Thursday, July 02, 2009

Not fun at all

Hi everyone:

Dr. Costanzo visited Patty a short while ago. She expressed concern that Patty was not producing urine at a normal rate, given the fluids she's been receiving. She also reviewed Patty's labs and charts and said that Patty's haemoglobin was quite low. She decided to administer a unit of blood, which of course set off the infamous Antibody Alarm bells in my head. When I asked Dr. Costanzo if these could cause Patty's antibodies to increase, she said, "Increase to what?" Not much ambiguity in that response, would you agree? It's one of the many reasons we love Dr. Costanzo so much.

Patty is also very "dry", so much so that Dr. Costanzo can hear the brushing of the Heart Net against the inside of Patty's pericardium (I immediately pictured a tumbleweed trapped against the swinging doors of a saloon...where did that come from?)

None of these issues are, from what I've been told, any real cause for worry. So, of course, I'm worried sick.

Have you ever felt what I'm feeling? That doctors, nurses and any other sort of expert can tell you that everything's just fine, and on the surface you have no reason at all to doubt them--and yet there's still that niggling voice, that annoying hunch, that very subtle sense that there's something they may be missing that you're picking up on only because you know this person so well? I'm not suggesting any of these concerns are especially serious, just that once again Patty is enough different from the norm to puzzle those caring for her. This sounds so arrogant of me, and actually a little nuts, and that's not my intent. Patty's in great hands. I'm no expert. I just so much want this experience to end up being everything Patty hoped it would be.

More than anything, I want doctors and nurses to stop telling me there's no reason to worry about my best friend. She's my best friend--that's reason enough.

So, the upshot of all of this is that I'm planning to spend another night here, and Patty can likely anticipate spending several more nights here. What a joy!

Sorry for the stream of consciousness shit about my feelings...this blog has for the longest time been the best therapy both for Patty and for me.

Love,
Brian

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