Winter and the waxing crescent of the Imbolc Moon
Saturday gratefuls: Kate. Her feeding tube. Tatiana, her cardiologist. Her stable lung disease. Sjogrens. Paul and his breathing help, for stress. The dishwasher. Working. Cottage Pie from Easy Entrees. Kate’s favorite comfort food right now. Kep and Rigel, a little disoriented without Kate at home. Charlie, a little disoriented with Kate at home.
Gratitude for myself. Never thought of that. But, hey! Why not. I’m grateful for me. Wasn’t always. Those drinking years? I was not always my friend. Now though. With a solid paganism at my core, body working, mind filled with years of learning, loving, experiencing. Yeah, I’m not only grateful to be here, but I’m grateful to be me. Good thing, right? Tough to be somebody else.
Kate with a new born Gabe and toddler Ruth, 2008
Kate’s nearing the end of this time in the hospital. Maybe. The interventional radiologists may extend her feeding tube deeper into her upper digestive track to discourage backing up and leaking. She had a feeding last night and didn’t leak. That’s the reason for uncertainty.
The leaking stoma site sounds innocuous. It leaks, wipe it up? No. First, the leaks happen at night and produce a wet splotch of Jevity. It’s sticky and uncomfortable. If it’s a big leak, the sheets and covers get involved. Result: less feeding, maybe as much as 30%, and lost sleep, plus feeling icky in the sticky.
This has been going on since the tube got placed a year and a half ago. The other sequelae of a leak? An irritated and sometimes infected wound around the stoma site. That’s the wound I’ve been treating now for months under the guidance of Amber, an Advanced Wound Care specialist. If we can stop the leaking, stop wetness around the stoma site, the wound will heal. That would be a big deal.
She has an appointment with her cardiologist this Thursday via telemedicine. Atrial fibrillation followup. She was put on a blood thinner, one somewhat more powerful than the baby aspirin she’s currently on. Need to see what else might help. Tatiana is a good doc. She’s already helped Kate a lot.
Her lung issues have shown stability for a year. Yet. She has had three pneumothorax events. Not sure where that is right now. She has no treatment for the interstitial lung disease. Why? The treatments have bad side effects and Dr. Taryle, her pulmonologist doesn’t want to prescribe them until she exhibits an unstable course for her disease.
I’m looking forward to having her back home though I’m grateful she’s had this chance for scrutiny, especially on the feeding tube. The higher calorie feeding liquid is here, delivered on Wednesday. With this she should be able to lower the flow rate of the pump which might also reduce leakage.
Lot of moving parts.
Oh, and on the 19th I get my PSA tested again. This is, contrary to what I believed earlier, the one with Lupron gone. If it’s clear, the possibility of a cure still exists, might already have happened. That would be nice.