From The Past: July 5, 2007

Photo of Mom and Kevin taken around November 23, 1995

When I visited today, they had given mom Lasix because her legs and feet were very swollen.

She didn’t like this one bit.

Every hour she had to get up and use the restroom. If you don’t know, Lasix makes you urinate to rid your body of the swelling. I could see a big difference after only a few hours, but she won’t be happy if the doctor orders it again.

The nurse removed her PICC line today. Apparently this is something they do in the CCU, but she actually didn’t need it at all since she has the indwelling catheter. It’s very frustrating to know that she went through that procedure when she didn’t have to. I think it was in less than 48 hours. I can’t even imagine how much the insurance company will have to pay for that.

Her magnesium and potassium levels were low, so they hung a bag of that to drip. She also received two units of blood because her hemoglobin levels were below 8 and they said they want them above 9.

Her immune system is shot so she cannot have any visitors that are sick or even think they may be sick. My sister just found out that both of her kids have strep throat, so there’s no telling when she will be able to visit again.

Even though we haven’t been sick, we still have to wash thoroughly before entering her wing. There are sinks before you first enter. Once we get to her room, we have to wear gloves. This is in case any of her chemotherapy seeps through her skin and on to ours. If we were to get the chemo on our skin, we could get very deathly ill. We also have to wear a face mask if we want to kiss her or be in her face.

I go in, put on gloves and a mask because the first thing I like to do is kiss her on the forehead. I like to be up close and personal.

Today she asked me to read to her. She has about five books that she reads passages from each day and she said she was way behind. I got her caught up in two of them. Maybe tomorrow I can catch her up even more if I start with that first thing.