My Dad is in KU med. He has been there since last Sunday. He was initially admitted for extreme dehydration and anemia. Both of these can be side effects of the chemo he is on. Unfortunately, he wouldn't listen and ended up going when it became critical instead managable. So the first night they pumped him full of fluids, somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 IV bags (about 5 liters). This unfortunately caused a fluid overload. He swelled up to resemble the pilsbury dough boy. To relieve this they put him on Lasix, a diuretic. In the meantime his hemoglobin was less than 8.
Have you strapped in for the roller coaster ride yet? If not do so now!
His hemoglobin started to come up but the rest of his labs were still whacky and he still felt crummy. One of the main problems was he couldn't catch his breath. It was fatigueing just to sit up. Thus, they started him on oxygen. This helped somewhat. His labs started to straighten out. Unfortunately, some of the important ones went down then came back up...of particular concern was the lactic acid. They tried a CPAP machine to help regulate his nighttime breathing. Not getting the results they wanted, the MD said he wanted a chest and abdominal CT. His theory being that the cancer might have spread , causing the elevated lactic acid results.
I have been saying that I had a gut feeling there was something more to this. More than just dehydration this time. I have had this feeling since the last set of scans he had done. So when the MD said that I was relieved and terrified at the same time. Relieved that they were going to take a closer look and not just blow it off and terrified that they would confirm what my gut was saying. The curse of being a nurse who paid attention in class and believes in "gut feelings".
They did the chest CT this morning. They did find something....a pulmonary emboli. This is a blood clot in his lung. It appears that there is one or more clots around his port (implanted IV port). The working theory is that one broke off and found its way to the lung. They have started him on Lovenox (a heavy duty anticoagulant), to help break up the clots and prevent more.
As of this writing they have not done the abdominal CT.
So we wait......
Rosie and her great Grandma shared a smile. It was a treat to see. For those who don't know Grandma has Alzheimer's. It is rare for her to show much emotion. Occassionally, I am lucky enough to capture it.
