It's Been A Long Week.....

We've had quite a few long days the past few and I think more to come.

My grandma was put into St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota this past Wednesday b/c her red blood count was so low and she's having major coughing attacks. The doctor at M.C. wanted to admit her but her regular doctor told him not to, so off to Mayo she went.

I went up there on Thursday morning and spent until Saturday afternoon with her. She's still spunky and laughing with us, but there are times when the tears flow and the rest of us have all we can do to stand there and tell her it will be ok. I did breakdown on Friday night crying to Adam and when I got home Saturday afternoon I just let the tears flow. I am very close to this set of grandparents and when I was little spent almost as much time with them as I did my own parents.

When she checked into Rochester her red blood count was down to 5.5....really bad. They ran a TON of tests on her and it seems that everything comes back as we have no idea what's causing it but we know what it's doing. She has low grade Leukemia, which we had already known. It turns out after the chest x-ray they also said she has pneumonia. The blood test showed that something was attacking her red blood cells and breaking them down faster than the body can reproduce them.

They put her on a steroid to help keep her RBC up after her transfusion. It did for a while, but fell again, and again today. They put her on a different medicine that is supposed to help stop the breakdown of the RBC's. The downside to this medicine is that it weakens the immune system so she is in isolation. Anyone who comes to visit must be healthy and wear the full gown/mask, etc to go into her room.

Mom said that she is doing better. Her blood sugar has been sky rocketing from the steroid and they're trying to control it the best that they can. Last night it was 570 and the night before that it was up to 450!! Today it's finally back down to 117.

They're moving her today to the Methodist Hospital at Mayo to the Hematology floor. So she can be closer to her "blood doctor". Hopefully thinks will start to look on the bright side for all of us soon!!

A friend commented that it was hard to get old, but I think it's even harder watching those you love and care about getting older. I remember so many happy times spent with my grandparents running around and keeping up with us kids. :-) Things are so different now. It's hard to "accept" it. No one wants to say good bye and at the same time you don't want to see them suffer anymore.

My grandma commented that she just wanted to go home. She was tired of being poked and sick all of the time. I was there on Thursday around 1130 or so and from the time I arrived until I left at 2:00 on Saturday she was stuck over 20/25 times!! I don't know how anyone can do that. Plus every time they check her blood sugar is another prick in the finger.

All in all though I would say her spirits have been high and she's been somewhat hopeful. I had a great time spending my vacation up there with her. I talked my cousin into riding up with me and we met my mom, aunt (her mom), grandpa and grandma at the hospital. Friday afternoon my mom and grandpa went home and did things around the house and came back on Saturday. On Saturday then my aunt, cousin, and I went home.

The doctors made the comment that if this is how she acted when she was sick, they'd hate to see her well. :-) She was telling them she could really go for a bloody mary with extra pickles and olives...and chicken salad sandwiches. I stole her pickles from the cafeteria and some strawberries (for her ice cream). Mom showed up on Saturday with homemade buns and homemade chicken salad. So that definitely cheered her up. :-)

Well, that's all for now. We're all just hoping and praying that things start to look better!! :-)

Take care and Happy 4th!