Sunday, Sunday

The yellow bouquet is from Steve and Liz, the elephant is from Diane and the pink rose bouquet is from Anh-Thu and Karen. And yes, the flash on my phone camera stinks. Motorola puts a 5 megapixel camera on the phone and uses a kid's toy LED for the flash. Go figure.

Lucy had a chorus of nurses and nurse's assistants come in and sing "Happy Birthday" to her this morning. That was really nice! Steve and Liz brought a strawberry tart cake. Julie and Suzy came by for a few hours, so Lucy had all her siblings here. Everyone got to see Lucy go for a walk with the Occupational Therapy person. Lucy also had someone from Physical Therapy come by. They worked on some exercises and Lucy has some new ones to add to the mix. Lucy's dad called to wish her happy birthday and see how she was doing. Lucy didn't wear a hat or scarf today so everyone got to see how much hair she has. I think that is the first time she went "topless" since she lost her hair in the first cycle of chemo.

Suzy and Julie did get to see Lucy's leg and it may have been a bit unpleasant. Lucy assured them it was a lot worse and much more painful eleven days ago. Her leg looks like it had a sunburn with a little peeling in a couple areas. There are areas on her lower leg where the color is getting towards normal. Her leg is slightly warm to the touch rather than hot. She has full sensation in her leg and it is not painful to touch it.

Dr. Singh came by to check on Lucy's progress. Lucy's Chromogenic Factor X reading today was in therapeutic range. She will have the heperin drop through the night and will have blood drawn for another test tomorrow. The results will be back in the early afternoon. If the Chromogenic Factor X test is in the therapeutic range again, Lucy could be discharged. The transfusion last night took her hemoglobin up to 10.7. It's been awhile since it was close to normal.

We will have some questions for the discharge meeting. There will need to be some appointments set up to test her blood. The hospital will lend her a walker for a week or two. We will also need a list of symptoms that necessitate a call to the doctor or a trip to the hospital. It is very possible Lucy will need to extend her disability leave another week.

There is a minor issue with pain management that still needs resolution. Lucy knows that she will not be totally pain free tomorrow. It will take a week or two for her leg to get back to normal. Her pain increases when she puts weight on her ankle. After she sits down, the pain starts subsiding. It sounds like the pain increase is not much. She describes it as annoying when she walks. It does not keep her awake at night and it does not distract her when she is sitting with her leg propped up. Lucy has been fortunate to never require hospitalization until her surgery in April 2010. She has never broken a bone or needed stitches. All the stuff she is going through is uncharted waters to her. It's hard for her to describe what type of pain, or how much pain she feels. Now that she has told them when she feels an increase in pain and when it starts to diminish, some of the concerns have abated.

We're cautiously optimistic about her going home tomorrow. It really depends on the blood test. Please keep your fingers crossed for her!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes today! Lucy is lucky to have such an amazing group of supporters!