It's a New Year

Many people have been calling Ellen and wondering what is going on since she hasn't posted in awhile, so she asked me, Leslie, to write an update for everyone. She is doing this round of chemo in-patient at Northside, since she had such a severe reaction to ifosfamide when she started it this summer and was going to be using it again for this treatment. FYI – she is in room 332 at Northside.

She checked in Wed morning and didn't start chemo until that night, as she needed a lot of potassium (she hadn't been holding down much fluid or food for about a week) before they could start chemo. The nephrologist was pulled in to monitor her kidneys, as there was concern about using ifosfamide again given her Fanconi Syndrome. Most of Thu went well, but she started having increased abdominal pain on Thu before chemo, so the decision was made to put her on a pain pump so that she could proactively manage the med dosing. Dilaudid is powerful stuff and seemed to give her some relief right away. With dosing more frequent than previously, the expectation was that she might be more groggy.

To say Ellen was groggy on Fri AM was an understatement. She was out of it when I arrived at the hospital and could barely mumble a few words when asked a question. I had flashbacks to her condition this past summer and finally asked her if she was just woozy from the meds or unable to talk. She said both. I alerted the nurse and they cut back the dilaudid dosing. A couple of hours later she was more alert, but still not her usual self and only able to say a few sentences before spacing out. Even stories of her adorable dog, Ridley's, antics barely got a reaction, which is not like Ellen AT ALL! She was also out of it enough that she wasn't hitting her pain pump unless she was prompted. Her stomach had also gotten larger over the past 48 hours and she was giving me a run for my money on whose stomach was bigger (I am 7 months pregnant).

Paracentisis was scheduled for Fri to drain fluid out of her distended stomach (it worked). When she returned to her room, she was complaining of shortness of breath, which was a concern. Her blood pressure had been up that day and then they noticed her pulse rate was much higher. They ruled out pain as a cause for the pulse increase and moved into high gear to determine if there was fluid in her lungs or an embolism. Fluid was quickly ruled out with a chest Xray.

She had a CT scan without contrast Fri PM to check for embolisms, but it was inconclusive. They ruled out an embolism in her legs yesterday, but can’t rule out a pulmonary or abdominal embolism until they can do the CT scan with contrast. Her creatinine level needs to come down for that to happen, since the contrast can cause further kidney damage. They gave her meds last night to help bring the level down, but they didn’t work. They are still waiting to give her the third round of chemo, which they didn’t give her on Fri with all that’s going on. And, she is still not holding down food very well, so they are looking at putting her back on TPN (feeding through her line) at her request.

 So, she is in a holding pattern at the moment and is fortunately still in the hospital where she can receive the best monitoring and care. All of the nurses and staff on the oncology floor love her and have been very concerned about her. Dr. McBroom has been on call the past few days and has been fantastic. While Ellen loves Dr. Cantuaria, I think Dr. McBroom is closing in on her affections given his level of care these past few days. And, her nurses have been great, except for the one Fri PM who didn’t understand what was going on and was obnoxious. Oh well! I guess you can’t win them all. I will update everyone as we learn more.

And, most importantly, Ellen wanted to share the following … I want to wish everyone a healthy and prosperous 2012. To all my cancer survivors, keep surviving and I hope you have a cancer-free 2012. To all my friends going through treatment, live strong and keep the faith going. I hope you get better! Happy New Year!!