Hospital

On May 2nd I noticed Gam had blood in her stool.  The days before that she had said she had really sharp pains in her lower abdomen off and on.  So I had made a Dr. appointment with the Dr who had overseen her surgery back in October, to see if it was caused by any complications to the stint that was put in.  While at UCLA the Dr. said the bloody stool really worried him, so he wanted her to be admitted to the hospital.  Naturally Gam was not going to have it, she did not want to go back to the hospital.  Even after being told by the Dr. she turned to me and said, "Ali, what do you think I should do?"  I told her if the Dr. thought that was best then she should probably just be admitted until they could figure out what was wrong, because I would feel much safer with her here.  She agreed and after a couple hours waiting for a room, they told us they were minus 3 in the hospital so told us to go down to the ER and try to get in that way.  We went down to the ER and were immediately put into a room in the Emergency Room.  They ran tests, drew blood, took samples, did X-rays and Cat scans, etc.  but wouldn't tell me anything.  Finally at about 9:30pm (after coming in at 9am)  they told us that she had a 6cm mass on her cecum, which is where the small intestines meet the large intestines.  They said they needed to operate immediately while she was still alert and stable, because at this point she had been going to the bathroom at least every 20 minutes and losing a lot of blood.  Just before midnight I walked up with Gam to the operating room and we said our "see ya laters", and she was off for surgery.  I felt so sad walking out of that hospital alone, and coming back to an empty house.  The Dr called me later that night to let me know that everything had gone well in the surgery.  I visited her a day after her surgery and she was pretty tired but in good spirits.  She stayed in the hospital for almost a week.  They found out the mass was cancerous, but they believe they got it all.  After a few days of being home she still had extremely loose bowels and was very dehydrated, so had to go back into the hospital (Los Robles) for a few days.  She is now home and doing well.  We have had a few close calls in the last few days, where she kept having loose bowels and was dehydrated, yesterday she fell while going to the bathroom. But she has been extremely resilient, and so far has not had to go back into the hospital (fingers crossed/ knock on wood)

In good spirits just before going in for surgery

One thing Gam enjoyed about UCLA hospital was all of the good looking Doctor's.  One male nurse was asking her questions as she was just staring and smiling at him, he asked, "and how old are you Florence?"  She responded, "65"  I kind of looked at her as the nurse was writing it down and said, "No, your 95."  Gam just turned her head and said, "Oh yeah, that's right.  A girl can dream."  

All day in the ER every time a new Dr or nurse would leave she would tell me how cute or good looking he was.  She told me, "I've always appreciated a good looking young man."

We went to the Dr Matzner a few days ago and Gam told him she just didn't feel like herself.  He said she was probably being overmedicated to eliminated some of her meds (yay!).  She was so excited, and said she felt better just after leaving his office.  She has started to have an appetite, well more like she has started having cravings.  So I find myself running to the store a few times a day to get her something she may actually eat.  The other day she asked me if I wanted to try the best hamburgers in the world.  I said well of course if they are the best in the world I better try them.  She then directed me to Carl's Jr.    

Eating Carls Jr. on the front Lawn

The other day I woke up and came downstairs and Gams bed was empty.  She has never got out of her bed alone, so you can imagine my panic.  Then I saw a tissue with blood all over it on the floor.  I walked into the bathroom to meet her as she was coming out on her walker.  She said, "Oh hi, I'm just going to the bathroom, I also got up in the night and took some excedrin for my headache."  I explained how worried I was, and asked if she was hurt or why there was blood.  She showed me that her scab on her hand had just come off.  The next night I explained that I needed to move her wheelchair away from her bed so that she couldn't get out, because she could really get hurt in the night.  When Montana was sleeping over that night Gam turned to her and jokingly said, "Isn't she mean, she moves my wheelchair far away from me so I can't get out of bed in the night."