A Trip to the ER

Well, tonight has not been so great. We are presently sitting in the ER waiting for my mom to get an IV drip of antibiotics. This happens to be my first trip to an ER (well the first trip I can remember - apparently I was in an ER when I was in 2 - my mom just informed me of this on the way here). So, a run-down of what is happening...

Post transplant my mom gets two days of hard chemo to kill off some of Brandy's cells that could attack Brandy's bone marrow and in essence make it commit suicide. Problem being it's not just any chemo - it's 12 hours of chemo...not fun. And it's coming after a pretty rough week to begin with. Up to this point my mom has every once and a while been sick in her stomach, but nothing major, until tonight. Around lunch today she started feeling sick, by 4:00 she was feeling a bit better and kept some stuff down, but when we tried to get her to eat something at dinner she was having none of it...and my mom can get a little feisty when you are telling her to do something she doesn't want to do. She finally agreed to try to eat something, so that she could take the pills she needed to take before bed, and then we were going to head to bed for the night. No sooner were we ready to walk her into bed then back up all the food and pills came.

Which then meant a call to my Aunt, which then resulted in a call to the on-call IPOP doctor, which then resulted in a trip to the ER. And thus, here we are. All the chemo she's been going through has been in an attempt to kick out her immune system. Problem being, you can't so much as pick up a stapler on someone's desk without an immune system. It's actually been quite amazing to realize just how many germs our body deals with on a normal basis - let me give you an idea...we need to wash our hands before touching ANYTHING she touches, use paper towels for drying, not regular towels, replace sponges weekly, throw out all foods 72 hours after it's been opened, used or leftover, refrigerate anything within 2 hours, no salad bars, delis, buffets, self-serve, or bulk containers, no raw or undercooked eggs, no unpasteurized dairy products, no fresh fruit or vegetable juices, no vegetable sprouts, no raw berries, no smooth unwashed or unpeeled fruits or vegetables, no unpasteurized honey, no uncooked grain products, no raw yeast, no unroasted nuts, no unpasteurized soft or blue cheeses, no well, spring or city water, no shaving, no washing dishes...the list goes on and on. In essence everything we touch has bacteria on it and she can't fight it off if she gets it on herself, so she can't get it. SO...needless to say she is on anti-bacterial pills, anti-viral pills, anti-fungal pills - if it's anti, she's on it. And so when she can't keep them down, she in essence can't keep from getting stuff, and if she gets stuff she has no way to fight it.

And thus, our trip to the ER. She was just taken back, so hopefully being a patient in the hospital will get a little speed in moving her through, plus we have a doctor telling them what to do, they don't need to figure out the problem or how to fix it. Then, once we leave here we'll climb in bed and get back up for another 12 hour chemo day...not likely to be a smooth one either. My mom's friend Patty should be taking over for us tomorrow night, so we can go home and do a major cleaning of the house before she comes home Wednesday. According to my Aunt the major concern these first 3-4 weeks is going to be infection. At that point Brandy's bone marrow should be starting up and the major concern is rejection. Mom will start getting anti-rejection meds starting Wednesday to hopefully make that less of a concern, but we shall see...

As for now, I'm going to read Psalm 103 and wait out the IV drip.