My Mother's Journey Through Breast Cancer: Another Setback

Grr...

My mother was hospitalized today for pneumonia. She was released from her surgeries on the 18th. Somewhere in the shuffle directly before her surgeries or while in the hospital after her surgeries, she contracted pneumonia.

It all started on the 22nd. She was getting toward the end of her supply of pain meds. She decided she wanted to ween herself off of them completely. She started taking one whenever she needed them instead of two every four hours on the nose. Next thing we knew, she kept saying she was freezing and she was shivering all over. I asked her to take her temperature. It was 99.7 or so. That wasn't strange considering since she'd started chemo, her temp has ran in the 99's on a regular basis.

An hour later she mentioned she was in pain so I told her to take some pain meds. She said she wanted to take her temperature again before she took her pain meds so she could get a more accurate reading. It was 100.6. She waited a while after that before taking her pain meds. She smoked a cigarette and we talked a while. She was starting to shiver. I told her to take her temperature again and it was 101.4. I asked her to take a pain med and I would go to pick up her antibiotic at the pharmacy. At this point she only had three pain meds left, but she did have another prescription for them as well.

I went to the pharmacy and took along the prescription for her other pain meds, just in case. When I talked to the pharmacist, he recommended she go ahead and have the new pain meds filled and have her take them because the Tylenol in them could keep her fever at bay and relieve the pain as well. Then, at around 6 pm today, stop taking them for a while and retake her temp. If she still had a fever, call the doctor. If she didn't, all was well and she could ween herself off the pain meds again. Her antibiotic I picked up was the wrong version of what she needed, so she didn't take it. She wanted to talk to her oncologist today.

Today, when we woke up, I emptied her drains and she said she was feeling worse. I told her we would talk to Doctor Mayer about it since we had to go there anyway. We had to leave in about half an hour for the appointment.

By the time we got to Doctor Mayer's office she was miserable. When we got to a room, she didn't feel good enough to even sit in a chair. She climbed up on the bed and laid down. When Doctor Mayer came into the room, I didn't even give her a chance to say hello or dote on Raigen like she always does. I said, "Oh thank God, there's something wrong with mom. She said she doesn't feel right and she had a fever of 101.4 last night...." I explained about what the pharmacist said, she took less than 5 minutes to overlook my mom and immediately said she wanted her checked into St. Francis Beech Grove for an overnight stay of observation.

My mom cried. And cried. And cried. I don't blame her. As if she hadn't had enough, what was going on now? She was trying to quit smoking and this wasn't making it any easier. She has been doing sooooo good though. She was smoking a pack and a half per day before her surgery and was down to 6 cigs a day since the surgery. The last two days had been on her own and not with me being a "cigarette Nazi" as she called me. I had hidden her cigs and she could only have one every 4 hours or so depending on if she wanted to wait until after she ate or not.

We got to the hospital and she said she was gonna pass out. I explained what was going on to the nurses at the nurse's station. They said they had no idea she was coming, but when I told them she felt like she was going to pass out. They jumped right on getting her to a room. From there we explained what had been going on. They tried and tried to get blood. My mom's whole body was on the fritz. They kept blowing veins, she was writhing in pain from the simplest touch, none of us had eaten, I hadn't seen mom drink a single drop of fluid since I had gotten up at 1pm, it was flat out terrible.

They got her to drink her least favorite flavor of Gatorade. The respiratory therapist came in and had her do a breathing treatment. He said at her age and what she's been through, 900 was great and she scored a 1500! He said he didn't hear any crackles or congestion in her lungs, nothing. They came for a chest x-ray, brought her back and finally got her port unclogged to get blood from it and start her IV fluids.

Next thing we knew, the coolest RN I've ever met came in and said, "well, you have pneumonia." We were in shock. We figured she had a bug, but pneumonia? After she did so well with her breathing treatment, pneumonia? Sorry...still in shock...

They said it wasn't a horrific case of it, but they're glad we came in when we did. They started her on her antibiotics. By the time we had to leave the hospital, she was definitely feeling better. She was sweating to death, but better. When I got home, I called her and she said they were trying to find someone to change her bedding and robe because she had sweat so much, everything was soaked. I told her they'd finally broken her fever for good. She said, "well that's great, but I want to go to sleep and I can't sleep in a bed full of cold water!" LMAO.

She's not necessarily being kept for 24 hours, but she wouldn't be released before 6 am either. I guess we will see.

