Kayla Quote: "Today was awful, the regular temp was so high, I could barely breathe...I was gasping for air...it was awful." Kayla, via text to her Mom
Short Synopsis: The ol' roller coaster ride again. Kayla spiked a fever at 102 by noon, then it went down, then up again to 102.3. They don't want to tax her liver with drugs. It is still inflamed and needs a rest. They put her on top of a cooling blanket. Her hermatrocrit was low so they gave her a unit of blood. Immediately, Infectious Diseases put her on three different antibiotics, one very powerful one and two regular ones. They were covering for all kinds of problems.
Where was the source of infection? Not sure - perhaps the VAD site. They took loads of blood to determine, sputum samples, cultures. It's quite amazing how fast and furious they look.
They determined that her blood volume was low as her blood pressure was also low. They put the fluid volume up and down in the body as a natural thing.
Very importantly, psychiatry came to evaluate her and become the new team to help. It was determined that ativan and cymbalta are no longer helping her anxiety well.
I saw them change her dressing again. It looked to me like it needed a stitch as a little bit of tissue under her skin was poking out. Dressing changes are a daily occurrence and very painful.
Kayla is a fighter - am very amazed by her stamina.
Long Story: This morning I taught a bunch of excited youngsters swim lessons at the rec center. About half way through one class, thunder boomed. We were asked to get out. I find it hard to understand why, if we are inside a building, we have to leave the pool deck. We got coloring books with pool safety in them and crayons to finish up the last 15 minutes. I told the Moms to just put towels around their kids or else we would miss all the time.
The kids were happy and didn't miss a beat. They did want to know what was going on though. One Mom came late 15 minutes so her child miss the swim pool part, then she complained that it was "not a real class." Oh well....you can satisfy everyone. She was needy asking silly questions so I had to politely excuse myself to go to my next class. Time is of the essence when swim classes are scheduled immediately on top of each other.
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I asked my Mom if she and Dad were ready to come to my chorale concert in Ridgefield on Saturday. She told me that Dad was not capable to go anymore. He is 85 now and it's too much for him. He is going deaf nad can't see very well out of one eye. She says that at the dinner table, he is isolated by his lack of hearing properly and adds things to the conversation that they have already discussed.
Still, he is happy. He continues to follow me around when I stay in Tarrytown and he's very talkative, especially about politics. Even from my childhood, Dad has always been a political animal with strong opinions. It's great fun to listen to him and his viewpoints are radically different from mine. Now how can someone from the same family - two people who look exactly like each other - how can they have such different opinions about how the country is run? I can tell you this. I never even espouse my opinions, not even one bitty word and amazingly, Dad never asks me if I believe the way he does.
He is vehement and I am just an observer. He is content that I get every detail though. I am just completely happy that he is in my life, that he is here before me, telling me how he feels about things, that he says nice things like, "You laugh just like my mother. The exact same way," or "You clean up the living room. It looks so nice when you leave" or "Want a bowl of cereal?" or "Here is the book I just read."
I pick up the book, "It's really neat Dad," and put it down. In a million years, I would never have any interest in this book.....
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