Friday, November 9, 2012

Sooooo sleeeeeepy!

There has been no sleep at our house for several nights.  There will be no sleep at the hospital tonight either.  Needless to say, Steve and I are verrrrry sleepy.  Steve came to the hospital on Tuesday to get some IV fluids/Xray/and Ultrasound because his liver enzymes and bilirubin were high.  Wednesday he had to go into the lab to check his levels.  Luckily there were decreasing so we did not have to go back to the hospital. Wednesday night/Thursday morning, Steve woke me at 2:30 am. He was in excruciating pain.  He tried taking his pain meds, but they were not working.  He could not sleep.  Around the same time, I started having some chest tightness.  I had been having this for a few nights and decided to take myself to the ER. I knew I needed to be checked out, and knew as soon as my family was up and could help with the kids Steve would need to go to the ER.  My Aunt came and got the kids off to daycare.  My other Aunt came to take Steve to the ER , and my mom came to sit with me at the ER.

Once I got to the ER, they did an EKG and said it looked fine but wanted to admit me for observation.  I needed to be checked out thoroughly, but knew Steve needed to go to the ER.  Luckily I have an awesome family and  they all pitched in to help.  Sadie Rae was such an awesome helper.  Steve woke her up and told her I was not feeling well and had to go to the hospital.  He told her he needed help getting Ashlynn ready.  He told me that Sadie didn't ask any questions, walked into Ashlynn's room and woke her up and got her dressed.  Then she took her downstairs and made her a bowl of cereal and then did her hair.  What a great big sister!   (Steve did send me a picture of Ashlynn and said "Is this ok"?  I said , "Can you put different pants on her, those are Halloween leggings."  He says "Picky much?"  I said, "just put some jeans on her."  His response, "Halloween was only a few days ago." 


Ashlynn in her Halloween pants, cause "Halloween was only a few days ago"



At MDA, they gave Steve morphine and fluids for a few hours and were ready to send him home.  Luckily, we were Facetiming when the doctor came in, so I was able to ask the doctor to also write him a prescription for a sleep aid in addition to the new pain med script he was writing.  Steve finished up and met me at the hospital just as I was finishing up.  All of my tests came back fine.  They think the chest tightness could be from stress, a little fluid around my heart, or it could possibly be from an autoimmune disease. 

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 Me and Aunt Deb Facetiming
 Blurry pic, we were trying to get me, mom, Steve and Aunt Deb all in one pick while we were both at different hospitals.
 Me and Mom being goofy at the hospital.

Steve and I headed home with high hopes of a peaceful night.  WRONG!  Steve was completely miserable.  He was in more pain than he had ever been in in his life.  He took the new pain med (oxycodone) as directed and the sleeping pill.  It didn't phase him or the pain.  I called the on call Melanoma doctor and asked what we should do.  He said to take the Oxycodone every 3 hours instead of every 8 and see if that helped and if not to come to the ER.

Well, it didnt help.  Steve was still up most of the night.  He did let me sleep a few hours (thank goodness!!)  At 6:30 I was woken up by a phone call from one of Sadie's friends asking me to remind Sadie to bring a note to school stating she could ride the bus home with her.  Suuuuuuuure!  And now that I am up at 6:30, we might as well get started to the ER.  We got the kids off to school and got to the ER.  Steve had the same nurse as yesterday and she said she could tell he was in more pain that yesterday.  They gave him Dilaudid, took blood and did an Xray of his back.  The Xray showed that the back has some issues and that is where the pain is coming from.  Next they did an MRI of his spine and got us admitted into a room (P1011 - my favorite room on the floor - yay!  I call it a corner suite, it is bigger than the other rooms and it has the best view from this floor too!)




Xray report, sorry don't know how to rotate it on here!

The Dr on call (Dr. Papa) made his rounds, but he did not have too much info as the MRI pictures were not all back yet.  So, we still don't know exactly what is going on other than Steve's back is messed up.  They have his pain under control with dilaudid, but it only works for about an hour and he has to ask for more.  Luckily they just changed him to a pump where he can administer himself every hour.  Right now I am listening to him mumble in a half sleep about underground secret worlds and volcanoes.  Guess he feels "good" right now!  Hopefully we will be able to get more information tomorrow.

I was lucky to meet a very sweet friend of mine tonight.  There is a melanoma group on Facebook that I am a member of and I met her through the group.  She is 2 doors down from us.  She is having some rough times but you would never know it.  She is beautiful as can be, has the most positive attitude and is always so inspiring.  I hope to be able to visit with her some more this weekend. 

Sadly, a friend of our family lost her mother to cancer today.  She was here at MD Anderson.  She was battling bladder cancer.  She fought hard.  I am thankful that she passed peacefully with her family surrounding her.  Thinking of you Kathy and all of your family.  RIP - Phyllis



P.S.  These are the random kind of pictures I find on my phone.....Sadie making the duckface!


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