Slowly becoming untethered

Lucy is continuing to make progress. Her calf diameter is another ½ cm. (0.2") smaller. She no longer needs her pain pump and is taking oral pain medication. Her hemoglobin dropped very slightly from 8.1 to 7.8. However, her white count is now in the normal range. She still needs assistance getting out of bed and cannot walk more than a couple steps on her right leg. Physical Therapy will be by tomorrow to see what else can be done. Lucy would like to be more mobile. She has always enjoyed walking for recreation and exercise.

Lucy's friend Diane visited us this afternoon and brought a little stuffed "Hug Me" elephant. That really brightened Lucy's day. Yesterday's delay in Lucy's procedure precluded her sister Julie from coming to visit. Julie and Lucy have been on the phone a few times. Those calls also brighten her day. We know her sister Suzy is under the weather and we hope she feels better soon.

We don't have a firm idea of when Lucy can go home. The two main milestones are getting her off IV heperin and they would like to see her calf less swollen and red. Her Coumadin was restarted yesterday. Since the INR test will not be accurate, they are using a Chromagenic Factor X test instead.

Molly and Dr. Nashawaty from Minnesota Oncology checked in on Lucy this afternoon.

Lucy has a "Braden risk" bracelet. That means she is at risk for pressure ulcers ("bed sores" is the archaic term). She tries to change her position in bed regularly and so far has no signs of pressure ulcers. The risk will vanish when she is more mobile. It is not a cause for alarm.

Cellulitis is a concern. She is still getting Levoquin once per day as a preventative. And yes, the medical term for "preventative" is "propholatic". Lucy is not showing any symptoms of cellulitis.

That's all for tonight. We're very touched by the number of people reading the blog. It means the world to us!