March 23, 2006

Jamie reporting from Jaci & Erica’s new condo!!!

Since Jaci and Judy accompanied Erica to the hospital today, I was assigned blog duties. I will do my best to fill you in on all of the happenings of the past few days and how Erica is doing. The past 3 days have been pretty hard on our girl. As some of you know, Monday was Erica’s first day of a 10-day radiation treatment. The radiation is done on an outpatient basis but requires her to go to the hospital everyday for treatment. Also on Monday, she received another of the dreaded lumbar punctures. The good news was that the lumbar puncture came back showing all healthy cells, the bad news was that the LP caused horrible spine and back pain that has pretty much made her immobile for the past 3 days. In addition to the constant back pain, the combination of radiation and chemo caused severe nausea. The only time that she is o.k. is when she is lying flat on her back covered in ice packs. She actually told me the other day that ice packs are her new best friend ;)

Getting her to and from the hospital the past 3 days has been very hard. Not only is walking and moving very painful for her, just about every time she does move, she has to head to the bathroom because of nausea. When we took her to the hospital on Tuesday for her radiation treatment, she had to be admitted to the Emergency Room so they could hook her up to an IV to administer fluids, anti-nausea meds and pain meds because she wasn’t able to keep anything down. After a long day on Tuesday, she was finally able to come home and sleep in her own bed.

Wednesday’s trip to the hospital presented almost as many challenges as Tuesday’s. The pain and the nausea were so bad that she wasn’t able to lie down for the radiation treatment. Her doctor decided to skip the radiation treatment for the day and focus on her pain and nausea. Again, they hooked her up to an IV and gave her fluids, blood, and more anti-nausea meds to try and make her feel a little better. She managed to get home a little earlier yesterday and she, Jaci, Judy and myself were able to enjoy a delicious dinner together.

Today’s trip to BW was a little better then yesterday’s, but this time she had to have an MRI to try and figure out what was causing the intense pain and stiffness in her back. The 3 hour long test was quite an ordeal but she had a fairly calm and pain-free afternoon. After meeting with the neurologist who examined her MRI results, we learned that she might have a small spinal fluid leak which is causing the pain. Spinal fluid leaks are usually patched up in a very simple procedure, however, since Erica will be having two more lumbar punctures next week, they thought it pointless to try and patch it up. So, they sent her home tonight with a new prescription for steroids and some new pain meds (including a FABULOUS morphine lollipop, no joke) and she is feeling better then she has in days. We just finished a delicious Chinese dinner courtesy of Auntie Charlotte and Uncle Bill, thanks for the chow fun!!!

She heads back to the hospital in the morning for one more treatment this week and then she will spend the weekend resting and having fun with this weekend’s round of visitors Uncle Jimmy, Auntie Shirley, Jonathan and Ted!!!! While the past 4 days have been a series of both physical and emotional ups and downs, she is still holding strong, and when the pain subsides enough, that beautiful smile still shines through.