At about 7:15 am this morning Mom asked me to come to the bathroom. She wanted to know what she should do. I shall spare you the photo of her bowel movement and what was on the toilet tissue; I shall only say that there was some blood. (The photo was for the ER doc.) The good news, if there can be good news when blood is coming out of a bodily orifice that it should not be coming out of, is that the blood was clotted and not fresh. Here is the result:
Yes, another trip to the emergency room! This is ER visit #8 since June 12th. And only one of them has been for me! (I'm glad I broke the one visit per week streak that was going on in the beginning!)
Mom had blood in her stool and the ER doc could not find any hemorrhoids. A blood test was done to check her levels of hemoglobin and platelets; both were low. And the hemoglobin was lower than it was on Monday after it had been stable between last Thursday and Monday. The original plan was to give her platelets then do a colonoscopy to find out what was causing the bleeding. But she kept asking the ER doctor and nurses if she could still go to Las Vegas tomorrow. I also walked over to the oncology clinic and left a message for Dr. Chan, letting him know that she was in the ER because she had blood in her stool. Dr. Chan was in Hilo but his nurse said she would call him.
Dr. Kamai, the internist that was taking over her case as she was transferred to the hospital, called Dr. Chan and they came up with a plan to allow her to go to Las Vegas. Similar to his earlier plan, Dr. Chan set some benchmarks Mom had to maintain in order to go. Her red blood count had to go up and stay up, she had to be fever-free, and she had to have no blood in her bowel movements while she was at the hospital overnight. To help her meet these goals she was given 2 units of packed red blood cells (PRBC) and 10 units of platelets. FYI - In 2 earlier posts I had said she got 1 unit of platelets; I found out today that what I thought was 1 unit was actually 5 units in a bag the size of 1 unit of PRBC! So previously she was actually getting 5 units each time. This time she got 2 bags = 10 units. The platelets will help with clotting, so wherever the leak is, it should get shut off by the new platelets she is getting. Here's the view from her room this visit.
Because of her low platelet count, Mom bleeds very easily. Things that would not bother a person in normal health cause problems. Like blood squirting out of the puncture when the ER nurse went to put the needle in for the transfusion! Or a minor cut soaking through 2 paper towels and taking 10 minutes to clot enough that I could get a band aid on it.
They will do the blood test at 5 am. I will show up around 7:30 am. Dr. Kamai has left a message for the doctor doing rounds to discharge patients tomorrow morning to do Mom first. And Todd, the ER nurse assigned to Mom, told me to be there no later than 7:45 and make sure I talked to the doctor to make sure Mom was the first patient. We need to leave the house at 11 am, the plane leaves at 2 pm.
Needless to say, I did not have time to pack leisurely today. And if Mom had started packing on Monday like I asked her to, I would not be scrambling around right now trying to get her things together. Fortunately she has a designated Las Vegas suitcase (a fluorescent lime green carry on-sized rolling suitcase) that she leaves essential toiletries in so I only have to round up the clothes. And the cash. Curt is already holding $800 from her last trip. And I discovered tonight at the ER that she had $900 in her purse. (I had to do an inventory with one of the nurses for the record. I kept finding envelopes with money hidden in different pockets in her purse! The purse is at home right now.) And the $2000 "house money" that she took out a couple of days ago. Definitely wearing my running shoes just in case someone snatches her purse!
Happy Birthday to Anne, Nina, & Simon!
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