On Friday Nov 20th my Mom had trouble breathing late in the afternoon and my Dad took her to the ER at MD Anderson here in Houston. That evening around midnight she stopped breathing and they had to intubate her with a respirator. She was breathing on her own by the morning and was on 30% support for the next few days. Later that week they weaned her off sedation and started testing her without the ventilator support. We had her off the ventilator completely and she looked fine. After being off for a couple of days she started drinking a lot of water in the early morning one morning and inadvertently aspirated a slug of water down her windpipe and we had to put her on a mask with the ventilator. Her CO2 levels had risen so high at that point that they had to put her back on the tube. We repeated the process again, weaning her off the tube in 2 days this time and by Sunday the 6th she was off and even out of bed sitting in a chair all afternoon. Monday morning she looked a little weak, though, and her CO2 levels had gone up a little. Before too long she had to get the mask back on. She seemed to stabilize after that and had the mask off most of the day. Around midnight her CO2 had gone up again with the mask and she had to get the tube back in for the third time. That is where we are now, with the plan to get her on a better system through a trach tube that will allow her to eat, drink, and talk normally. That procedure is set up for Monday the 14th as her blood was too thin from all the anti-coagulants she has been taking to do it yesterday as was initially planned.
From a breathing standpoint she should be fine with the trach tube. At that point the challenge will be getting her strength back to get her lungs back in shape. They think that part of the problem was some fluid accumulation due to an infection and also from a sac of fluid that we saw around her heart at her regular checkup the day before she was admitted. They drained a full liter out of her pericardial sac and her lungs appeared to clear up a little with antibiotics. They could never identify the source of the infection, though, reportedly because they started her on antibiotics immediately when she was admitted and the meds kept any cultures from growing. As time progressed in here none of the theories made sense, though, because if the meds were working to knock out the infection why was she continuing to have breathing problems? In addition, we drained the fluid out of her pericardial sac 3 weeks ago and it has remained dry. The constant musical chair system they had for doctors didn't help as they were constantly rotating doctors in and out. We finally got in one of their top pulmonary specialists in yesterday and he claimed that the damage to the lungs was from cancer in her lymph system and in her lungs as well. He claimed to be able to tell from the CT scans, and when we asked about a biopsy he claimed it would do more harm than good. We had been told repeatedly for the last year and a half by her primary oncology team that the cancer was not iin any of her organs,, it had spread only to her bones, and that it was under control. Even as recently as last week her primary oncologist told us there was no sign of cancer in any fluids coming out of her lungs where the cancer supposedly now was. We had been draining cancerous fluid daily from her left pleural cavity with a Denver catheter for several months now and we assumed that was from the proximity to a bone or rib where we knew the cancer was. Her main problem was with the right lung anyway so we assumed the cancer was still where everyone had told us where it was. When our primary oncologist got the fluid culture results a few days after we were admitted she was more enthusiastic than we had ever seen her in a long time because she initially thought we were here because the cancer had spread and she was confident then that it hadn't. Why it took a pulmonary specialist (not trained as an oncologist) to diagnose a problem the oncologists repeatedly missed is beyond me. All of the doctors have fallen in step behind the pulmonary doctors diagnosis, though, even our primary team oncologist who just the week before confidently told us the lung problems were not cancer related.
That is the status of now and she is heading to an rehabilitation center in Sugarland, TX to help for the next couple of weeks with her breathing and therapy with her trac tube. Hopefully she will be home in 2-3 weeks!
Brandon and I were up in Houston for 2 weeks visiting and helping out. Aaron was out with us the first week for Thanksgiving break and he needed to go back to work. We will be heading back out there for Christmas for a week on the 23rd. We believe strongly in the power of prayer has gotten us through the tough times. This is when I am blessed to have a strong willed Dad and my sisters around to support during this difficult time with my Mom's breast cancer. Also having an supportive husband! Can't believe next week is Christmas! Thank you everyone for their love and support!
