thank goodness for modern day medicine

Hope is some extraordinary spiritual grace that God gives us to control our fears, not to oust them. ~Vincent McNabb
Ok. So.

Here's what's happened:
Mom was checked in and immediately hooked up to IV after IV of fluids. She got 4 liters of water (which made her puff up), 3 units of blood and 2 units of platelets. They stabilized her.

They did a scope-- they sent a camera down her throat (she was asleep) to find out where all the blood she was throwing up was coming from. Turns out that the tube going into her intestines was curved in her stomach to keep it from moving and thusly was rubbing against the sides of her stomach creating ulcers. The ulcers were bleeding. The stomach pump they gave her last week was basically sucking the ulcers and making them worse.  The Dr pulled out the tubes, cauterized the ulcers, "powerwashed" the insides of her stomach to clear away the old blood, and then, put in a temporary soft tube to allow her stomach fluids to drip out.

They had her hooked up to a ton of IVs so she has tubes in both arms and they are using her chemo port as well. Her veins are all but closed up due to dehydration so they used pediatric kits for everything they hooked her up to. She gained 10 pounds  in liquid weight but she was only 105 on check in, so that's not saying much and the nurses don't believe it. Today they ordered a PIC line because the needles won't stay in her veins and keep leaking. Her blood pressure cuff is now on her left forearm instead of her right upper arm because it kept moving the needle that's there and hurting her.

Speaking of blood pressure: last night when I was there it was averaging about 86/44 and today it's about 95/58-- so the meds for that are working!

She received another unit of blood this morning and some more platelets, but her platelet count keeps dropping. Her oncologist visited today to check her charts and he discovered the platelet problem. Now, they have to figure out why her body is basically consuming all the platelets they're putting in-- she's her own cannibal!

Today she's in pretty good spirits considering the scare she gave herself yesterday. They're keeping a watchful eye on her and the nurses seem pretty on the ball and kind. We're hoping she'll be moved out of the ICU  tomorrow and we don't know how long they'll keep her in there. She's not really throwing up too much, which is HUGE! She's been throwing up since September so if that can take a break for a little while, that alone will be amazing for her morale!

The ward RS pres visited last night and arranged for meals for the family for the rest of the week, which is nice of them. I guess it's safe to say that the crisis is over... she's not going to die today.