A Cancer Survivor & Fighter's Blog
Almost a week with no posts and now two in one day! I finally got home on time today after two days of insanity. The sad thing was another baby died today. It was the 23 weeker I took care of on Monday. I was orienting to discharge planner again and during rounds I was watching the little guy have a desat and then get suctioned…when the nurse started clearing the catheter I saw a long stream of blood go through. This is now the 4th pulmonary hemorrhage I’ve seen and every time I’ve seen blood come up it’s been a herald sign for disaster. He also had a huge pneumo. The only good thing was the parents were able to watch the code and then hold him when we took him off of support. Every code I have seen the parents say it gives them so much more comfort to see that everything was done for their baby than to wonder what their last minutes were like.
In happier news my parathyroid function is back! I got results from the test last Friday and the level is up to 22 (above 13 is normal). No more massive caclium pills 3x per day. The next test I’ll have is retaking the urine iodine to see if it is still in the 100′s. I think my endocrinologist said it needs to be below 50 to do the RAI.
My name is Kate Stowell. I’m a cancer survivor two times over! I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 1997 and diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer in 2009. Besides surviving cancer, I am a graduate of SUNY Geneseo (2004) and SUNY Binghamton (2006) and work as a registered nurse in a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I have two wonderful children, a loving husband, and a sweet black lab. The purpose of this blog is to keep a record of all the ups and downs my growing family goes through both during treatment and everyday life. I welcome questions and comments. Welcome!
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