Alyssa has just finished with her sixth day of arsenic. They come in every morning and give her an EKG to see how her QT intervals are. If the intervals are low enough they will do arsenic that day. Arsenic increases those intervals which in turn can cause heart problems or the heart to stop beating.
Her nutrafills are at 200 today, they were 100 yesterday, so she is going in the right direction. When she gets to 500 they will do another bone marrow biopsy and see how everything else is doing. She can't be released from the hospital until the nutrafills are above 500, but they prefer it to be closer to 1000.
She had another MRI this morning, she hates those, but today wasn't as bad as last time was. They were able to get it done in one pass this time, so she was in and out a lot quicker. The results just came back from that and things are looking much better. The bright spots are the brain are diminishing rapidly now. She is still not quite back to normal, but she is close.
When we went for a walk today we were beginning to wonder if we would ever make it. As she was getting her gown and mask on, the nurse came in the check her Arsenic IV, it had about 15 minutes left so she said she would take it down after the walk. Immediately after that the CNA came in to take her vitals, then the PA came in to give us the results of the MRI. About that time one of the leads from her heart monitor came loose, we would have just waited to get it fixed until after the walk, but then she started feeling nauseas. The nurse came back in at that point to take her Arsenic IV out, so she fixed the lead for the heart monitor and gave her a half dose of adavan to help with the nausea while she was there. We finally made it on the walk. She was tired enough that she only made it 2 laps where she usually will do 3 or 4. I suggested that she take a nap after we got back, but she wanted to finish the puzzle that she started on Christmas day. She has about 50 pieces to go and when she gets that close, nothing will stop her short of a major catastrophe!
Alyssa, you go girl!! We feel a strange kinship with some of our fellow residents on East Eight, and we want you to know that all the McAteer's are puling for you......Keep up the fight!!!
ReplyDeleteLisa and I have arrived back in Idaho for a short stay and we missed telling you good by. We hope to see you again but more importantly we hope to read about your triumphs on this blog.
God Bless you all, M.M.