Hospitalized

Iva is still in the hospital. She had another really high fever--about 103 for 5 hours today. She shivered so much and for so long, her muscles ached, especially her leg that has been bothering her.

The hospital finance people have been by to see Iva at least twice to discuss the all important issue of "How are you going to pay for this?" They have already said she does not qualify for state or county assistance, which is no surprise since she is not a resident, but interestingly, the hospital has its own charity program that she can apply for. In 6 weeks we will find out if she is a charity case or not.

Tonight she had a CT scan for the restaging. Since she was already in the hospital, her doctor ordered the test. She was too weak to go by wheelchair, so she went to the test by hospital bed. She drank half of the contrast and promptly threw it up. So they gave her the IV contrast instead. Hopefully tomorrow we will know the results. This test will show whether she has any new metastases or growth in the 2 existing tumors. She may still need an MRI for the spine metastasis. No one has told us for sure.

The blood cultures so far have not been consistent with the type of infection they thought she had. Initially, the oncologist assumed it was a PICC line infection, since it is common. However, the cultures are more consistent with a urinary tract or digestive tract bacteria. So they are changing her antibiotics and we will see. We can only pray that they know what they are doing and that this new fever does not represent a new infection picked up at the hospital, which is, unfortunately, more common an occurrence than it should be.

The house has been still and less full. None of us is enjoying it. We pray that Iva is home soon.