January 4, 2014

Four hours after we had the catheter put in and the initial drainage, we found ourselves going back to Parkview because Cathy's gauze was saturated due to leakage. They drained another liter of fluid and sent her back home thinking the leakage would stop since the pressure was off. However, the saturation continued about every four hours and I went ahead and drained her every time that happened. (The visiting nurse had NOT been here yet to show me the proper procedure, because they don't come out until the day AFTER she is released from the hospital). Fortunately, I was able to see how they drained her when we went back to the hospital to get the 2nd drainage done.( I usually got .3 - .5 liter of fluid with each drain.) I had to close New Years' Day, but have since taken a week of vacation to try and get some structure set up.

The visiting nurse, Vicky, came out 5:30 pm Thursday and did a drainage and checked her out. She called the next day and said we needed to have the catheter site checked by the surgeon because it should not be saturating her every 4 hours. Sooooo, back to Parkview on Friday around 2 pm. They removed the saturated gauze and tried to drain her but could only get about 2 TBSP of fluid (but caused a lot of pain for Cathy). They did an ultrasound and found that there was no fluid to be gotten out--hence the pain was from apparently sucking the bowels up to the tubing on the inside! Most of the fluid that is still there is being trapped just under the skin in the cells (called edema) and this is not drain-able. The Dr. did check out the site and decided to put some 'super-glue' on it (really!!). It is the hospital version of super-glue. It has not saturated the gauze as of 11:00 am Saturday (as I type this). Yea!! He also said that we really shouldn't be draining more than once a day or even less---only as she requires it.

We also got the results from the initial fluid we had drained up in Chicago three weeks ago. They did not find any signs of cancer in the fluid! We are grateful to God for that! We are now trying to decide what form of treatment we need to pursue to once again bring the fight to the cancer. We have been in defensive mode for the past 2 months with low hemoglobin and fluid retention, but now its time to get on the offensive and bring the fight to the cancer. We are hoping to start some type of treatment this week, while I am still on vacation. If  Parkview will work with the Block Center, we would like to do something locally, especially with the winter weather forecasted! Please pray that we will pursue the right treatment plan that will get immediate results without the harsh side effects that Cathy really doesn't need at this point in time.  

Just as an aside, Cathy was not the first Guntle to take a trip to the doctor in 2014, that honor went to our 2nd oldest daughter, Christina, whom I had to take to Redimed New Years morning because her throat was hurting real bad---you guessed it---Strep throat! The P.A. on duty suggested that the rest of the family gargle with hydrogen peroxide and benadryl to kill the strep bacteria before it takes hold. Hope it works! So far, no other signs of strep!

Mike