BRIEF: Mom has fluid building up in her abdomen, in her lung, between her lungs, and all around her liver. Hospital doctor says there is no point in doing anything because of her decision not to fight the cancer. Hospice should come in and manage things. It seems that things are moving along faster than we had hoped. PS - Pulmonary doctor disagrees, they will be tapping the belly tomorrow and draining everything. Hospice may be on hold.
Mom didn't get admitted until about noon today, She is in room 284. At this point she is pretty exhausted from being up all night in the ER. While waiting in the ER she had chest and abdomen X-rays, and a CT scan. They have found that there is fluid building up pretty much everywhere: on the lung, between the lungs, in the abdomen, around the liver, and her bowels are severely backed up.
The hospital doctor told her with her decision to let it take it's course, there really isn't a point to do anything about it. I have to believe that if they were to drain the fluid it would just build back up again, and I know she doesn't want to be going back and forth to the hospital. He said that he would have the hospice person come and talk to her tomorrow to start using them. He said that they will be able to help her with her nausea and also her breathing. She told him she doesn't want to be gasping for air (although she is DNR). He said that hospice can help with that. She told him that her oncologist wanted her to have an MRI of her brain because if it is the primary and is causing her pain, they can radiate as palliative care. I told her she should ask to see her oncologist before she leaves there.
Her pulmonary doctor will be by in the morning and we will see what he says. All in all, it appears that the process is going a lot faster than we had hoped. She says she's okay with everything.
If all her doctors are in agreement with the hospital doctor, she will probably come home tomorrow.
I know many of you want to visit, Based on how she has been, I would say the best time to come would be around 3 or 4pm on any given day, though it may be 2pm before she will know if she is up for visitors. I ask that you check in with us before visiting. Probably the best way would be to text me at 813.505.3363.
Not trying to be rude, but please come to the blog for updates instead of texting me. Otherwise, I have to keep repeating myself which takes me away from having as much time with my mom as possible.
Dr. Shah (pulmonary) came to talk to mom while I have been writing this. He has a different attitude about what to do. He said looking at her X-rays her bowels are really packed and the fluid is everywhere. He is going to have them do a stomach tap tomorrow and have her take the pre-colonoscopy meds to get her cleaned out and then drain off the fluid. He wants her to be able to live the best life she can while she can. He is also going to talk to the oncologist about what's going on and find out his thoughts.
I will update here as soon as we know. Thanks for your thoughts and your prayers, and cooperation and patience, and love and everything!!!!
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