Chemo #1 Day 5 - Hospital

Ma had been complaining of difficulty breathing the last couple of days. It got worse today, so Pa finally took her to the emergency room. The x-ray showed Ma's pleural effusion is back. She was admitted to the hospital and will have a thoracentesis done tomorrow. The tube will be left in her lung. When the fluid being drained is down to 100ml, the doctor will do a pleurodesis on her lung to stop the pleural effusion from coming back. So Ma will be in the hospital till at least Tuesday.

Ma's platelets have been low since last year. Before starting chemo, her platelet count was only 100K. Today it was down to 28K due to the chemo. She will be given platelets tomorrow. Ma's white blood cell count was normal (the Neulasta worked!), so I don't know why she had a fever. The fever's gone though. Her red blood cell count is below normal. Don't know if they plan to do anything about that.

Ma hadn't been eating or drinking much the last couple of days, so she's dehydrated. The ER forgot to give her fluids though. When I left her hospital room at 9pm (she'd been in the hospital since maybe 1:30pm), she was still waiting for her IV. Also, the nurse thought Ma wasn't allowed to eat or drink. Turns out she's allowed food & drink till midnight. When I left, she was working on a ham sandwich. Ma's diarrhea stopped, but I don't know if it's simply because she hadn't been eating.

Pa is staying overnight with Ma. The rest of us (Isa, Tito Lum & me) will be back in the morning.