Pneumonia

Julie,

know that I am thinking about you both and praying for you as well.

Karen

Dick's breathing is very noisy today and he is sleeping more. He also gained 2 kilo's yesterday (4.4 pounds) which must be all retention as he did not eat much at all. Today they are trying chest pounding to see if that will bring anything up from his lungs. I expressed concern that the pneumonia is on the same side as the cancer and all his pain is in his right side so they are using a vibrator instead of hands. They also gave him additional pain medication prior to the procedure. They called in a kidney specialist also. They have put him on IV steroids to help the lungs which will send his blood sugars rising.

I brought my laptop with me today to try and stay even with my email. I have to minimize my walking because walking aggravates my knee so am staying here at the hospital all day. This way I can be here when all the Doctors drop in.

Dear Julie,

Wishing Dick all the very best for a speedy recovery...

You guys are in my thoughts..

Leigh

I made it to the hospital this morning before the Doctors did rounds. The Doctors needed to contact his oncologists for some information. I didn't know the dosage for the Epogen shot. The Radiation Oncologist stopped in to see how Dick is. If the antibiotics work they will start the treatments next week. Dick's blood count was 8.1 today so they ordered 2 units of blood for him. The nurses have been very good. He has the same one tonight as last night and his day nurse today will be back tomorrow. It makes for better care in my opinion when you have the same staff.

The pulmonologist was there when I returned this afternoon. She showed me the CT scan and the pneumonia and cancer lesion. He doesn't have much healthy lung on the right side at present. We are hoping that there are not other tumors behind the pneumonia.

We are ignoring all references to the fact that Dick's disease is terminal. We know that but right now we are still hoping it can be contained and that he will have several more months of reasonable quality of life.

Today one of my neighbors phoned to offer any kind of help we needed. She knows what she is offering as she was the sole support of a former neighbor when she was dying of lung cancer. this is a relief as part of my support system here is away until September. If possible I like to spread around our requests for help. We also have to learn to be accepting of help. We have been very self reliant the past several years.

Major frustration today was dietary restrictions. Dick has no appetite and finding items he thinks he might be able to eat is difficult. We settled on a menu and he was denied on most of them due to restriction on potassium. Now he has to take extra potassium due to taking a diuretic so this didn't make any sense. Thankfully the nurse was able to straighten it out and he got his macaroni and cheese with ketchup.
Well lets see if I can get some rest tonight
Julie

Dear Julie -- With the others, I am hoping for a speedy resolutionof/recovery from
the pneumonia. SUch vigilance is required, isn't it. In support -- Susan

Wow- It never seems to end does it? Here's hoping things improve quickly. Lorrie