For those of you who are friends of mine on Facebook some of what I will be writing here will be redundant, however, I want to take the time to update our blog for the sake of those who aren’t on Facebook as well as updating our own record. I also want to back up a bit to make sure I have set down the correct details.
The week after Christmas Pauline began to show signs of what we thought was a cold. It’s a good time of year to get a cold, and with her immune system weakened due to the chemo and radiation we all figured that’s what she had. She was also losing strength toward the end of the week which we figured was a side effect of the radiation. Pauline had a routine chest x-ray that week which did not show any problems. What we did not know (or were only vaguely aware of) was the Pauline had a sore spot on her leg that she was tending to (keep in mind she is diabetic). This became infected later.
As you know, Will, Darice, and their kids came in the last half of that week. Pauline rested a lot, regaining some strength, and enjoyed their visit. We were dreading the radiation treatments that were coming up last week because we figured they’d take a lot out of her, and Pauline still had her cold. When I brought her home from Tuesday’s treatment she was very weak, and by that evening Vicki took her to the hospital. Pauline’s condition worsened, and Thursday morning the nurse called to say she had been moved to their critical care unit. Her vital signs were all over the place and she needed a lot of medication and monitoring to try to stabilize everything. This news brought Will back to Tennessee.
There was a good 24-36 hours there where Pauline’s condition was very grim, however, by Friday evening she became more responsive and even ate a good meal. That was short-lived success.
Right now Pauline is not really any worse, and I will only venture to say that she is better in light of the fact that they are starting to wean her from many of the medications they were using to stabilize her vital signs. Today’s chest x-ray did not look as good as yesterday’s.
Right now uncertainty is normal for us. The small steps forward and backward could easily make this an emotional roller coaster. The doctor has told Vicki that Pauline’s recovery will take months. We are just happy he’s even brought up the subject of recovery. Will went back home today. We are hoping Pauline will improve enough to be moved back to a regular room this week. We aren’t thinking much beyond that.
We appreciate your prayers. Please keep it up.
Joe
