Day 24 - Hospital Fun

At 4:30 this morning, like clockwork, a nurse came in to take Courtney’s blood. This is fine, because after this we can usually sleep until 9:00 or 10:00, relatively undisturbed. Not today. At 6:00 a nurse came in and told her that she couldn't eat or drink anything except a nasty tasting barium drink. Huh? Did we miss something? Apparently the doctor ordered a CT scan without letting us know. It would have been nice to have some warning and understanding as to why you're being woken up at 6:00 and told that no matter how thirsty you are (Courtney was very thirsty) you can’t drink.

She had to drink about 24 oz of the barium/juice mix which consisted of about 3 oz of barium. I think it would have been easier just to drink the barium straight (not sure if this is an option) and wash it down with the juice. Mixing it with juice just made for having to consume a greater quantity of bad tasting fluid. The weird part is that Courtney asked if she could just have some water and was told ‘No’. But then the nurse said she could dilute the barium drink mix with a little more water or juice. What’s the difference if she drinks some water by itself or mixed with the barium? Anyway, as her nurse left her with her 'drinks', she asked if Courtney needed anything else. Courtney answered, "No, but would you like juice? Only 25 cents." It's so funny when she can hardly speak, yet be so witty. Well, she did a good job of getting it all down on an empty stomach. I kinda started feeling nauseous just watching her drink them. Almost as soon as she was done they wheeled her down to the "dungeon" for her abdominal CT scan. I went down with her and was told to stay in the waiting room. I waited for about 20 minutes before asking if she was almost done, only to be told she was already back in her room. Apparently she was done in under 5 minutes. Great communication. I got a sheepish apology from the Radiology receptionist. Poor Courtney was too out of it to say anything or to even know what was going on. She didn't like the scan because she said it sounded like she was in a blender.

The other surprise this morning was when her lab results came back. Her nurse said all that had been ordered was the blood chemistry, which only consisted of the minerals (potassium, calcium, etc.) and protein. The CBC was not specifically ordered like it had been every other day, so it was not done. Her nurse did come back before noon to draw more blood to run a CBC. She also said that she would make sure that the CBC became a standing order and would be done daily.

Results of the day:
The doctors are still trying to decide what to do with the Hickman catheter. They are leaning towards removing it, but just aren’t sure what to replace it with.

The CT scan of her abdomen showed nothing unusual. This is good.

Her blood results came back with the following:
Hemoglobin = 7.2 (she needed and received blood today)
Platelets = 12000 (Needed platelets today)
WBC = 300 (Better than 100)
%Neutrophils = 46% (This is the percent of WBC’s that are Neutrophils, the most important ones for Courtney. This is better than yesterday’s 16%)
Neut. Abs. = 100 (First time to show any. This is 10% of the goal of 1000!!)

So we hope this means she’s on the mend. She said more than once today that she feels better today than she did the past couple of days. Pray that the trend continues. The other good news of the day was the Courtney’s sister, Tracy, arrived this evening from Italy to stay with her for the next 6 days and nights. Courtney was really excited to see her! Lots of tears when they embraced.