So Cale and I went up to Portland to see Mom in the hospital. Left around noon, stopped for a bite to eat in Salem and then were up to OHSU by about 1:30. Dad was still there along with Pastor Wally. Mom looked good, just tired.
She has been hiding more bruises than I would have thought, her body is covered in them. Some new, some old...she seems to still be in denial that they are a part of this, says she can tell you where she got 99% of them - well, yes but you shouldn't get a bruise the size of a tennis ball on your back just by leaning against a counter.
When I walked in the door today Dad says "well we got some good news about noon" and Mom had a big smile on her face...oh thank god, they were wrong! I thought.
Actually, they were excited because her white and red cell count were more stable. I guess for now we'll take what we can get.
Dad left to come home and Cale and I stayed until about 4:30. They removed some bone marrow from her hip for biopsy. Not sure how long it will take to get the results since its now a weekend. They are also not sure when they'll start her on stronger chemo. The doctor said there's no hurry - I beg to differ! Anyway, could be this weekend or maybe Monday.
I watched the procedure. Can't say it was fun but if I detached myself from the fact that it was my mom, it was very interesting to watch. They stick a big thing that looks like an ice pick in her hip and wiggle it around until it breaks through the bone. Then they pull out the liquid bone marrow. Then they take that out and do it again with a different "needle" that looks about the same but has an open end...this one they use to pull out the solid bone marrow(the inside of the hard part of the bone). Mom was a trooper, said it hurt but she did really good.
She has been having nose bleeds all day today, so they are concerned about that and were going to do a platelet transfusion right after we left.
I haven't talked to her tonight...Dad is heading up there in the morning. She will be in the hospital for at least 4 weeks...one week of chemo and 3 more monitoring her blood counts. Then we'll see.
Talked to a ton of people on the phone today. Was hard, every time I told someone new I had to cry with them...and there are still so many people that don't know yet...
Kam and I told the girls tonight - Jessika basically guessed, she's a smart cookie. It was so awful, so much for them to digest. Kasey is gone for the weekend with a friend, so we'll tell him when he gets home on Sunday. A condensed version that he'll understand. I sit here writing and I can hear the girls crying in the bedroom...so much to be sad about, so hard to understand why.
Kam is in there consoling them, he's been so good with me and now with them.
Friends are offering to help, I just don't know what I need help with yet. Its so hard to think ahead. Just have to get through today.
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