Subject: Lesley Update - 11/19

We're now home on the range.  Lesley's hospital stay (Wednesday-Monday)
was pretty uneventful.  The infectious disease folks determined what the
infection was and took her off all of the antibiotics except two.  To be
more precise, they took her off all of the antibiotics except one.  The
one they kept her on is Levoflox which is taken in pill form once a
day.  See:
http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/levoflox.htm

The neurosurgeon said, "I'm more conservative than they are," and kept
her on a second one that is administered intravenously (Ceftazidime).
See:
http://health.yahoo.com/health/Drugs_Tree/Medication_or_Drug/0638

They discharged Lesley on Monday after training me
on how to administer her IV medication.  Not to worry, it's not as bad
as it sounds.  There are no needles involved, it's all with connectors.
I connect one end of the tubing to the IV bag and the other end to her
PICC (see previous E-mail for what a PICC is).  We just have to be
careful to keep sterile things sterile, and to wipe the connectors with
alcohol wipes whenever making a connection.  I don't even have to wear
gloves or a mask (although it might improve my appearance :-)).  Before
connecting things up I have to administer a saline flush (3 cc's of
saline solution that I make up daily by filling syringes from vials),
then after her IV I have to do another saline flush and a Heparin flush
to keep her PICC tubing clear.  The IV is best delivered over 30 minutes
- so far I've been hitting 31 minutes (damn, I'm good!).  I have to give
her the IV every 8 hours (plus or minus 30 minutes) so we do it at 6 AM,
2 PM, and 10 PM.  I'm up at 5:30 warming the IV bag since it needs to be
refrigerated when stored for more than 24 hours, but is best given after
it warms up.  It's a tiring schedule, and yesterday I took a 2 hour nap
in the afternoon.

She'll be taking the IV for 2 weeks and the oral for 4 weeks.  No chemo
until she's done both. :-(

I bought her a hockey helmet which they fitted to her, but the
neurosurgeon won't let her wear it until some time after her stitches
are removed (this Monday, the 22nd).  Until then, she/we have to be VERY
careful to make sure she doesn't hit her head since there is a good size
piece of bone missing.  So, we're doing a bit of waiting on her
(although she still sneaks around to find things to clean up and go
through).  I also have to escort her up and down the stairs.

She is feeling OK.  She's worse on the aphasia (finding the right
words), a little down on her strength, taking an afternoon nap, and
pretty mild headaches that only occur once in a while.  She's still got
it intellectually, but getting it out is more difficult.

My folks are pretty much doing the running around for me with the kids'
appointments (although I ran out to bring back Great Wall Chinese on
Wednesday!) and taking care of the house, and I'm attentively attending
to Lesley.

I'm waiting for a routine to settle in to determine when/how much I can
return to work.  These 2 go-rounds have shaken me up a bit; I want to
know that Lesley is OK before I leave her for hours at a time.

Dave Baldauf, RN
--
Dave Baldauf, h/o Lesley, gbm, dx/srg 8/99, rad 9/99, rad completed
10/99, debulk srg 10/99, bone flap removal srg due to infection 11/99,
probably starting Temodar 12/99
mailto:dbaldauf@ultranet.com