Yes, I'm Still Here.

I've been a bad girl. I didn't quite realize how long it had been since I posted in here until two friends wrote me privately last night. "I haven't heard from you, and I checked your blog, and ... are you alright?" Yes, I'm okay. It's been a rough week. (Scratch that. It's been a rough two and a half weeks.) And I feel like I've kind of been in a state of suspended animation. So ... to recap our week:

Mark was at OHSU until midafternoon yesterday. On Tuesday, they did a phlebotomy. Dr. Broberg (his cardiologist) doesn't like to do those, at all, but they really didn't have much choice with Mark. His blood was too thick for his heart to pump it effectively and so he wasn't getting enough oxygen. His heart was showing signs of weakening, and ... well, quite frankly, the pain in itself was just too much. So they went ahead and drew off 500 cc's of blood, 50 at a time, every 10 minutes. They gave him an iron infusion and lots of fluids, and he did fine. But he's still exhausted. While his hematocrit went down 10 points (which is a good thing), his oxygen saturation also went down 10 points (which is NOT a good thing!). See, you and I (unless "you" happen to have a condition like Mark's) would be pretty much milk toast if our saturations dropped into the low 90s. Mark's body has adapted to his blood being in the high 70s. (It's funny to see new nurses try to fix their "broken" machines when they are first getting acquainted with Mark.) Well, yesterday his O2 saturation was 65%. Very, very low. Hopefully, his body will do what it needs to do to bounce back and start carrying more oxygen, but for now, he's pretty worn out. However, the pain isn't nearly as severe, which is definitely something for which to be grateful.

He has a lot of fluid built up in his system right now. His feet are a little swollen, and his belly is quite swollen. His body may (or may not) take care of it on its own. In the fall, when he was in the hospital and received a lot of fluid, he wasn't able to use/expel it on his own. The lower half of his body swelled up monstrously, and he had to go back into the hospital for a couple of days so that they could put him on medication and this sort of leg compressor do-dad to help his body get rid of the fluid. I'm half expecting that we will be doing that again before the end of the weekend. Of course, I hope not! But I wouldn't be at all surprised. Better to be prepared, eh? So, we'll see. I'll try to do better about keeping all of y'all informed!