November 9, 2003, DAY #12
Friends,
Yesterday afternoon right after I sent my update, things started to fall apart. The nurses tried to draw blood from one of my catheter lines and couldn't. They switched to the other line and got the blood they needed. At the same time, they told me my Creatinine was back up to 1.5. Pretty discouraging. During the night, the nurse tried to use the same port as had been used earlier, she couldn't get anything out, so she tried to flush the line and the lumen broke off the port in the catheter. So I had only one port available thru the night. Fortunately, because of the Creatinine levels, I was off CSA, so one port was enough. I was worried the I would have to get a new catheter put in. This morning, the nurses tried to flush the broken line, they were able to draw some blood, but not flush it. I suggested that they change the cap and the port flushed fine. Then they push the port back in the tube more securely and we've been able to use it all day. The lab results this morning showed Creatinine down again to 1.4. I drank a lot today and I started eating more. We are looking forward to the arrival of my sister tonight.
On the medical front, my CSA dose has been reduced significantly. They have taken me off the Heparin. I have been taking a lot of my medications orally. I also had a blood transfusion because my HGB was below 8.5.
Lab Results |
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Blood Cell Type |
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| WBC | 4.5 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.2 |
| RBC | 4.30 | 2.75 | 2.77 | 2.78 | 2.34 |
| HGB | 13.9 | 9.6 | 9.6 | 10.0 | 8.2 |
| PLT | 130 | 15 | 55 | 70 | 71 |
Ted
tw@wilcoxent.com