Things have been hectic in our family over the past week or so. It started around Tursday the 18th when Misty seemed to pick up the cold that I'd just gotten over. For her, though, being pregnant, the symptoms all hit her a lot harder. After several days, she wasn't improving, but instead, seemed to be getting worse. By Tuesday, I began bugging her to go to the doctor. Instead she had them call in a perscription for antibiotics. That seemed reasonable enough, and we assumed she'd perk up in a couple days.
Wednesday, Misty's mom had an appointment scheduled for surgery. Her arms were a mess from the various needles of nurses and doctors, so they were going to put a tiny port in her chest where they could inject the drugs for chemotherapy. Aunt Wanda came down to stay with Misty's mom for the operation. As fate would have it, that same Wednesday, Trion (Misty's cousin) & Stacy delivered their baby. Weighing in at 6 pounds and measuring 19 inches, they named her Patricia Paige Yeager. However, we couldn't get up to Cullman to see her because Misty was still far too sick to be near an infant and Misty's mother was, of course, in the hospital.
The operation for the port went fine, and the next day Misty's mom went in for another round of chemo. Misty drove her mom to the clinic, but had to just drop her off because she knew she shouldn't be around a bunch of cancer patients as sick as she was. Aunt Wanda was still on hand to stay at the clinic, though. After about three hours of chemo, when they started on the second drug of the day, Misty's mom's hart rate fell to 80/40. They put her in an ambulance and rushed her over to UAB. Apparently (as I learned later), they were worried she might not make it through. Misty got the call at home, and a nurse told her that they thought her mom either had a blood clot or an allergic reaction to the second drug. Misty hurried out to the hospital where she and Aunt Wanda sat until late Thursday night. The episode tuned out to be an allergic reation to the medicine, so the doctor still needs to decide how to proceed with the chemo. At least, though, they determined that Misty's mom was fit enough to go home.
All this time, Misty is still sick. The antibiotics didn't seem to be helping at all. Friday morning, feeling even worse, she finally went to see her ObGyn. The doctor told her they wanted to go ahead an admit her to the hospital and that she should go home and pack some clothes and plan on staying a couple nights. Misty called me at work with the news, so I headed home to join her. Since Aunt Wanda was headed back to Cullman, Emily and Misty's mom rode up there with her to stay the weekend -- that was maybe the one lucky thing to happen in all this mess, having a convenient alternative available for someone to watch Emily.
I drove Misty back to St. Vincent's where she was hooked up to an IV for fluids and antibiotics. They also monitored the baby every few hours, but thankfully, there was never any problem with her. They checked Misty for strep, pneumonia, and all other sorts of things, but never really came to a concrete answer as to what was making her sick. Based on Misty's white blood cell counts, the doctor believes she had had a virus that later developed into a bacterial infection. She's suppsedly improving (according to her blood work) but you wouldn't know it outwardly. The doctor told Misty that she shouldn't go back to work this week, and she shouldn't do any housework or grocery shopping or the like, otherwise she'll end up back in the hospital. After just over 48 hours at the hospital, we finally got to come home yesterday afternoon.
I'm staying home with Misty today to keep an eye on her. Later on I'll go pick up Emily, who has apparently had a great time at her three-day pajama party. Trion & Stacy brought Paige by Aunt Wanda's house Friday evening and Emily got to hold her. I wish I could have seen that, but I guess I'll get another chance when her baby sister is born in March.
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