It has been a couple of days since I posted anything. Overall quite well. On
Friday I noticed a little red area above my central IV line that was called
a Hickman line. It continued to get worse over the afternoon so we contacted
resident who contacted interventional radiology who took out the line. It
now seems very clear that infection around that line was the source of the
early infection I had even before starting chemo. That responded to
vancomycin and I have been without fevers since then. Now that the line is
gone the area is reducing in redness and everything is improving. Worse part
is now I am stuck twice a day for blood draws; but the drawers are so good
it is not a big deal.

I am noting some additional side effects of chemo-mostly gum tenderness. But
no hair loss whatsoever yet and no diarrhea. My white counts continue very
low and I will probably need a red cell transfusion tomorrow.

I have been on the antibiotic vancomycin for around 1 week so not
surprisingly I came back with resistant organism in my gut. Unless they had
really succeeded in sterilizing my GI track any normal bacteria present
would need to be vancomycin resistant. Practically, this mean that all staff
who have any contact with me have to gown and glove. And then wash before
leaving the room. At least it assures I won¹t get any infection from the
staff!! And in a hospital the chief place you get infections are from the
doctors and nurses who carry around resistant organisms. It also means I
have to change into a fresh gown if I leave my room.

But I remain overall pretty healthy and in good spirits
Elizabeth

I am hooked up to Skype

Here with a videocamera and mike. In case anyone wants to try this. My
skype name is eaypgh
Elizabeth

Soups

I know not all of you are soup makers so some people volunteered to buy
soups. However I really can't eat them unless they are prepared exactly
according to standards given in the cooking guide and the only way to know
that for sure is if you cook it. I am sure we have soups in our freezer
prepared by me but I won't eat those either. There are a number of oddities
like no seasonings added at the end etc. So it is extremely important to
adhere exactly to these guidelines. Right now my life literally depends upon
this.
I am sure there will be many tasks down the road where your help will be
appreciated so that you can do something other than soups then.
Elizabeth

Never updated anyone today

Still feeling well but my hemoglobin was 7.7 below the critical threshold of
8, so they transfused me 2 units. Had some time to read the Science Times
and Peter visited and read a New Yorker article to me. Now just hanging out
waiting for things to continue to happen
Elizabeth

Doing well today

And will get the continuous IV infusion stopped today which will free me
from IV's and poles and pumps in between antibiotic infusions which are
every 6 hours but only 60 minutes or so
Elizabeth

Back again

Glad Peter posted the pictures but I told him some of them don't look that
cheery because look like a standard hospital room. But really what I see is
the wonderful wall with multiple photos of our garden and other close-up of
flowers and a picture Sienna and another of scenes from Greece. And I can
see out the window well to views of campus and beyond.
What he forgot to say was to bring soup to him at our home not to hospital
because that way he can manage flow and can freeze some for later if too
much etc. I wanted some soups with vegetables as a way of dealing with
absence of vegetables and fiber here. But soups don't need to be vegetarian.
Glad to know you are all in there rooting for me
Elizabeth

Food for Elizabeth

Here she is today -- looks pretty healthy to me!

Elizabeth has expressed a desire for some good soups that she could have for lunch. The food they offer for lunch just isn't what she wants so soon after breakfast -- she wants something lighter. They should be ones with lots of vegetables -- on the hospital diet it's hard to get enough fiber and vegetables -- and thoroughly cooked to be free of any bacteria, molds, etc. Here is a link to some instructions
for preparing food to be brought into the hospital -- it says it's for transplant patients, but it is designed with precautions for anyone with a compromised immune system.

So everyone can see where she is spending her days I took a few photos of the hospital room -- it's not a fine resort, but it is reasonably cheery.