September 5, 2010-I'm Home

What an ordeal! Friday evening I started gushing so much blood that I thought I'd bleed to death right here. So I called the ER at St. Lukes. They advised me to call my doctor so I called the office, knowing full well I'd never get hold of my primary DR. I called and they had a Dr. DeJesus call me back. He said to get to the ER right away with that much blood loss so I called the ambulance around 9:30 or 9:45 that night. (Friday) I told the ambulance drivers not to have the lights or sirens on. I met them outside with my overnight bag ready. Got to the Er and I laid there in the damn hallway for a while and then they put me in a little room right there. I was downstairs in that ER for 15 hours before they finally admitted me Saturday afternoon at 1:30. Never had anything to eat but of course didn't want to. I had to ask for water and got it once during those 15 hours. One of the doctors on duty came in to talk to me at 3 am. Can't remember his name. He told me what I already knew. That nothing can stop a cancer tumor from bleeding once it starts. It's useless to give blood transfusions too. He was only there for a second then another Dr. talked to me around 9 am that morning. He explained everything and said they would give me four units of blood and keep me on the Sodium Chloride drip because my blood pressure was way too low. Like 68 over 48 at one time. I told them not to waste the blood and then I settled for two units and resigned myself to the fact I'd have to spend Sat. night there. Each unit takes a few hours to be transfused. They started the blood about the same time they took me up to my room. They wanted to keep me there all weekend and then give me a Cat Scan to see where the bleeding was coming from. I told them where it was coming from but they didn't want to listen to me. And I also told them that I thought it was my fault by doing that baking soda enema the night before. I made it too strong and I think the baking soda burned the tissue. But they won't listen to little old me..Ha! Ha! The doctor did say the only way to stop that kind of bleeding was to take the tumor out but that wasn't always a guarantee either because it might have spread too far into my organs. I told him I'd worry about that when the time came.
I never slept until around 11:30 Saturday night after they took their last blood pressure check. 24 hours with no sleep just in the hospital! When I was getting the blood they had to come in every half hour. But I was done with the blood by 9:30 Sat. night. I did sleep for a few hours. At 4 am a girl came in to take a vial of blood. They have to wait 8 hours after the transfusion to see how the count is. I never did find out what it was. But I had lost about a quart of blood that whole day Friday. It was pouring out of so much that it even scared me! And I don't scare too easy but I knew it was making me very weak and that I was getting anemic again and might faint here and just die. That's why I decided to take an ambulance. I gushed a lot of blood at 5 am Sat morning and then it slowly subsided all day and all last night. I did have maybe two tablespoons and a few clots come out this morning but I did not tell anyone. I wanted to leave. I was on a strict liquid diet also and I might try to stay on it for a couple more days. I don't want to irritate that tumor so soon. Not taking any chances.
When they started the blood transfusions they gave me two Tylenol and a shot of Benadryl right into the IV line. Man, did that sting for a while till the Sodium Chloride solution finally flushed it. They said that was for inflamation in case the blood caused it. And if that blood had any allergic problems I could end up with them..Yikes! But so far no problems. Time will tell.
I kept asking the nurse this morning if that doctor was at the hospital and she kept saying yes. I said just make sure I see him. So in comes this different doctor that said the other one wasn't there and he was covering for him. I told him I wanted to be released and he had no problem with it. So now I'm home but still bleeding some and will watch myself. If it continues to get worse again then I will call the surgeon from Oneida that knows my case and ask him what to do. I sure didn't want one of those Dr's at St. Lukes doing it. I like Dr. DelPino and he takes the time to explain every detail. He was the one that was going to do my resection if I had gone through all the radiation treatments. he did tell me that he'd operate without it if I chose that way. Now if he can take that tumor out and give a permanent bag then I might have to do it. The cancer will probably spread like wildfire but it's going to anyway. All the doctors keep telling me that cancer does not spread by opening you up and it's never been proven. But I still believe it. It's going to spread one way or another anyway.
So that's where I'm at right now. pondering on what to do. I have to lie down because I am bleeding a little more now.
Take care everyone and thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. I'll keep you posted if things start going bad again. Love you all.
PS
My Cockatiel was so happy to see me that he got on my shoulder and wouldn't stop chattering to me and giving me hugs. So cute. Ha!