The Polly Summer Birthday Bash 2011
A great time was had by all! It's so nice of everyone to have birthdays! A perfect occasion to get together and have fun! And we did. It was great fun watching Skylar and Autumn (our "babies") explore, play and amuse the crowd. Who needs entertainers when we have the most adorable children to keep us in stitches? Ok, so I'm partial... but, oh my, so cute!
Although, I must admit, as adults, we were all sadly lacking in baby linguistics... Skylar kept pointing to her diaper bag saying "NaPoon" (or maybe it was NaPoo) We weren't really sure and her momma wasn't there to interpret! So we got out every toy she had, but to no avail.
She finally gave up and let Sami and Amanda take her to play outside.
It was half-way thru dinner when Steve had a light-bulb moment and realized she was asking for her Winnie-the-Pooh (which they had left at home...) He shouted Winnie-the-Pooh outloud and Skylar lit up in a huge smile!
Finally, the adults got it! We're a little slow sometimes, but if you give us enough rope, we'll eventually hang ourselves!!
And mom enjoyed it all. Here she is with the Summer Birthday Honorees:
It's wonderful to be surrounded by family. And I know that we're blessed to all be living so close. We don't take a minute of that for granted. We hug a little closer, and smile just a little more often. Mom has a beautiful framed piece in her home that speaks to me every time I see it. It says,
Our Family
is a circle of strength
and love. With every birth
and every union the circle grows.
Every joy shared adds more love.
Every crisis faced together
makes the circle
stronger.
is a circle of strength
and love. With every birth
and every union the circle grows.
Every joy shared adds more love.
Every crisis faced together
makes the circle
stronger.
Which is a good thing. Because by Monday morning we were making a fast trip to the Emergency Room.
After Dad had left for work, Mom had gotten up to go the bathroom, but was too weak to get back to bed. She slide off the toilet and lay on the bathroom floor for awhile before finally gathering enough strength to crawl back to bed. Which is where we found her, too weak and groggy to even call for help. I can hardly type that without feeling the icy hand of fear strangling my insides. One of our worst nightmares to be sure.
We whisked her off to the Emergency Room where she was promptly admitted and run through a battery of tests. She was scanned, radiographed, poked and prodded all day. Initial diagnosis is low blood counts (need a blood transfusion), dehydration (start the saline fluids), and high white blood cell counts that indicate infection somewhere (add antibiotics).
Oh, and did I mention adding oxygen because her oxygen saturation levels were well below normal (84-86%). It was an all-around crummy, miserable day.
Saturday we were enjoying a lovely Birthday Dinner and by Monday she was laying in a hospital bed being offered a clear liquid diet. A quick slide from that Beautiful Mountain Top to the Valley Below.
Yesterday, we got the results of one of mom's blood cultures. And if I was a pessimist I'd say that things went from bad to worse...
The culture turned up positive for a bacterial infection, and probably not a good one. The preliminary culture result shows a gram-positive cocci baccillus infection. This is a broad culture, and could be any number of bacterial infections, from a staph infection to pneumonia to botulism and even tetanus (okay, that's being really pessimistic).
We are still waiting on more tests to determine exactly what we're dealing with and where it is localized. The doctor doesn't like to speculate, but is narrowing in on her medi-port and/or her lungs. A chest x-ray yesterday showed a patchy, hazy area in her right lung. Not calling it pneumonia, yet, but will be repeating x-ray in morning.
In the meantime, the doctors have added another antibiotic to the mix. It's one of the Big Guns, Vancomycin. And the optimist in me thinks we're getting ready to turn the corner. The blood transfusion was successful and raised her hemoglobin 1.5 points. It's still in the low range, but close to normal. That did help with her energy. For about an hour... then she nose-dived with this infection. At one point last night her oxygen saturation dropped to 80%. The nurses and techs hovering over her in the dark were not impressed. I can do without that kind of excitement, thank you very much.
And I have come to some very deep philosophical conclusions about this illness.
Cancer sucks.
Hope I can say that and not offend anyone. But it's true. Just when you scratch and claw your way over one hurdle, another appears, whether you're ready to run it or not. And the other thing, it would seem that the treatment for each cancer patient is sort of trial and error. Nothing hard and fast about it at all. What works one week, fails miserably the next. Kind of like throwing darts in the dark. Hopefully, we'll hit the bulls-eye, but could just as easily hit the wall.
Okay, is that too pessimistic?
Well, I can say, without a doubt, that the one truly great thing about this whole journey are the hands and hearts that have held us through it all. Your love, support, prayers and encouragement make our day. You can't begin to imagine what it means to mom to read your notes, see your texts and emails, and get your calls. It is the one thing that puts a smile on her face. And right now, we live for each smile.
Will keep you posted with new results as we get them. Until then, hunkering down in Hospital Central,
All My Love, Jane
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