I spoke with Kassie this morning and she is having a bit of a down morning. Last night she had some diarrhea (at least 3 times), general stomach upset, and was just not feeling well. She was given some tums and other otc meds to help with the discomfort.
At this time she is on 2 IV antibiotics and 1 antibiotic by mouth. They are working on ruling out C. Diff before they give her any medication for the diarrhea. C.Diff is a hospital acquired infection that can occur when a patient is on many antibiotics. Essentially, everyone had good bacteria in their intestinal tract. We take antibiotics to get rid of the bad bacteria in our body, but those antibiotics can also kill the good bacteria. When those good intestinal bacteria get killed off, the patient can get a very serious case of diarrhea. This is not your run of the mill runs. It can cause serious problems if not treated within an appropriate time frame. THAT BEING SAID. She's all good. They will be taking some stool samples and checking her out for C.Diff. It's easy to treat with IV or by mouth medications. Once C.Diff is ruled out, they can give her some Imodium or other medication to help with the diarrhea.
She currently has a little cough and they will be getting a chest x-ray to check it out. Normally they can come and do the chest x-ray in the room, so that limits her exposure to the hospital and possible infections. Nice.
A new development is that she has a rash on her hand(s) and around her hairline that is looking a little worse today than yesterday. This could be due to the chemo, or it could be some infection. Today Dermatology will be coming by to check it out. Kassie seems to thing that it's from the hand soap or the hand sanitizer.
Kassie also seems really down. She was upset with some of her care overnight (which I'm sure it didn't help that she was feeling unwell). I encouraged her to speak with the charge nurse if she needed to. But she made a comment about wanting to skip Christmas this year. I sympathized that it stinks to be in the hospital, especially during the holidays, but to not cut the holidays out just because she wasn't feeling well. Just to take each day in stride. We all love her and want the best for her!
So, I think that she just needs some extra love today. If you get the chance to give her a quick call or send her a card, she'd love it.
And my psa every day, if you are feeling any kinds of sick- Please do not visit her. Even if you promise to wear a mask. It's just not worth it at this point in her care. If you do visit, please wash your hands. I would recommend to wash you hands with soap and water at this point in time due to the diarrhea. If it is C.Diff, hand washing is the required hand hygiene, the Purell. I'll step off of my soap box now. :-)
Ok. Thanks for reading!
Love,
Paige and Kassie
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