Hello Everyone,
I want to give everyone the background to Mum's current situation.
17th of April Mum had a bone marrow transplant (you can read about this procedure here: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Bone-marrow-transplant/Pages/How-is-it-performed.aspx).
The Tuesday afterwards (23rd) she was generally OK but it was noticed that she was mumbling when she spoke.
On Wednesday 24th I tried to contact her on her mobile but was unable to. At this stage she couldn't be well understood when she spoke and wasn't well co-ordinated enough to use her phone, although I didn't know this at the time. These are some of the symptoms of kidney failure, which was discovered around this time. It is for this reason that suddenly she has stopped contacting people as she is unable to.
Thursday and Friday she had dialysis to take over the function of her kidneys. However, at this stage her blood stats were showing good progress and the drugs they had given her had started her kidneys working again, albeit at a fraction of their normal output. On the Friday they also performed an MRI scan of her brain, CT scan of her abdomen and took a fluid sample from her lumber.
Saturday 27th April I spent most of the day with her in hospital. It was the first time I had seen her since the transplant so was shocked at first - her mumbled speech, confusion and nodding off every few minutes. However in the afternoon I noticed a steady improvement in her behaviour - she was awake all afternoon, was able to converse and watched a bit of the snooker on TV. She was even able to make the occasional joke! The MRI result was "normal", lumber fluid was OK but her CT scan showed an infection in her lungs, for which they started giving her antibiotics.
When I arrived at the hospital on Sunday morning I was ushered out of her room as soon as I arrived by the nurse; after 40 minutes I allowed back in the room. She had had an "episode" - blood pressure dropped and heart rate rocketed. She now had to breath with a mask over her mouth, any length of time with the mask off saw her blood oxygen saturation drop and she become breathless. I left her knowing her condition wasn't good but she was stable. That evening they put her back on dialysis and moved her to ICU (intensive care unit) so she could be monitored more closely. They had also performed an x-ray that showed her lung infection was getting worse.
Monday they took a sample of the mucus from her lungs to identify what it was she had, so they could give her more focused treatment. At this stage her blood stats were still improving and she was no longer neutropenic (mean she had her own immune system working).
Tuesday her breath improve sufficiently that she was able to breath without needing a mask all the time, her kidney function was still improving (although still poor) and her blood stats good.
Wednesday 1st May they knew what infection she had in her lung - PCP, a form of pneumonia (see link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumocystis_pneumonia). The doctors were very surprised Mum had this infection as usually the symptoms are more acute (literally being unable to breath) so had thought it was something else initially. We were warned that this is very serious. At this time they also had to increase the amount of drugs hey were giving her to cope with her confused state - she couldn't understand why she had a mask and lines so kept trying to take them off.
Which brings us to today - she needs to be put on a ventilator and be sedated. The reasons for this is the effort required to breath herself is becoming too great. If it were to continue she might stop breathing due to her body being too tired to. We were also told some of the drugs needed will make her blood stats worse but fighting the infection is the priority.
Whenever there is a change in her condition Russ or I will try to update this blog within 24hrs so everyone knows the latest situation. If there is no change we will probably post something every two to three days.
Please everyone cross your fingers/pray/send positive vibes. I don't want her to fade away like my father did 21 year ago...
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