Hospital

We have a rather unnerving hospital stay underway this evening. Whitney took Maggie in at 12:30 so they could check her Oxygen saturation numbers, and they are similar to yesterday, 86 to 88. She didn't have a fever, nor did she look to Dr. French or the nurses to be sickly in appearance. However, her respiration rate is close to 50 breaths per minute and she shouldn't have oxygen sat numbers that low. Dr. French is puzzled because her recent chest x-rays were unremarkable and her lungs sound clear. She does continue to have a cough.

So they admitted her as something definitely is going on and she needs to be on oxygen. The hypothesis that we are kind of fixated on as the cause is chemotherapy toxicity, or damage or side effects from the chemo. This is floating around our heads due to research we've done, feedback from a disgruntled cancer mom that Whitney ran into in a lobby, and based on preliminary ideas from the medical staff. Maggie's oral chemo that she takes weekly has a fairly rare, but potentially significant side effect of causing lung trauma or inflammation.

The problem with chemo toxicity of this kind would be that that particular chemo drug, if not all of her chemo, could/would be discontinued. Though we are a few steps away from making that decision, it would be potentially scary. The protocol that Maggie is on calls for 24 months of treatment, and we are just shy of 20 months. Beyond that, we don't know for sure if the damage to her lungs could be chronic.

Back a few steps--we just received word late this evening that a thorough set of tests are scheduled for tomorrow AM, including an EKG and heart ultrasound (there are no signs of this being a heart problem, but they need to rule it out because some heart issues cause respiratory distress). The bigger deal is a CT scan of her lungs and airway to see if there is inflammation or scarring that could identify the problem. If that doesn't give us all the answers we need, a bronchial something-or-other will happen. This involves full sedation and intubation--apparently they spray saline or some fluid into the lungs and then draw it back up so that they get some lung tissue that they can test. (Medical professionals who are reading this post are now either laughing or cringing with my poor descriptions). A pulmonologist will be calling the shots and letting us all know what the problem is.

As I finish up the post tonight, Maggie is starting to get used to the oxygen tube in her nose, is being a little bit ornery (a good thing), but is also starting a low-grade temp of 100.1.

Please keep Maggie in your prayers. Also, one of our favorite cancer families needs your prayers in a big way--Lincoln and family.