A fractal is a geometric shape or pattern in nature that is made up of smaller parts that exhibit the same pattern. For instance, a tree is made up of branches, each of which looks like a small tree. Or a snowflake is often made up of smaller geometric shapes that, in turn, look like snowflakes. Well, this past few months has been a fractal, as well. I said yesterday that it felt like I was on a roller-coaster. The day started off well, then went downhill as they discovered the pneumonia and the doctors scrambled to develop a plan. Throw in a little miscommunication late in the evening, and you can see my point. But if that one day was a roller-coaster, it was also part of the larger roller-coaster that was the entire week. And that week was part of the even larger roller-coaster that has been the past six months. See where I'm going with this?
Anyway, in typical roller-coaster fashion, today is looking much better. After I had a chance to sleep on yesterday's events, I cooled off a bit and recognized that the miscommunication was not a huge, systemic problem, but rather what I like to call an "opportunity for improvement." I decided that there was no way that any surgery (or any other procedure, for that matter) was going to take place until I talked to the attending physician. They must have read my mind, because Dr. Vitale and Dr. Smith both came in this morning to talk to Marye and me. Well, just me, really, since Marye had just had a shot of dilaudid, so she was pretty well out of it.
But the good news is that they don't want to operate just yet. She is stable, and although her WBC count is still high, the other numbers regarding the various types of WBCs are looking better. They would rather not operate until the pneumonia is under control, so they're going to just watch her and reevaluate on Monday. If she does not improve (or gets worse), then they will likely go ahead and take her gall bladder. If she does show improvement, they might decide to leave the gall bladder in place with the drain so she can get back on chemotherapy sooner. The drain can stay in indefinitely, although they are not confident that it is exactly the right spot. So they may decide to try to reposition it. Again, though, she's in a holding pattern until at least Monday. She is in the Oncology ICU, so if there are any rapid changes for the worse, the staff here is qualified to handle it.
For now, things are quiet. She's resting well, and I'm calming down. I'll post a quick update tomorrow, but we shouldn't have too much activity until next week. Have a great weekend.
-Chris
