Bad News

Things are changing fast -- in her PT session, dp couldn't raise either leg off the bed today. She's got a little more control of her right side, but it's also starting to be affected by whatever is going on.

We still haven't heard much. They brought in a portable x-ray about nine last night, and took a bunch of films. I can tell by the changed sheets that dp was taken somewhere after that. Her memory is pretty hazy, but she thinks it was for more x-rays. The nurse came in a little while ago, and said that there's an MRI scheduled for 12:30 to look at some "cord issues" (she said this while pointing to the base of her own skull).

We're still waiting to talk to a resident, but it's the first of the month (Happy April Fools), and they're changing rotations today. The name of her Doctor is on the door, but it's not Dr. C -- someone told dp he (Dr. C) was in to see her this morning while she was sleeping.

Meanwhile, a fresh young volunteer person came in to ask if we needed anything. At first, we said 'no,' but then she asked if we knew about the library. They've got the fourth Harry Potter book, and they called to say they were sending it up as we were finishing up the last chapter. (chapter 22, for those of you who go back to Unbound days...)

A couple of Doctors just came in. They again asked dp about movement and pain, and then said that they suspect a spinal tumor. They'll put her back on steroids immediately, to try and get some short-term shrinkage of the tumor, and the MRI will be to look for that.

...just got back from the MRI. They made me stay the waiting room (or was wait in the staying room?). dp says she stopped the test, but it took the hour that they said it was supposed to be. I'm thinking they might have ignored her pleas to stop until they got enough.

Now a resident came in to say that her potassium had dropped a lot yesterday, so they've done a couple of EKGs. They suggests that she's having a mild heart attack, so now we're waiting for the cardiology folks to come up and have a look at her. This seems like a crappy place to publish this, so I'll wait around a bit and see what happens next.

The cardio folks came in and listened to her heart. It sounds pretty good, and there's an old EKG somewhere that shows that she's had this rhythm before. They suggested another beta blocker, but weren't too concerned.

This was followed immediately by a neurosurgery resident, who did the same poke and prod and "how's the pain in your legs?" routine, and then disclosed that the MRI shows multiple spinal tumors. They don't know exactly which ones are causing the problems, so they want to nuke them, instead of the more normally-prescribed surgical intervention.

Still, this is the diagnosis I've been dreading for over a week now, and whatever treatment they choose is definitely in the realm of 'palliative' care.

They've sent up the neurosurgery resident that I talked to last Friday -- the guy to whom I told my fears, only to have her discharged the next day. Well, at least I got to say "I told you so..."