Jen Has All The Luck

Well, we've been remiss in our updates.  It's been an intense week. I was doing better, then got worse, and am now doing better again. The bullet points go something like this: 

• Thursday - Friday: Jen feeling better after headache and puke fest. She goes back to walking the halls, and she tests out eating toast.  
• Friday night: Tony mostly slumbers, while Jen sprints Hourly to the toilet. Colon working, but overdoing it. No more than 1 hour sleep intervals.   
• Saturday: Hourly sprints turn into 20 minute mega sprints. Not happy. Jen is reminded of time she ate bad green chutney from a street vendor in India (it was so good! and then it was so bad!), except this is much, much worse.  Doc sends stool sample to test for  Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, just to be safe. No one thinks Jen has it, since she had only 1 dose of antibiotics, and has been taking Saccaromyces boulardii, a probiotic prescribed specifically to ward off C. diff. 
• Sunday - 1:30 a.m.: Test results for Clostridicum difficile come back positive. Jen and Tony consult Dr. Google, experience growing anxiety reading tales of colitis, toxic megacolon, and death. 
• Sunday: Jen and Tony talk to actual doctor. Jen starts IV antibiotics. Begins to feel slightly better.
• Monday: Dr. Whiteford shocked at Jen's super awesome luck. IV antibiotics change to oral antibiotics, so he can get Jen "away from these sick people."
• Tuesday - Evening: HOME!! Extreme happiness.  Jen sheds tears of joy at sight of lovely home and sweet cats. Mama Jane picks up 10 day supply of Flagyl for Jen - worst antibiotic ever. 
• Tuesday - Beyond: Jen battles intense nausea caused by both C. diff and Flagyl. Sleeps, manages suite of meds and supplements, walks a couple of circles around the house (staying within sprinting range of toilet, just in case), eats gentle foods prepared by Mom, reads, repeats.  Monitors body for recurrent symptoms. Hopes that awful antibiotics work and resorting to fecal transplant is not required. Marvels at crappy luck while experiencing simultaneous gratitude that things are not worse.   

Much love to you all. Thanks for your support, near and far! 

Difference in a Day

Yesterday was terrible, and traumatically reminiscent of everything that went wrong the fist time around--fever, throwing up, pain. She was really miserable.

I'm sorry--I couldn't post anything on the blog. I thought about it, thought I should, but I truly had no idea what to write. "Today, Jen feels like shit and the rest of us are totally freaking out" seemed neither appropriate nor sufficient, and I didn't want to validate the experience by writing about it, anyway.

Earlier, I had successfully demanded (nicely) of the nurse that she get one of Jen's docs on the phone and let them know what was up, rather than just adding her condition to the notes in her file. It wasn't until late in the day, though, that Whiteford  finally came in to check up on her, which he did quite casually despite acknowledging that she looked crappy. Glancing up, he must have seen a look in my eye because he admonished us to not let our "PTSD" get the better of us. He wasn't worried. He indicated, in that surgeony way, that everything was going to be OK, and strolled out of her room.

Guess what? He was right! After sleeping all day yesterday (except when vomiting, etc) Jen is feeling pretty good today. She's eating an ever-expanding diet (Yay for toast!) and she's logged perhaps two miles of walking through the oh-too-familiar byways of  the Providence Cancer Center's seventh floor.

Up and down, people, as our bodies progress through their healing stages. It is not always fun, but it works.

Room 738

Groggy and thirsty. All well. 

Piece of Cake

All done!  Whiteford says that surgery went perfectly, "Very straightforward." She's in the Recovery area, probably for an hour, then to her room. Home in 2-3 days. 

Just wheeled her into OR

We're thinking about two hours until she's done (than an hour in post-op). 

"I'm ready for my massage and facial, now"

Pre-op

Getting ready for action.