Celebration of Diane's Life

We have made arrangements for Diane's
services:
Thursday viewing, Oct 22 from 6-8 pm. Russon Bros Mortuary, 295 North Main St, Bountiful, Utah.

Friday Funeral,  Oct 23 at 11am. Viewing prior, 9:30 to 10:30 am at  the Centerville Utah South Stake Center, 270 North 300 East, Centerville, Utah.

We would love to have you come and, at the same time, understand that schedules and travel distances may make it impossible.

Additionally, we wish to thank you all for your many prayers and well wishes. We know the Lord's plan has been followed. We also want you all to know how grateful we are to the doctors, nurses and staff at the LDS Hospital Bone Marrow Transplant Unit,  East 8 and their professional and compassionate care. They have been part of our family.

Till we meet again

Diane, my eternal companion and love of my life, passed away today at 4:45 this afternoon. All the chemo treatments had quit working and the disease was progressing rapidly. She is no longer in pain or discomfort, but in her Heavenly Father's arms and home.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. I'll make a last post when funeral plans are made.  Love you all

Dennis

Tough night, though day

Last night was pretty tough, she didn't feel well at all and was having a particularly difficult time breathing. It was very hard to keep her O2 saturation levels up as she slept. I stayed the night and kept an eye on her. The nurses were in and out all night beginning at 30 min. intervals and working up to 2 hour spaces by 6 am. Not much sleeping was going on, but they had to keep a close eye on her because of the lasix error.

Today, she was extremely weak and had a very difficult time getting to the bathroom duties. Jeremy and his family arrived about 12:30 pm. They surprised us by getting there that early. They had actually left Thursday night and slept in Idaho Falls overnight and drove in early today. It sure was good to have them come. All the kids came to the hospital this afternoon, we visited and talked to the doctor.Diane went down to get a CT Scan but couldn't lay flat long enough-unable to breath, so the scan didn't happen.

Late this afternoon she went down and had a PICC line placed so the medical needs she had could be met with the additional port lines. The kids went home and had a delicious dinner provided by the Augustin family.  Thanks a million, it was a life saver. Then the kids came into the hospital to visit and watch Frozen. Addy got onto the bed with Grammy and Grammy immediately fell asleep with the meds she had been given and a grandkid comforting her.......

Very tough and challenging day

So, her arm was worse today. Bad enough to cause fevers. They think it has a clot and hope it will be dissolved by the body. They are watching it very closely, had an ultrasound done, examined by the infectious disease doctor team and a hand and arm doctor surgeon checked it out and will be keeping am eye on it for a couple days. Some of you may know of him, he is the son of our good friend Greg Skedros, owner of the Mandarin  Restaurant in bountiful. They tried to get an MRI of the arm but she couldn't lay down that flat and still breathe, her lips were turning purple. So they had to abort that idea.

She has been pretty much out of it for most of the day, being on strong pain meds for her arm-very tender and painful, you can't even think of touching it.

They have been getting a lot of fluid off her system. This evening in an attempt to get fluid off and give her some rest, they put in a catheter. While doing that they found out that she may have had an infusion pump error and she got a 12 hour drip of lasix in a very short amount of time.  The nurses were running in and out like a mad house. Getting monitors, taking vitals, giving potassium, watching heart and kidneys very carefully. She is doing ok now, answering questions and all, Ashley and Whitney (her very favorite nurses) are with her now, docs know and ICU HAS BEEN ALERTED JUST IN CASE. They come in every 15 minutes and check vitals and are constantly monitoring her on telly.

We certainly don't want to repeat this day.....hoping tomorrow is better.

Breathing better, newest malady

Getting off more and more fluids is helping the breathing problem.

She had developed a stronger presentation on her arm from the results of the IV. Jeremy saw the picture of it and said:
    Could be three things. 1) localized cellulitis (skin infection), 2) superficial thrombophlebitis (inflamed vein), or 3) extravasation of whatever was going in the IV into the tissues which has caused a reaction. The doctors here have checked out and believe it is the #2.  We have put hot packs on it and it seems to be improving. It has been very painful and has given her significant discomfort. We hope it resolves quickly.

Giving her daptomyacin  for skin reaction.  Another two rash areas showed up on her outer upper left bicep and one on her left torso side.  She has had several visitors and several naps today. She got up and out of the room today and walked down  to the nurses station and back.  She got tired but is is good for her. Her appetite is still not good and they have talked about giving her an appetite enhancer. I bought a frozen hot chocolate at Hatches and she ate about 6 spoonfuls.  That's gotta be high calories.

They will be taking another chest xray tomorrow and we plan to walk again this evening......forced or otherwise! The pain she has makes this difficult for her.

Back at East 8, doctors, blood products

The xray today showed that the pneumonia was worse than yestetday,  so a few more days to work on pneumonia and remove excess fluid. They think the pneumonia is caused by increased fluid retention not by an infection. Good to hear that!

Today she got one unit of platelets, two units of Lasix and by the end of the evening, two units of red cells. In addition she got a couple doses of antibiotics. She also had an IV placed to facilitate all the meds she got today along with the blood products.

She got visits today from several friends along with her doc and PA on the bone marrow team and from infectious disease and pulmonary and their PA's. She is breathing a little better today.

They did get the port-a-cath cleared using TPA, a drug which they injected into it that dissolves clots. So it again flows and draws back blood.

Tonight she is very tired and weak/exhausted from today's regimen and yesterday's ICU visit. She should sleep pretty good tonight as she is asleep already at 9 pm.

Today's plan, back to East 8 we hope

Nothing serious or alarming is showing up in any scans, cultures or ultra sounds.  So, the treatment is going to be trying to access and clear the port-a-cath, administer Lasix routinely to resolve excess fluids. Get her back up stairs, today,  for a few days and then home. She will have to come to the clinic to get the IV antibiotics daily for a couple weeks. (Quick trips) as well as her routine infusions.

I went to rounds in ICU and they were all very thorough.  So the above plan is what they decided on. So far it is going according to plan. Lasix is working.  She's back up stair to East 8. We have her showered, fed and into bed. It's now 9:45 and resting comfortably. Today they gave her two units of platelets.

The two nurses from clinic came down to ICU and both were able to access the port-a-cath but neither could get it to draw back.  The head nurse of the entire hospital was also able to access it but no draw back for her either. Tomorrow she is going to go down to angiography and see if they can tell why. In any case they can't use it so they had to have an IV line put in so they could administer the antibodies and blood products as required. Please pray with us for a resolution to the port-a-cath problem.

We are hoping for a good night.....grateful for all of your prayers and faith in Dianes behalf.  We pray for God's blessing on all of you.