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January 24, 2003 -- Consolidation (Day 0) This week has been Katie's worst week so far. She is in a lot of pain and has no interest in anything right now. She is only sleeping for 2-3 hours at a time and is having weird food cravings at all hours of the night. She has lost more weight and her hair is coming out in clumps now. She is also extremely weak. I had to take her to the Clinic on Tuesday so they could get her pain under control. The morphine I was giving her wasn't helping at all. The doctor suspects she may have broken some more bones from coughing. They put in an IV and gave her 4 doses of the IV morphine (which is 10 times stronger than the oral I was giving her), Adivan (not sure of the spelling) to help calm her down and another pain med called Dilaudid which is even stronger than the IV morphine. Once the pain was under control, we took her home and tried to get some rest. We were back to the clinic on Wednesday for day 28 of her induction phase and day zero of the consolidation phase. She got a spinal tap and chemo in her spine, another chemo through her IV, and a bone marrow aspiration. She did well. While doing the bone marrow aspiration, the doctor determined that she has osteoporosis. She needs to try to get as much calcium in her as possible to help build up the bones again. When we got home, she finished her last dose of the anti-leukemic steroid and started a new oral chemo that she will get every night at bedtime for the next 28 days. Thursday I had my 12 week exam with my OB. The baby is doing fine, but my doctor was concerned with me not getting enough rest and/or sleep caring for Katie. So, I have been put on a "modified bed-rest" (not the full bed rest I was on with Katie where I was in bed for three months). I am not allowed to do any housework, laundry, food shopping or anything that requires me to be on my feet for too long. If I don't get the rest I need, my OB wants to admit me in the hospital until I get my strength back. Fortunately, since Katie was first brought home, our families have been here everyday helping us get things done around the house, running errands, and going food shopping for us. Now, I just have to remember to sleep when Katie is sleeping and put my feet up and relax (yeah right) as much as possible. |
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