Outpatient

Mom had her first appointment at VGH as an outpatient yesterday. It's a lot more independent. You walk in and pick up your clipboard off the wall, walk down the hall and pick an empty room, remembering to put the sticky note with your name on it outside the door so the nurse can find you. Grab the thermometer off the wall and take your own temperature, marking it down on the sheet. Walk out into the hall for the blood pressure machine and hook yourself up to take your blood pressure and pulse, again recording the information on the sheet. The nurse comes in to take a blood sample which is sent off to the lab. Results come in an hour and a half later and then they begin treatment. Mom received her chemo yesterday (vincristine) and we were gone in about 4 hours. Not bad. The nurse upstairs told Mom that coming into the hospital is like going to work for the day, you can expect to be there for 8 hours. The reason for that, as the nurse explained yesterday, is that there are all sorts of protocols that you may not even realize are happening when you are checked in as an inpatient upstairs in "15" (The Leukemia and Bone Marrow Transplant floor). When you're on 15 you're there all the time so time doesn't seem to matter as much. Once you're an outpatient though, you notice time because you're there just waiting to go back home.

All in all, it was a good visit.

Mom's been experiencing heartburn, most likely as a result of prednisone, one of the medications she's taking, so the doctor prescribed a stronger antacid that should help. The results from the blood work show that her white blood cells are continuing to drop so Mom has to be very careful and can not go out in public at all. She tires easily, but of course, this doesn't stop Mom. I think it's hard for Mom to just rest and do nothing!

Jessica went upstairs to visit Mom's old room mate. Please pray for her as she has come down with a virus (diarrhea) which she most likely contracted from her previous room mate (before Mom). It has an 8-10 day incubation period, there's a chance that Mom has also contracted the same bug. Pray for a quick recovery for Mom's old room mate and also that Mom doesn't get the virus.

Thank you!

Amy