“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
The past couple of days have shown great progress. Last night was my "night off" and when I returned to the hospital today Elise's room was vacant. The ubiquitous IV pole was still there but no Becky and no Elise. I would have thought she was out for tests except the IV pole was there and she'd normally just drag that along wherever she was going.
As it turns out, Elise's absolute neutrophil count (ANC) was up to 850 this morning and they said she could leave the room if she took some precautions. So they unhooked her temporarily and Becky and Elise decided to take a walk around the outside of the hospital which is a pretty good walk. I caught up with them near the entrance after they'd finished the loop. Elise was happy to get out of the room (but she should have had her mask on in the picture). Apparently she was also joking with the PA about catching the Metro to escape.
She said she'd decided to get up and out of bed today and she held to that. It was a real nice change and an indication that she's feeling much better. She even ate a bit more today.
She's still having some GI issues and her skin on her chest and neck is irritated from something (could be a lot of different things). She also had some nausea today but Becky thinks its because they've switched to mostly oral meds (vs IV) and Elise has an empty stomach. Needless to say everyone is keeping a close watch as both the GI and the skin issues could be graft vs host disease (GVHD) and that's the next concern, but they could also be a lot of other things too.
Her pain is almost gone. She's down to zero basal pain killers (ie no constant drip of painkillers), but still has the "on demand" ability if she needs it. I don't think she's used it much if any today, but they want to keep it hooked up for another day or so because if they go to the normal approach then they have to get it authorized and delivered from the pharmacy each time (which can be a 45-60 minute delay).
At the end of the day Elise wanted to go for another walk outside, but it started raining so we walked the hallways and then sat on a bench outside and watched the rain for a while.
Things are getting better each day.
As it turns out, Elise's absolute neutrophil count (ANC) was up to 850 this morning and they said she could leave the room if she took some precautions. So they unhooked her temporarily and Becky and Elise decided to take a walk around the outside of the hospital which is a pretty good walk. I caught up with them near the entrance after they'd finished the loop. Elise was happy to get out of the room (but she should have had her mask on in the picture). Apparently she was also joking with the PA about catching the Metro to escape.
She said she'd decided to get up and out of bed today and she held to that. It was a real nice change and an indication that she's feeling much better. She even ate a bit more today.
She's still having some GI issues and her skin on her chest and neck is irritated from something (could be a lot of different things). She also had some nausea today but Becky thinks its because they've switched to mostly oral meds (vs IV) and Elise has an empty stomach. Needless to say everyone is keeping a close watch as both the GI and the skin issues could be graft vs host disease (GVHD) and that's the next concern, but they could also be a lot of other things too.
Her pain is almost gone. She's down to zero basal pain killers (ie no constant drip of painkillers), but still has the "on demand" ability if she needs it. I don't think she's used it much if any today, but they want to keep it hooked up for another day or so because if they go to the normal approach then they have to get it authorized and delivered from the pharmacy each time (which can be a 45-60 minute delay).
At the end of the day Elise wanted to go for another walk outside, but it started raining so we walked the hallways and then sat on a bench outside and watched the rain for a while.
Things are getting better each day.
Loving hearing all the good news! Keep it coming!
ReplyDeleteCharles, thank you so much for sharing the good news. Elise in my thoughts every day and it makes me so happy to see her getting better.
ReplyDeleteElise and Becky both look so cute in this pic!
ReplyDeleteGreat news!
ReplyDelete