So some people know that I was working at Pantheacon this past weekend and a family emergency came up and I had to leave on Saturday morning. So the situation is this- My dad and stepmom live in Orange County in Southern California. My stepmom was diagnosed with esophogeal cancer in December. She was already not in the best of health at that point. She started a chemo treatment in January and was about halfway through last Tuesday, 2/12. On that day, she was admitted to the emergency room as she had some issues that seemed to be getting worse. She was in Emergency for 2 days then transferred to ICU. I'm not exactly sure how things progressed because I wasn't called until Friday evening by my stepsister and told that things did not look good. So, of course, I went down on Saturday.
My other stepsisters (I have 3 total, 1 who lives 2 hrs from my dad and stepmom, 1 who lives here in the Bay Area and 1 who lives in Portland,OR) also came down that day so we could all see her and try to help my dad. My dad and stepmom have been married for 27 years so we do consider us all sisters. They are all older than me and married with varying amounts and ages of children. We took turns staying at the hospital with my dad during the day and overnight as well. We had to make sure my dad went home at night to try to get some sleep. He is not disabled but he has some health issues that he needs to watch so we wanted him to try to rest at night. He and I have not had a close relationship but I love him and want to make sure he's ok. He is not dealing well with the situation so my sisters and I are quite worried what will happen.
My stepmom's current condition, from what I'm told, is this- she developed an infection in her bloodstream caused by some bacteria that normally live in your intestines. Unfortunately, due to her compromised immune system because of the chemo, she was not able to fight it off as most people could. She weighs less than 85 pounds, and her white blood cell and platelet count is extremely low. Over the course of the time I was there, the counts did improve slightly each day and her blood pressure and breathing were not at a normal rate but they did seem to be stable and also improved slightly each day. However, the doctors are not being very optimistic. Their experience says the longer someone is in ICU, the lower the chance they have of recovery. And with her current condition, even if she fought off the infection, I'm pretty sure the best that would happen is her going to a nursing facility for her condition to be maintained. She is mostly out of it with very small spurts of her trying to say something but very slurred speech. She is able to breathe on her own and as of yesterday was being fed through a stomach tube and given antibiotics and other meds through an IV. There is an issue with her GI tract but they are unsure of what it is and will see how things go.
I am back home and working again but depending on how things go, I may be going down again for the weekend. My sisters and I think it would be best if she could let go. She was always quite active and stubborn and would not want to be like this. My dad, however, is an old-school husband. He is quite dependent on her. He can function by himself but he does not want to be without her. We did get him to sign a DNR order but she will be put on a ventilator if she needs it. Right now it is a waiting game. We will see how she does and go from there. If this turns into a long term situation, options and issues will need to be discussed obviously.
Thanks to everyone for all the thoughts and good wishes. I appreciate all of them. There isn't much to do at this point except wait. I will try to post an update if things change. After all this, all I can say is tell everyone you care about how you feel about them and take care of the important things in life, you, your family and friends. Also, everyone should think how you would want to be cared for in a grave situation like this. Please make your wishes known to your loved ones and do the legal documents for it if necessary. I hope everyone I missed there had a good P-con. Hope to see you all soon.
Current Mood: 
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