Day 44 at Cancer Treatment Centers of America

Thursday, July 3rd 2014

Front entrance bouquet for Independence Day

Today is the second morning for mom to wake up at CTCA. We all met up early this morning and mom seemed to be doing about the same.  Her mouth looked a lot better from the nurses applying Medihoney.  Medihoney is an amazing thing!  Today she is talking a little better and has actually gained 10 pounds over the past week.  As she rested on and off, we went shopping for her some clean linens and had lunch.  She has slept more today than she has since she was admitted.  She has woke up once to a serious nose bleed where the nurses had to come in and assist.  Later on she woke up with bleeding from the mouth again and coughing really bad . Today she says she feels awful and seems to be more lethargic.  Mom hasn't had any more pain medication since last night.  Her team added an antibiotic due to her white blood cell counts being so low it is believed that she is possibly fighting an infection.  Mom has also been plugged into the feeding pump which continuously feeds her Isosource throughout the day. Kayleigh and I stayed the night with her.

We went to the Art Expressions class down stairs and painted an American Flag for MeeMaw and we also made Patriotic Mason Jar candle holders and lanterns later that evening.  After we were settled in, around midnight mom's nurse woke me up to put on a mask.  She started to explain to me that as of right now mom is going to be under isolation due to her white blood cell counts dropping.  As she told me this I started to hurt and worry if I was doing mom any harm by staying with her.  The nurse assured me that Kayleigh and I were fine next to her, that we would just have to wear a mask and gloves if we were going to be around her.  Any visitors needed to wear the same until her blood counts came back up.  Mom seemed to sleep a little more than the night before.