2014 STINKS!

Wow, after that one post, the crap really hit the fan in our family. My son has been in the hospital FIVE times this year. And it's barely March. WHAT? He started coughing up blood that first weekend in January, so they admitted him for a couple days to watch him, but it stopped. Toward the end of the month, it happened again, so another admission after 5 hours in the ER. Sent us home that Thursday late afternoon after 24 hours of no blood, but 2 hours after we got home, it started again, so back to the ER and they admitted us again. Over the weekend it increased a little at a time and then went crazy on Monday morning, so they took him to ICU, intubated him and did a procedure in interventional radiology. They seemed to think that did the trick and that Friday, we headed home again.

Had a follow up visit with his doctor the next Wed. and he was SICK, coughing quite a bit and we had to do another hospital stay while they added some IV meds and changed one of the other meds. That was Thursday to Monday in the hospital. With the new meds, they wanted twice weekly blood tests, so we had a home health nurse come by the house to draw blood. I also got sick, so we thought it might be a virus we picked up at the hospital. I finally had to go to my doctor last week to get some antibiotics, too.

This week on Wednesday was another follow up. Still not doing well. At 3:30 that morning, he sent me a one word text: "Blood" so I ran into his room and it was quite a bit again, but slowed on its own. Since the previous times it happened, when we went to ER, we didn't get a room for HOURS, so we decided to get some sleep at home and just go to his regular appointments. When I woke up, I called the nurse and gave her a heads up. She said we should probably expect the doctor to want to admit him again and I told her we figured as much and I'd already started packing a bag. So here we are again. He's super grumpy and not happy to have to come back. We didn't have the best luck with food service and the pharmacy getting his meds right last time, so he was hoping to just change meds and stay at home, but knew it wasn't going to be possible once the blood came up again. Ugh! Today they are looking at his liver, some of the tests came back elevated and it is common in Cystic Fibrosis to develop liver issues as well.

And in the midst of all of this, my dad has been diagnosed with liver cancer. Last week he had some delirium and ended up in the hospital, then moved to a rehab center over the weekend. His cognitive function is better, but the liver biopsy was not good news, he may be spending the rest of his days at that center. They have a hospice section as well.

AND one of my sisters is going through some testing that may involve cancer testing as well. So yeah, 2014 is not my favorite year. Is it over yet???? Whew! I'm tired. My theme song for 2014 is "Worn" by Tenth Avenue North.