but Mary got some needed rest.
18 February	As luck would have it, just as Monica and I figured that the therapist would not come and we had Mary do her exercises, the therapist showed up. Mary sat in the chair and then did some exercises after resting in the chair for a few minutes. This therapist thought that Mary is close to being able to put weight on her legs, but still lacks practice in doing so. I will relay that idea to her regular therapist. Monica brought Huevos Rancheros when she came in and I made a burrito out of egg, rice and beans and Mary ate it all. Then came lunch and Mary ate it as well. She is getting her appetite back. Hopefully this is an indication of things to come.
19 February	Not much change to write about. Mary seems stronger and the physical therapist said she put more weight on her legs while being transferred from the bed to the chair. She sat in the chair for over two hours and had lunch while sitting in the chair. Tomorrow more radiation.
20 February	Don't ask me what happened because I don't know. Sandy was sick the last four days, so she wasn't there. When I got there I talked with the doctor and he told me that Blue Cross wanted Mary to be released to a private care facility. He explained that at this time it might be in Mary's best interest as she needs physical therapy and not medical care. I then talked to the charge nurse and she told me I had my choice of two facilities. Not wanting to make the decision alone I asked our good friends, the Cordovas, to accompany me which they did. We were a little concerned about the first facility, but the second much more to our liking. They returned to the hospital with me to talk to Mary about it. I think hearing about it from Martha Cordova made Mary more confident than if she heard it from me. Mary and I watched her favorite soaps together and at 9 o'clock the nurses came in to take Mary for more x-rays. She has been complaining of stomach pains and they wanted to be sure there wasn't any other problem before releasing her. I will take tomorrow off again and Sandy and I will go to the Care facility together to finalize things.
21 February	The ambulance to take Mary to radiation was 2 and 1/2 hours late and as a result they took Mary directly to the health care facility. It is a newly remodeled facility and clean with no odors. Mary seemed to like it. They brought her lunch and she ate it all. Same for dinner, except she didn't finish her vegetables. The food seems to be prepared better even if it isn't as much or as nice a selection (She ate a well prepared sloppy joe rather than a poorly prepared Salisbury steak. The only therapy that she got today was provided by yours truly at Mary's request. As I understand it, Mary will actually get more therapy here than at the hospital. I was noticing that Mary's precision touch seems to be returning and that she does better early in the day. I have realized that she is actually fighting seven obstacles which act alone and in conjunction to limit her attempts to walk.. 1. The Multiple Myeloma and its weakening effects. 2. The debilitating effects of the high calcium levels for two weeks before getting into the hospital. 3. The weakening effects of radiation. 4. The weakening effects of chemotherapy. 5. The trauma to her spinal chord. 6. The fear (remembering) the pain associated with standing. 7. The effects of all the other drugs on her system (especially the pain killers.) Mary still experiences pain in the abdomen (lower ribs). The doctor did x rays to rule out bone damage and the x rays were negative. He thinks the pain is a reflected pain from the trauma to the back (surgery). This pain was with her all day and gets especially bad after meals.