Friday 6 July 2007

Still in hospital

Unfortunately I am still in hospital and very unimpressed with the idea of still being here. Kerry saw me this morning and wanted me to stay in until Monday so that they can keep a close eye on me. I eventually managed to convince him to let me go home tomorrow if I promise to keep an eye on my temperature and come in if I have any troubles and see both Kerry and the cardiologist on Tuesday.

The cardiologist saw me this morning and he said that the fluid on my heart and lungs would not go away by itself so I had to start on two lots of heart medication today. One is lasix which I am used to having through IV but now I will have Lasix tablets to take at home. I cannot remember the name of the other one. I also have to see the cardiologist regularly until the fluid all goes away.

Unfortunately I landed a two share room instead of a single room this time. The lady I am sharing with is in her mid sixties and drives me insane. She talks so loud when she is on the phone that I had trouble hearing the cardiologist talking to me this morning! The other thing is she constantly wants to talk. I had turned all of my lights out and was tucked up in bed last night and she kept chatting away. Then this morning as soon as she heard me roll over and stretch the talking started again. Even my one word answers, grumbled out of my mouth did not give her the picture that perhaps I was trying to sleep!!

Hopefully tomorrow they will let me go home and I don't plan on coming back!

Thursday 5 July 2007

Home for a short visit

I did manage to get home on Monday but unfortunately I landed back in here last night.

Monday was so exciting. Kerry had told me over the weekend that as far as they could tell from the scans there was no more tumours left and that was just fantastic news. I still have to have radiation treatment but at least we know that the tumours have already gone so the radiation is just to be sure and to get any rogue cells that are remaining. So home I went on Monday. It was just great to be at home with Cam and the kids. My energy levels were pretty low but that was to be expected so I just had to spend a lot of time resting in bed or on the couch. On Tuesday we went with mum, Nat, Jane and her kids and Tiernan, Arielle and I to a play centre. The kids had an absolute ball. Arielle even had a go on the slippery slides and Tiernan was making mum, Nat and I take turns at climbing through the play structure with him and then going down the big slippery slide. I was exhausted by the end but it was worth it. On Wednesday we had a quiet day at home and the boys finished building the sandpit in the backyard. I managed to get a little bit of gardening done (Tiernan and I planted a little herb and vegie garden earlier in the year).

Late yesterday afternoon I started getting pains in my heart and they would not ease so I came in to the Mater Emergency Centre. They did a few tests and it turns out I have fluid on my heart and lungs. I also had a temperature (I had to sheepishly admit to not taking my temp since being home - a big no, no as I am supposed to be taking it several times a day and coming into hospital as soon as I get a temp). So they have stuck me on some IV antibiotics to combat whatever infection is causing the temp and then I have had a heap of tests on my heart to try to work out what is going wrong with it. They call it heart failure but it is not as bad as it sounds it just means that my heart is not doing it's job of pumping fluid out properly and therefore my heart is retaining too much fluid and then the fluid overload has leaked into my lungs. It is not really too painful but more uncomfortable than anything else. My emotional state is probably of more concern as I am so peeved that I am back in hospital - I so do not want to be here. Tomorrow I should be seeing the cardiologist and hopefully then I will find out what is going on and what they plan on doing about it and then hopefully I can get out of here.