Doctors, doctors, doctors, pills, pills, pills

Lauren took Kathie in to get an x-ray around 10:30 to check for fluid in the lungs. The x-ray actually showed she had less liquid than she did on the last check... that was the good news. The bad news is that we had no explanation for why she was having a difficult time breathing. The x-ray did show her diaphram was a little elevated - but we don't know if that was in comparison to the previous x-ray, or just in general. A little while after getting home, Dr. Cusack's office called asking Kathie to come in there (they had arranged the x-ray), so they could give her a little more thorough check-up.

At Dr. Cusack's he didn't notice anytihng that caused him any more concern than the general situation, so we went on our way from there. Dr. Cusack did suggest taking some pain medication to relieve the feeling of pressure, and wrote her a prescription for a new one. Kathie took that immediately and it did quickly relieve some of her shoulder pain (an off-shoot of the liver pain) and the liver area also eventually felt a little less troublesome.

Kathie was moving slowly, but still moving;) After taking the pain medication, Lauren and her headed to the wig shop, which of course was freakishly closed (the hours said it should have been open - so the guy may have been on vacation or something). They had a little time, so they then tried the sporting good store for a good water bottle and then the bookstore for a paint book - walking away with nothing from either. At 4, Kathie had doctor's visit 3 (though this one was planned in advance), she had her stitches in her nose removed.

The appointment at the dermotologist went much better than the day she went in for surgery. The nurse who took out the stitches did a great job, and Kathie didn't even feel it. Bob called as Lauren and Kathie were leaving the office to see if Kathie felt up to eating out - she was feeling pretty good, so the three of us met up at Chili's. The half rack of ribs sounded good to Kathie and she ate most of those and was in good spirits throughout dinner. Bob had thought that perhaps some of her symptoms were due to acid reflux (something they had also brought up at M.D. Anderson), so he got her some pepcid, which seemed to help a lot with some of her discomforts. She was still feeling good after dinner, so Lauren and her went around to some of the restaurants that were around that area who offer pick-up and got some menus for the future.

The weather was great in Lafayette today, and was still gorgeous when the three of us got back from dinner, so we went on a 15 minute walk. Kathie did great on the walk in comparison to some of her earlier walks. Lynette called shortly after they returned from their walk, and while Kathie was talking to her, she got really nauseous, and then got sick for the first time in awhile. Lynette wanted me to mention that as soon as she returned to the phone, she picked up in the conversation where she had left off! Kathie felt fine after throwing up and unfortunately, the vomitting could be tied to a number of variables, so we're just going to go with that it sucked.

About an hour and a half later, she got sick again - and again, felt pretty much fine afterwards... no residual nausea - but after the second time, she got a little more cautious and decided to settle on the couch for awhile. After making a few phone calls (she's trying to get to everyone who has called - but it's going to take awhile!) she hit the hay a little before midnight. We'll see what tomorrow brings, today was not the day Kathie or Lauren had planned!

Posted by Lauren