[Loch-Ruadh] Gabrielle is ill

[Sluggy!]

--- Dana <sca004 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> Just received word that Gabrielle has been admitted
> to Plaza hospital. I do not know any details other
> than Sluggy said she would probably enjoy a phone
> call or two,not ready for visitors.

What I actually said was that Gabby didn't want
anything about it posted on the list,

However, now that it is, let me catch everyone up.

Some of you may be aware that her stepfather has
suffered with Parkinson's for a long time. The last
few months have been particularly difficult for him.
The Saturday before last, July 2nd, he exhibited
symptoms of a rapidly advancing pneumonia and (far
later than they should have) the nursing home
transported him to Plaza Medical Center ER. Long story
short, they moved him to ICU for a few days and
finally just this week, they have put him in a regular
room under a hospice program. While he has not
regained consciousness, he responds somewhat, mostly
by getting agitated when they fuss with him, changing
his gown, etc. Playing music has calmed him a lot.
He's not expected to last more than a few more days.
Obviously, Toni's mother is pretty upset.

Furthermore, about a month ago, Toni's sister took her
seven year old grandson, Toni's great nephew, to the
doctor about swollen glands. They didn't respond to
antibiotics, and long story short, he has 4th stage
lymphoma. Now, being a child, they have poured much
more aggresive doses of chemotherapy than an adult
could tolerate into the kid and he's responded
exceptionally well. The tumors have measurably shrunk
in only about 3 weeks of treatments. They have upped
his already promising 80% chance of survival to 90%,
though he will still have to have the full two year
regimen of chemotherapy, during which time he will
usually be very susceptable to secondary infection.

As for Gabby herself, last Saturday morning, July 9,
around 1:00AM, she woke up with what was very
reminiscent of a gallstone attack, same sort of pain
in the same location where she experienced this
before. It subsided shortly, though it certainly
didn't seem short at the time, and she was back in bed
by around 3:00.

The tricky bit is that her gallbladder was removed in
response to the last time that happened. Turns out
that you can have gallstones without a gallbladder,
though the jury is still out as to whether that's the
issue.

Anyhow, later that morning, she called her doctor
about setting an appointment for Monday. Bear in mind
that this is the same doctor taking care of pretty
much everyone else in the family, so she sees him just
about daily anyway. Well, he decided that considering
her age and the general stress level that the entire
family has been under, that she should just meet him
at the ER and gets some tests to make sure it was not
some sort of cardiac episode.

We got there Saturday afternoon about 1:00 and while
everyone's initial assessment was that it was not
cardiac, they also wanted to test all the angles, so
they admitted her and she's been there ever since,
subjected to a battery of tests.

The kinda funny part is that a given day goes kinda
like this: The cardiologist will order a test. They
will get her up early in the morning and do whatever
test is ordered. Later in the day, the cardiologist
will tell her how well she passed that test. Her
doctor will say that he's going to do some digestive
system tests now that we know it's not her heart. Next
thing we know, they're doing another cardiac test of
some sort, though sometimes they shoehorn in something
digestive, too.

She's had about a cup of blood a day tested for
everything but grubworms, contrast CT scans, echo
cardiograms, sonograms, sometimes daily EEGs (in
addition to being on a telemetry wing where they
monitor her all day and all night already), a
treadmill stress test in which her back gave out but
her heart did not, and tomorrow's plan is for a cath
scope of her heart and/or MRI of her liver. The only
thing to come our of it so fare is that they want her
to be more careful about taking her blood pressure
medicine regularly.

Her current roomie has somewhat different tastes for
the television than does she, so a portable DVD player
and Blockbuster has helped quite a lot.

They put her stepfather in a very nearby room, so
that, good thing or bad thing, she can hop up and go
check on him at any time. It does make things a little
easier on her Mom, though. 

> The phone number is 817-336-2100 and she is in room
> 308.

You can dial the main number, press either 2 or 3,
then dial 6308 to reach her room. The above
referrenced roomie is typically right on top of the
phone, so don't be surprised if you get someone
besides Gabby first. :)

Gabby's sprits are in pretty good shape, considering
everything, and her thoughts are that if they can get
whatever figured out and fixed right away, great, but
GET ON WITH IT! :)

Anybody is also welcome to call me on my mobile,
817-538-2286. I have recently changed phones, so I
don't yet have everybody's numbers back in there and
this might be an opportunity to do just that! :)

Hugs to all,

Sluggy!


---

tibi habere mamma. Ego malle mamma ab femina.