T+247 Pajama Day!

 

As long as it has taken me to finally get this changed, it's gonna take me twice as long to update you!  Torie was discharged from the hospital last Thursday afternoon after being there for 4 weeks.  Mom and Great-Karen were so excited to get her back to the House.  In the middle of the excitement, they were also in the process of moving to a bigger room (more on that later) and getting the old one cleaned.  I was at sea that day, and on Friday we landed in San Diego.  When I called, Mom could hardly talk in complete sentences - she was that excited.  Dr. Orchard called me just when we were disembarking, and he didn't sound too sure that she would be able to stay out of the hospital.  And he was right.  Friday night Torie started having trouble breathing, and she was throwing up.  I had Mom call the BMT Fellow on call, and they wanted to see her in the ER.  Her chest XRay was worse, and her fever went up to 103.7.  So yes, she was re-admitted. (512 this time.  At least they got a different view.)  Tom and I left San Diego Saturday afternoon, and got back to Grand Junction about 9:30.  I left Sunday morning to head east.  Torie had a chest and abdominal CT that afternoon that showed bilateral pleural effusions.  She was needing more oxygen, and still dealing with high blood pressure issues.  Instead of draining the effusions they decided to treat them with Lasix (diuretic) and antibiotics.  She had been started on atenolol (a beta-blocker) for her blood pressure.  But at least her counts were fairly stable.  I made it to Council Bluffs, Iowa, Sunday night, and I got in here about 3:30 Monday afternoon.  I was so relieved and happy to be back...and it was great to see Torie!  She was happy to see me too, which was even better!  Mom stayed with Torie Monday night so I could get caught up a bit (and try to figure out what state and what time zone I was in).  She did pretty good overnight, but she still needed oxygen.  Tuesday morning Great-Karen went back to Illinois, and I went to rounds.  I stepped out of the room with my arms up in a V (for Vic-Torie) and said "Ta-Da!"  They pretended to be glad to see me, and told me "Welcome Back!"  I replied, "Thank you. And now YOUR vacation is over.  I want her Atenolol changed to Labetolol 35mg 3 times a day, and Lasix changed to Bumex 0.5mg twice a day.  And tomorrow we'll go back to Ronald McDonald House."  Dr. Lund was quite agreeable, and also wanted to do a sleep study.  By that afternoon, her blood pressure was down in the low 100's, and her O2 sats were 98% on room air.  She had no problems with the sleep study, she didn't need oxygen, and her blood pressure was even down in the 90's a couple of times.  Wednesday morning when Mom called to see if we needed anything, Torie yelled "Mama-Great, bring the roller (stroller)!" and just laughed!  We got back to RMH about 11:30, and she's doing great.  When we went to Clinic yesterday, she didn't even need the blood that they had set up from the day before.  Her counts came up a little - hemoglobin from 7.2 to 8.1, and platelets from 27 to 31.  Her WBC's are back down in normal (for Torie) range... 2.3 with an ANC of 1600.  We got to have today AND tomorrow off.  And let me tell you, we are enjoying it!  It feels good to be back in our routine. 

Thank you so much for all the well-wishes on our cruise.  I enjoyed spending time with my husband and the Schmitt's so much.  I slept. And ate. And slept.  But my thoughts were here with Torie.  I'm so grateful that Great-Karen was able to help Mom so much.  I felt horribly guilty being away - my Mom needs a vacation even more than I do, and to spend time with her husband.  My Dad misses her, too.  It's strange to think about how changed our lives are since we booked this cruise last June.  That seems like a whole lifetime ago.

Thank you also for continuing to follow Torie's Story through the changes.  I started this blog not only to keep people up-to-date on Torie's condition and progress, but more importantly so that someday she can read it and try to get an idea of just how exceptional she is.  It was never meant to be a forum for venting inappropriate or inebriated comments.  It continues to be your happy thoughts and prayers and good wishes that are pulling all of us ever-closer to Vic-Torie!