bendamron's Cancer Blog

January 5, 2008

update by lan

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alana was sweet enough to write an update on angel from the past several days, thanks lan!

1/5/08
Okay, here is the update on how/what has been going on with Angel over the past three days.

On Wednesday (1/2/08) her chemo was cancelled because her white blood cell count was too low to be able to safely receive chemo (since it would further compromise her immune system). She had a slight fever and we were told that if at anytime her fever reached over 100.5º that she needed to go to the E.R. After the cancelled chemo appointment (where Dr. Malpass sat for some time talking to Angel about blood thinners and her clots) and a fabulous lunch of veggie burgers we returned to the hospital to the Anticouagulation clinic to speak with the pharmacy resident about putting her on Heparin. The appointment lasted about an hour and both Angel and I were pleased with the resident that had spoken to us. For the next week or so it will be a balance act to stabilize her on the Heparin.

After the clinic, Angel and I returned home to rest. She sat on the couch dozing in and out while I watched T.V. She appeared quite short of breath and throughout the day had slight chest pain which the Dr.’s thought was due to her liver pushing on her diaphram. We took her temperature which was 101.3. We packed a suitcase and returned to the E.R. again. She went for an X-ray which didn’t reveal anything so they ordered a C.T. scan of her lungs. The C.T. scan revealed that Angel had multiple clots in her lungs which is known as a Pulmonary Embolism. The doctors think this is probably the cause of her increased heart rate, fever and shortness of breath. She has been started on antibiotics to help prevent any further infection and on continuous heparin infusion to keep her blood thin. Her spirits have been quite high despite these set backs. Toni, Ben and Alana have been with her around the clock.

The doctors just came in to examine Angel and showed us the C.T. scan, the blood clot was 5 inches long and 1 inch wide, which is very large and would have knocked most people down, but Angel’s a fighter. She literally walked into the E.R. the other night and was joking at times about it all, pretty damn impressive! The doctors are going to do an ultrasound of her abdomen to rule out any infection or further complications of her liver or bile duct since she has had some increased tenderness over the past 24 hours. Depending on the results and if her fevers diminish she may be discharged by Sunday or Monday and Dr. Malpass with determine if she is ready for Chemo on tuesday.

Posted on January 5, 2008 at 5:55:00 PM by angel & ben ( update by lan, 0 comments)