OH! They also told us that just about everyone who'd had surgery last week was back in the hospital with pneumonia. That is why south campus was full and they were getting pretty close to being full as well.

I know everything gets worse before it gets better...maybe this was the final straw...maybe now she can truly work on getting better!

*2-24, 3:16p* They put her on oxygen last night after we left because her levels were too low. Today, Doctor Mayer visited and said things were looking up, but didn't leave discharge instructions. I haven't been up there today to know exactly what is going on. My dad stopped by there after work and once I get the food from my mom's AMAZING CO-WORKERS, I will be going up there to relieve my dad. Last I heard, she wasn't in the best of moods.

**2-24, 7:30p** Doctor Hughes was supposed to come by and look at her incisions. Doctor Mayer thinks she may have a skin infection on top of having the pneumonia. Doctor Hughes never made it by here to check her out. Now it's too late for her to be released tonight. They can get her fever broke, but they can't keep it broken. We're not entirely sure what is really going on. What I do know, is that the nurses aren't taking care of her drains correctly. Doctor Lee is a perfectionist. He gave me specific directions on how to clean them. The nurses aren't doing it even close to how he said to do it. UGH!

***2-26, 2p*** She was finally released! Even though the hospitals said they would call Doctor Lee and let him know she was in the hospital and wouldn't be able to make her appointment Thursday, they didn't. Go figure. Doctor Lee's office called yesterday, telling her she missed her appointment. My mom told them everything, even about how they told her Doctor Hughes would be coming by to look at her incisions. Doctor Lee came by the hospital and removed one of her drains. He wasn't happy that her drains had only been emptied once and I was the one to do it. He couldn't release her because he didn't admit her. He did let Doctor Mayer know he thought she was fine.

Why did it matter whether Doctor Lee thought she was fine, you ask? This is what not many people know. It took me calling Doctor Mayer's office ready to kill to get an answer because the hospital couldn't tell me anything. What the hospital did tell me is what they could assume. That didn't go over well with me. When I called Doctor Mayer's office, her nurse told me it was because they were afraid she'd start smoking again and she wouldn't be released until, the soonest, Friday, but most likely Saturday! Can you believe the NERVE????? I was pissed beyond all reason. They told my mom that it was because of her smoking that she had a pretty serious contusion on her breast. [*cough* BULLSHIT]

When Doctor Lee got there to check her out, he said the bruise still looked fine. Amazing. Abso-freaking-lutely amazing!

Point is, Doctor Mayer must have realized she couldn't keep my mom in the hospital any longer since Doctor Lee said everything was fine. I've been told I'm a "conspiracy theorist" several times in my life, but let me put my version of what I think happend into perspective:

Doctor Mayer disagreed with my mother's smoking so terribly she purposely sabotaged her release by lying about Doctor Hughes coming by to see her because of the bruise. She used Doctor Hughes' name instead of Doctor Lee's, even though she knew Doctor Lee was her actual doctor because it was in her chart and we'd talked about it several times before. This way, the hospital didn't call Doctor Lee's office. By the time she'd missed her appointment and Doctor Lee's office found out what was going on, it would be at least another day before she would be seen. Doctor Lee made it to see mom at the hospital a little ahead of schedule BECAUSE HE'S FREAKING AMAZING and one of the MOST BRILLIANT PEOPLE EVER! lol...where did I come up with this conspiracy? Between what Doctor Mayer's nurse told me and the fact that Doctor Mayer tried to get my mom to SWEAR ON A STACK OF TEN BIBLES THAT SHE WOULDN'T START SMOKING AGAIN!!! W...T...F... I'm pretty sure 2+2=4 and I went to Monrovia, hung out with people from Martinsville and work with people from Edinburgh (no offense to anyone, but we all know the jokes)...

No, my mom didn't swear on the Bibles...I would've chewed her ass if she had. She said nothing except that I had already gotten rid of everything - and I had. Doctor Mayer tried to put up an argument about how my mom could stop and get cigarettes herself, but my mom ignored her because she hasn't driven since she was diagnosed. And it's not that she's an atheist, because she's not, but that was pretty ignorant of Doctor Mayer to try to do something like that.

****3-1, 11:50p**** Good news! My mom started Chantix today. She took it at noon and says she can already feel the effects. She says she doesn't feel like she needs a cigarette most of the time. I think that may be psychological because it was only one half-dose, but I am glad she already feels that way. I am VERY happy for her. I feel this is a for-sure sign all this will be over with in the near future!