Friday, December 17, 2010

Home from the Hospital

Rebecca made it home from the hospital today. She took the last antibiotic this morning so maybe the diarrhea will stop. She ate a ¼ cup of jello today. That is more than she ate yesterday.


I had to get prescriptions filled today after we got home. On the third try I found a pharmacy that had all the medicines but not the full quantity. So I have to go back in a few days and get the rest of them.

She is going to try to quit the oxycodone since she has not had any in 10 days and should be over the withdrawals. She didn’t seem to have much pain today. We do have some hydrocodone if she needs it. She hasn’t had any in 48 hours.

She has some inhalers for COPD. She had been a heavy smoker for over 30 years. She has not smoked in 10 days and is going to try to quit. She seems to be more serious this time since she knows her lungs are damaged.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Back Pain is Back

The EEG/video machine was removed yesterday. The neurologist has her on three anti seizure medicines. He plans to play around with the dosage of these the next few weeks to find what works best. He doesn’t know why she had seizures. Thinks the big one she had last week may have been caused by abruptly stopping the Lyrica.


Rebecca has eaten very little in the last 10 days. She went a little over 24 hours without having diarrhea. She had a yogurt and two hours later had diarrhea. They are going to quit the IV antibiotic and switch to a oral one. Maybe that will be better but I think it will be best when she quits taking it altogether. She is also having stomach pain.

The back pain came back last night. She has had some today also. She wanted to start back on the oxycodone. They first gave her Tylenol. That didn’t do much. They are going to try Lortab now. Since she has not had any oxycodone in 10 days it would be a good time to quit that. She has been taking a high dose of that for over a year.

The plan is to get out of here on Friday.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Moved Out of the ICU

Rebecca was moved from the NICU to a room on the neurology floor Sunday night. This room is on the same floor and wing as the NICU. I sleep on the pull out chair in her room.

She has been recovering more of her memory. She seems almost normal. Still some short term memory loss. She can’t remember where we currently live but knows where we lived 35 years ago.

I saw the neurologist yesterday. He was impressed by how much she has come back. After looking at the brain waves he indicated there is still some activity he would like to see a little calmer. He is going to increase her medication some. She is still connected to the EEG/video machine.

A blood sample was taken last Thursday for the Freelite Test. The Lambda free light chain proteins decreased from 33 mg/dL a couple of months ago to 27.6 mg/dL now. We were concerned that the cancer may have taken a jump. It appears to still be in check. Maybe we can delay any chemo until she is feeling better. She has been having diarrhea for about three days. The nausea started yesterday. Due to a urinary tract infection they have been giving her antibiotics. I think they are giving her about three different ones which may be causing the stomach problems.

They could not draw blood from her power port yesterday. A nurse came by later and did the TPA treatment on it and got it to draw blood again. This keeps her arms from getting all black and blue from the sticks. She has hard veins to find.

Friday, December 10, 2010

She's Back!!!

At the visitation tonight in the NICU Rebecca talked a lot to me. She was pretty alert. Had her eyes open most of the 30 minutes I was there. She laughed some and it was her personality. When I had to leave she said “That sucks!”. She didn’t know where she was. When we told her she wanted to know why. I was afraid to tell her she had a brain seizure. She took it pretty well. I could tell she was concerned. She did ask what medicines they are giving her. She didn’t seem to remember all the medicines she was taking before she came in.


I hope this recovery continues and she doesn’t have another seizure. I don‘t think anybody knows why she had them. We may never know. The abrupt quitting of the Lyrica could be the cause. However, I think she had a mild seizure before she quit taking the medicine that caused her to forget to take her medicine. I sometimes wonder if the chemo and myeloma that affects the peripheral nerves could affect the nerves in the brain. What is chemo brain?

In the future I need to manage her medicine a lot better.

Brain Seizure

I noticed that Rebecca had an altered state of mind Wednesday morning. I check her medicine and noticed she had not taken all her medicine the last two days. I have been complacent with ensuring she was taking her medicine. Up until now she has been real disciplined in taking her medicine. She fills out a daily log indicating what, how much, and when she takes her medicines. She has been taking two 150 mg of Lyrica twice a day. Every once in a while she only takes one a day. She took one on Monday and that was in the evening and that was the last one she took. There was no daily log for Tuesday so I assume she did not take any medicine on Tuesday. Her last dose of oxycotin was 160 mg Monday morning. She normally takes 160 mg three times a day and 30 mg of oxycodone three times a day. I did get her to take 80 mg of oxycotin and 30 mg of oxycodone on Wednesday morning. She would not communicate with me. She would answer yes when I ask her to take medicine or a drink of water but then not do it.


I took her to the ER at 3 PM on Wednesday. They basically didn’t find anything and we finally got to a room in the hospital at 3 AM on Thursday. At about 2 PM they connect an EEG system. Then the neurologist came by about 6:30 PM and said they were going to put her in NICU. He said she was having brain seizures based on the EEG they did earlier in the day and the one connected at the time. Before they got her moved to the NICU she had a brain seizure. To me it looked pretty severe. I think it lasted about 5 minutes. She then quickly got moved to the NICU. Visitation is limited to four 20 minute periods a day. My daughter and I saw her last night at 8:30. She was calm and did not appear to recognize us. She didn’t say anything and didn’t open her eyes.

At 8:30 this morning I thought she was a little more responsive. When I mentioned our daughter’s name she half opened her eyes for a half second. I said “I love you” and she said the same thing back. This was the first words I heard her say since Tuesday evening other than a nod and yes and no.

I am going to go see her at 8:30 this evening. This is a little scary. I hope we get her back.

They are only giving her some anti seizure medicine and some antibiotics. Her potassium was low and they gave her some of that. They are not aware of any withdrawal problems from the oxycotin/oxycodone or other pain so they are not giving anything for that. In her state I wonder how they can tell she is not having any withdrawal symptoms. I guess it would be good if she is not having any pain to get off the pain drugs. She has been on it for nearly two years.