As The Week Wears On

Well, the week is almost over and Jerry has stayed pretty much the same this week.

He has managed to maintain his blood pressure consistently over the past 3-4 days without being on the blood pressure medicines - a feat we are very glad to have hit. The dialysis is still working fairly smoothly with the machine pulling off 100 ml/hour of excess fluid in him.

Wednesday was a good/bad day. Jerry was very alert and aware of everyone in the room- and he let you know when he wanted you! The bad part of Wednesday was that his color wasn't the best - he was really yellow and hands/feet were extremely puffy.

Today he is alert once again and (to my eyes) his hands do not look as puffy. His feet are still very puffy, but he had a lot of excess fluids in him, so it will take time. The hope is to keep his blood pressure consistent over a period of time and then they can pull more fluids from him to help reduce the puffiness that has become Jerry. He would hate me saying it, but his feet are in the running (haha) to compete with the Michelin Man or the Stay Puft Marshmallow man. Eeks.. might have gotten myself in trouble with THAT one, they are puffy but not hideous .. and I hope people realize this as an exaggaration to a point.

One not so great thing this morning is that they have him on the respirator and it's currently breathing for him. The past 4-5 days (maybe longer), Jerry has been doing all the work himself. THey turned him up on it last night (late) and he hasn't been able to tolerate breahing wihtou the machine.

Our fingers are crossed that the additional fluids they are pulling off him as well as him being able to keep his blood pressure up will work in his favor so we can get the tube off of him ASAP.

The Oncologist visited this morning and said that all of his numbers look good (3 of 4 good) except his BellyRibbon number was very high (he's at a 20, should be at a 1-2). This is what is making him so yellow and causing back up of fluids and such. She is recommending an additional CT scan and ultrasound of his liver to see if the Chemo has helped any/none and to see if there is any blockage or such in the liver.

In the meantime, we continue to screen, grill and motivate the doctors and nurses around here to do the best for our Jer and help us get him better.