Day 23 - Two Words

Two people woke up this morning feeling better than the night before. When Courtney woke up this morning I asked her how she was feeling. She said, “Better.” These days it’s not very often that she uses a positive word to describe how she’s feeling. Also, upon waking up, Emma announced to my mom, “I’m not sick anymore!” She and Aidan are both pretty much back to normal and so far no one else in the house has come down with the same bug. Thanks for all the prayers!!

I want you all to know that Courtney is surrounded by love, day and night. Between her family and myself, she has had someone by her side since the moment she was diagnosed – and often times she’s had multiple companions. Her sister, Kelley, after having spent six straight exhausting nights and days with her, went home yesterday to catch up with work and rest. You don’t get much rest when sleeping in a hospital room, especially when the one you’re with is not sleeping well. Such has been the case the past few nights, as Courtney has had to deal with a lot of intestinal pain and cramping. After being gone for just a few days to catch up on work, Courtney’s mom returned on Friday to help lessen the burden. Now, since my own mother can stay with the kids at home during the night, I can stay with Courtney, while her mom stays with her during the days. Despite the fact I don’t get nearly as much sleep here in the hospital, it’s much more pleasant being able to be near her, than being by myself in our bed at home. After sharing a bed with someone for ten straight years, it’s tough getting used to having it to yourself; which is fine, cause I don’t want to get used to it.

This morning, Courtney asked why she was so nice to the people who came in at 4:00 AM to take her blood. Even she’s amazed at what a wonderfully nice person she is. Courtney’s mom shared this conversation Courtney had with the nurse technician, Blake, today:

“We now have the screen up in the room between the door and the hall - Blake just asked her why and she told him to keep germs out - then he asked if she needed anything and she told him no - but that she liked the other nurse better - she could bring drugs - he teased her and said fine - he would come in last - but then she said no - he was in the middle - he asked who was below him and she said the person who comes and takes blood - he laughed and said great - before the blood sucker and after the drug pusher and she said yes, that's right!!! then she comments that she is still nice to all of the people that come in her room... gotta love it"

As for her blood counts, we’re still waiting for her WBC’s to return. Right now they’re at 100. Normal is 4000 to 11000. The oncologist on call today, Dr. Young, said we really shouldn’t expect to see anything until Thursday or Friday. She said that everything that is going on with Courtney is normal for a patient in her situation. The other thing she discussed was the possibility of removing the Hickman catheter in her chest (where they give her the meds and draw her blood) and replacing it with either another Hickman on the other side of her chest or a PICC line in the arm that doesn’t have a healing incision from the previous attempt at a PICC line. The reason for removing the Hickman is that they’ve discovered it’s a source of yeast that’s getting into her bloodstream. This is apparently within the confines of normalcy. Tomorrow they will weigh the risk of leaving it in and developing a potentially dangerous blood borne yeast infection vs. performing minor surgery with the risk of excessive blood loss (due to low platelets) and/or infection. It appears they’re leaning toward replacing it. This could happen as soon as tomorrow.

Courtney just asked me what I was doing. When I told her that I was writing about today, she said, “You only need to write two words: Cancer sucks.” That pretty much sums it up.