July 12, 2026 - Back in the Hospital

Andy - I think we have a problem

Nothing good starts with the words, Andy... I think we have a problem. But after Tami's Saturday afternoon nap, that was the wake up call. The problem in this case was unexpected bleeding. So, we contacted the Kaiser clinical advice line, who, after looking at Tami's medical record, advised us to go to ER. So, off to ER we went. They wanted to keep Tami overnight for observation. After 5 hours of being there, there was no further bleeding.  So, Tami opted to go home, with the agreement that, if it happened again, we would come back. So, we signed the discharge "Against Medical Advice" (AMA) forms and went home.  

Sunday morning confirmation  

It didn't take long to realize the bleeding was not a one time occurence.  The next morning the evidence was back. So, again, off to ER we went. This time, Tami allowed the admission for observation to occur. 

They performed a procedure to try to determine the cause of the bleeding. The procedure found the general area of the bleeding, they could not get directly to the source to stop the bleeding due to a tumor blocking access to the source. 

The Pickle

Since Tami has a blood clots in her legs, the doctors can't give her clotting agents. In fact, until Sunday morning she was on a heparin based blood thinner called lovenox. For obvious reasons, I didn't give it to her Sunday, and the doctors did not give her any during her stay. So, there is a concern about not treating the clotting, and the bleeding causing impactful blood loss. 

To determine how impactful the blood loss is, part of the observation is to track and trend Tami's hemaglobin and hematocrit levels every 6 hours.  Over the past three days, the amount of blood loss has not been enough to negatively impact these readings. 

One recommendation was to radiate the tumor to shrink it to get to the source of the bleeding. But, having heard the burning and discomfort related to radiation, Tami is not comfortable with that option. So, since the bleeding does not appear to be bad enough to require immediate remediation, we are going home and will monitor it. If it increases, we will reassess. 

One positive thing did happen while Tami was in the hospital. They were able to successfully insert the PICC line, so we can resume chemo. 

More to come....

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