4/30

A full month has passed. The most recent photo, from Monday, is here.

Some observations. We have met some great people, especially the IN staff and WN. CT has been equally great. The admin staff is polite and friendly, we seldom 'check in' as they see us coming and get us logged in with almost never a wait. We try to be on time for appointments and it is great that we seldom have much if any wait.

The doctors. Frankly people, you need to work better. DrPRI has recovered some from her earlier hysterics and the numbers from yesterday's blood tests will (HOPEFULLY) end them. DrIV is as cold as ice. We have only seen him twice and that was 3 times too many. DrIV#2, off to a good start.

I have not always been polite, and frankly, am a pretty forceful advocate for Victoria. In most cases, the result has been good. Last word before today's report card: WN is worth her weight in gold. The medical group that she works for owes her a debt a paycheck and gold watch can never, ever repay - and neither can we.

3:30pm
BugN appointment to go over the blood work up and prescriptions. We still have another 10-20 days of IV but we didn't discuss it much. Renewed the prescription for the oral antibiotics and suggested that the iron supplements may be having a negative impact. I didn't tell her, or Victoria til later, I stopped the iron when Victoria started having 'issues' (constipation). Here are the results of the blood work:

Comparisons are yesterday to 3/27 tests:
Creatinine 2.2, up from 2.6 (this measures kidney function and lower is better)
Hemoglobin 8.8 up from 8.2 (this is the anemia indicator, it is up from 7.1 on 4/1) GREAT!
Sed rate 93 down from 120 (an infection marker that is down, still high but trending)
CRProtein 26 down from 151 (the other infection marker, another good move down)

There are more than a dozen tests reported and all of them show improvements and positive trends.

The time with BugN was short and pleasant. Off to IN and IV

Got situated and started. Oh. BP is 142 and temp normal. 32 minutes later, all done and head for home. We were told that we get to sleep in over the weekend; Victoria's IV appointments were both moved back from 8am to 8:15am. Great huh!?!