dasgeek

Ok, just so I can keep this straight.
Sept. 03: Colly asks me to take her to the hospital, as she is nauseated, having chills and is in pain. I took her temperature, and she was at 98 degrees. I took her to the ER, all bundled up like an eskimo, and as soon as we arrived, she threw up blood while getting triaged and became mostly unresponsive. The ER got her on IV meds, and admitted her, but it took a while so she didn't get shuffled off to bed until almost midnight.

Sept. 04: I visited for a few hours in the morning, but she was mostly groggy from the IV meds, so I came home to do post wedding stuff.
No sign of anything more serious or unusual, given the basic underlying condition.

Sept. 05: Early in the morning, around midnight, Colly is awake and talking to the night nurse, and asks for pain meds. Ten minutes later she has her first seizure. The staff scheduled an MRI after they get that under control. Around 4 AM, she has another one, and they started her on anti-seizure IV meds and did a CT scan. At 11:30, I arrive for a visit, not knowing that anything was amiss, and was just in time to see her next seizure. I could do with out that memory. She's now running a fever of about 101, and has a extended colon according to the MRI. I get very grumpy with the staff, as no one had called me about this. Both of her nurses thought the other had called. At this point, Colly is unresponsive and on anti-seizure meds, pain meds, and fluids. She's also bleeding. I called the chaplain, and spoke to the Oncologist. She told me that there was a good possibility that Colly was having a stroke, and I should prepare myself for the worst. They also debated sending her to ICU, but decided that a 24 hour watch in her room made more sense, and that it would be better for her. A few hours later Colly stabilizes, and the MRI results are in, showing there was no evidence of a stroke. They send her down for another MRI to see if there have been changes since the first seizure and those results are also negative. I spent the rest of the day by her bed, talking to her but she's unresponsive. At 8PM, I left to come home and feed the dogs and grab clean clothes. The floor doctor called me at 9:30 to tell me that she was throwing up blood, and should he give platelets? Well dammit, YES is my answer, why are you asking ME, as I'm not a doctor? Turns out he thought he was talking to the on-call oncologist for some damned reason.
I went screaming back to the hospital, and spent the night on a cot that they set up by her bed. Poor Colly, she got no rest, as they are changing her bedding and gown about every 90 minutes. She's still running a fever, can't keep anything down and is still bleeding internally. At 5 AM I ran home, let the dogs out and showered, then left a note for the neighbors, asking if they could let the dogs out for the evening and feed them.

Sept. 06: The day is spent with me sitting bedside, as they continue the anti-seizure,
antibiotics, fluids and other meds. She's having brief moments of consciousness now but completely confused as to the seizures and why things are so different. The doc orders, and starts a transfusion of packed red blood cells to replace what she's lost, and schedules another MRI, set up to check the veins in her brain (Apparently regular MRI's don't see these too well.). The doctor also told me that the scans show that the chemo has been a colossal flop, and that the cancer in her liver is spreading, as well as the primary tumor.
Swell. Through out the day, Colly is starting to show signs of improvement, and she is having more 'awake and orientated' spells, but she still is running a fever, has both catheters in, and is in bad shape. I spend another night at the hospital, with a speed run home in the morning to take care of the animals.

Sept. 07: A day of improvement. I returned to the hospital, and Colly was sitting up and actually EATING something. Not much, but something. She was still running a fever, and on all the previous meds, still on the 24 hour watch, but showing definite signs of improvement. I spoke with our doctor at around 10:30, and she told me that there was another scan scheduled, this one an ultrasound of the veins and arteries in Colly's neck, to see if there is anything there that may have triggered the seizures (In other words, they still don't know what caused them.). With the improvement, I decided it was safe enough to head into work for a few hours, mostly to update my boss and friends there. I came back to the hospital around 5PM, and stayed until the end of visiting hours, then came home to try and get some rest.

Sept. 08: I actually slept a bit last night. I'll take a fast shower in a bit and go up to the hospital, then work, then back to the hospital for a few more hours. I can't find the words to express how much I hope that Colly continues to improve today, tomorrow and the day after. We both knew that things were going to deteriorate, but this is so sudden....
I need to stop avoiding the situation and get moving now.