Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Back at the Marriott

We’ve moved back to the North Tower at the hospital, so we have a lot more room to stretch now. Still the same towels, though. You would think as much as this place costs a night, they could provide some higher quality towels. I was lucky last night that Phillip insisted I go home around midnight so I could get some sleep. Otherwise, I would have been as tired as he was today. As expected, Mike was confused about where he was and kept trying to get up and leave last night. It was more of the same throughout the day today. He’s quite delusional and is hallucinating a bit. It can be a little entertaining at times, but it’s quite taxing at night when you’re tired and trying to get some rest. I FINALLY talked with a doctor about 5:00 today (that’s another story in its entirety), and he’s going to try lowering the steroids to see if that helps with the hallucinating. Mike’s sodium level is back to normal now. Hopefully, the combination of the lower dose of steroids and the normal level of sodium will get all of Mike’s faculties back in order.

I got in with an oncologist today. As seems to be the case with a lot of things around here, I had to take care of this myself. Yesterday I gave the physician’s assistant the name and number of the oncologist I wanted because Mike has to be referred to them by a doctor, but the P.A. didn’t bother to call. He seems to think that since I am planning on going to Duke that I don’t need to have an oncologist here. Luckily, God places the right people in our lives. It ends up that Ava’s speech therapist’s husband works for the oncologist we wanted, so a few phones were made, and, poof, we have an appointment with the oncologist we were wanting.

I talked with Duke today. They said they had not received the tissue samples, so that was another battle I had to fight. It ends up that this hospital sent the sample to the pathology department at Duke and not to the brain tumor center like they were supposed to. Had I not made any calls, the brain tumor center would have never known the tissue samples were there. Anyway, they’ll take between three and five business days to determine their official diagnosis. If Mike gets back to his normal self, we should be able to go up there next week to have them look at him. He has to be able to knowingly sign all sorts of paperwork in order for us to do that. I’m supposed to call them when he is able to function more normally.

Since I’m having to be the pro-active one and take care of so many things myself that I shouldn’t have to be doing, I’ve decided to take full advantage of the sitter they have available here at the hospital. Basically, someone will come in tonight to sit with Mike and make sure he doesn’t make any escapes. I’m going to go home and rest in my own bed, so I’ll be ready to fight any more battles I have to tomorrow.

Again, we can’t thank all of you enough for all of your thoughts and prayers. I know that is the only thing that has kept me from completely going over the edge! (Although I realize some of you may think I went over the edge years ago!)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Diane,
we are praying for you, but PLEASE if there is anything litle I can do for you (wash laundry, rake the yard, vacuum the house) please let Clair know and I will take care of it.

Much Love,
Vicki Stilwell