Saturday Update

Long day at the hospital, but we did get to talk to a couple of doctors today. Mom's brother Bob made it into the valley late last night on his way back to CT from Reading, PA. (just a minor detour......... ;-) )

Mom's general practitioner made the first stop about 9.30a, and she seemed to think that while this was a bit of a set back, that mom will likely rebound pretty well and be able to continue her chemo treatments and return home relatively soon. She wasn't too sure about the chest tube, but another doctor stopped by later and had the drain continue, and there was a total of more than 2 liters of fluid by the time we left. We talked to her pulminary specialist, and she felt that the chest tube would remain in until Monday, and then they were going to try a drug that will coat the lining that protects the lung, and hopefully prevent further fluid from building up.

She's still having quite a bit of pain, and looks for the morphine every two hours on the dot, but the biggest pain right now is the chest tube, so once that's out, she'll hopefully have much less pain.

Another new thing for mom was a nebulized breathing treatment. They must have heard a little crackle in her lungs, and want to prevent pneumonia, so they started that tonight. She also has a "lung exerciser" which she needs to use to do deep breathing exercises and that should help to cough up the extra fluid.

One really good sign was that she asked for a fishamajig sandwich from Friendly's. She hasn't eaten a whole lot this week, but she seemed really interested in this, so we went out to dinner there and brought it back. She hadn't started it by the time we left, but I'm hoping she'll eat at least half of it.

I guess Jennifer has caught some kind of bug, as she's not been feeling well, and now Conrad has the same symptoms. (No need for a big description, let's just say "stomach problems.") He drank out of one of her glasses, so hopefully she didn't transfer the bug to Mom, but needless to say, we'll likely not be connecting with them tomorrow.

We'll probably head up there a little later tomorrow, and try to get Mom out of bed, and at least into the chair next to it. She's likely not going to be able to go far with the chest tube in, but she's got to move around somewhat.

More news tomorrow.................