Life's Journey

It has again been too long since I last wrote. Thankfully Roy was able to get in to give you all some quick note updates on my status. It's been a really horrible 2014 so far for me! As Roy mentioned in his last update, all I really wanted was to go home at that point. I ended up in the hospital for just over 2 weeks. That's way too long. I missed all the creature comforts of home. My hospital stay was quite the roller coaster as well. I've been so miserable and sick that I can't even begin to put it into words, which I think has been part of my delay in writing this posting. But here it goes….

I got home from the hospital on Tuesday (it’s now Saturday). I got the best welcome home committee in Ben! I don't know who was more excited? Him or me? Roy helped me in setting up a "nest" around big red (the recliner chair) which included by tracking book, drugs, water, remote control, tissues, sick bucket & washcloth. Early that evening a home health care nurse came to the house to teach Roy how to give me TPN. Guess I should back up a step… One of the reasons I was able to come home was because Roy would be able to hook me up to TPN (TPN is an IV drip of nutrients, basically I'm being feed various nutrients and fats, etc straight through my IV line). So the nurse walked him through the whole process no problems. So that night I tried to sleep in my own bed but failed miserably. This TPN was intolerable to me - it was making me vomit once each hour. It was painful night.

They were giving me TPN in the hospital on a 24 hour drip (meaning that it was running all the time for 24 hr straight theyn they would replace the bag and do it all over again). They sent me home with a 14 hour TPN thinking this way it would be running at night while sleeping then I wouldn't have to be hooked up to something. I liked this idea! But, it didn't work so well because my body couldn't take that TPN for that amount of time. Ugh, sigh, stomps feet! Once we pulled the TPN line I noticed how much better I was feeling, the nausea was subsiding a little, I was moving around a lot more, things just all around started feeling better. I spoke to the home health pharmacist about my TPN blend and how I couldn't tolerate it. I sent Michele (AKA Supernurse) A text requesting that I only do TPN every other night? She was good with that I had that cleared by DR Kim for me who in turn relayed this to the Pharmacist (George). It was also decided that I should get bare bones min in the TPN for now since I am not tolerating the heavy doses. So they had to send out a whole new shipment of drugs.

Our shipment arrived faily late yesterday and included bags of just fluids to hydrate me between sessoins of TPN. We decided to start with that. Roy got me all hooked up for a four hour run of fluids. Once that was up it was already 11:30p but we both knew I had to get the nutrients in the TPN. So he hooked me up… this drip is still running and it's 2:00 wont be don’t til 5:30ish That seems like forever away right now….

So, how am I feeling right now… awful! I'm like a constantly nauseaus zombie. I'm taking lots of pain meds which are working well… the pain is mageable. The nausea gets me the worst. I am nauseas/dizzy 100% of the time. Some of this may be side effects from some of the other drugs I'm taking but we've tried all different combinations and the nausea persists… somebody stop the rollercoaster…. I was to get off!!!

That's where I am in a nutshell right now. Hopefully my writing will come easier again and I'll have another post for you soon.

Hugs & Smiles

Sarah