3/4/24 Cathy's Battle - Back in Hospital
posted on
March 4, 2024
Blog 3/4/2024 – Back in the Hospital, Chemo halted.
Since our last update, Cathy completed Cycle 1 of Chemotherapy on an outpatient basis. On the Home Health front, we have been steadily fighting the development of pressure ulcer on Cathy’s tail bone. I had never heard of pressure ulcers and am now a lot smarter about them and how they develop. It would have been nice if someone at Pat Neal had educated me on that subject. But as I reflect on that stay, I don’t ever recall them turning her either. As you can tell I have an ax to grind with that hospital – but that’s for another day.
Anyway, about 10 days ago the home health nurse concluded we needed help and were not winning the wound fight. We Scheduled a wound care clinic appointment on Thursday, 29 February.
On Tuesday 27 February, Cathy was slated to Start Round #2 of Chemotherapy. We were excited about this because the Oncologist ran blood markers after cycle 1 and said the cancer was responding well.
Unfortunately, the decision was made to halt chemotherapy in favor of getting the infection and wound under control. At about 10 o’clock that morning I drove Cathy to the UT Regional Medical Center in Talbot where the wound care clinic is. With hat in hand, I pleaded with that staff to accelerate the appointment…. With surprise – They took Cathy right then. They did not have a bed open but modified a clinic chair and performed the debridement and packing, tissue culture and- taught me how to do proper wound care with a stage 4 wound of this nature. I am so thankful for these professionals and what they did that day.
On our way out the Nurse Practitioner spoke to me about red flags with Stage 4s and to watch vitals and monitor for Sepsis.
27 and 28 February were long days and nights. I found that it was very difficult to keep her temp under 100 and often it was 102-103. I read a lot about Sepsis and eventually decided to chart out the vitals I had been keeping a manual log on. At about 0400 on Thursday 29 February – I concluded the numbers were not moving in the right direction and we had hit more than 1 red flag indicator of Sepsis. At 0600 I got the HH nurse on the line to validate what I thought, and she agreed. By about 0900 I had Cathy loaded and headed to the ER.
Here is another testament for the staff at the UT Regional Center in Talbot – Nurse practitioner, Kristy called me while in route to the hospital and briefed me on the tissue culture. “Sir, the antibiotic your wife is taking will not make a dent in the bacteria she is fighting, you need to get her to the ER soonest. She is fighting MRSA and E. Coli at a minimum.” “Kristy – thank you, I am enroute now. Kristy: “I will fax the results to the ER and will also notify you oncologists what is happening.
I want you to know that within an hour of arriving at the ER, they had Cathy in a room and hooked up to intravenous antibiotics. I love this little hospital – they have been nothing but great to Cathy.
Cathy was admitted on 29 February. She is fighting a serious infection. Since admission, she has had a PICC line installed for more reliable intravenous delivery.
As of Sunday morning, we believe we are headed in the right direction on the infection. Temperatures are most often in the normal ranges.
However, the attending physician on Sunday concluded Cathy needed blood due to very low hemoglobin levels – a common marker with this type of cancer.
What is the way ahead? I will hopefully see the oncologist to night but my gut tells me that Chemo will be delayed again and I am not sure what that means at this point.
In other news, We are so grateful for the tenacity of Grace and Joe Brescia who have been insistent with me on “help”. “Kevin – you need financial help, please let us do a fund raiser for you”.
All I had to say was yes. I did and they delivered. It’s development, cooping of friends, distribution, and promulgation. A special thank you to Grace and Joe for developing the Cathy Jacobi Medical Assistance fund. You guys are the best, and this will help us tremendously in this fight.
Thank you for your continued support and love for us.
Kevin and Cathy
Land Basket Farm
423.202.4924
