But. It turns out the big problem at the moment is the dehydration, which is what's caused the vomiting - toxins building up, kidney function reduced by dehydration. The leukemia is 'relapsed' - which means that it's active, which I thought it has been all along - but according to the haematologist the prognosis is 'months rather than weeks'. given that we'd been thinking 'days rather than weeks' it is far better news. there's a part of me that flinches from the idea that she has to go on being horribly ill but hopefully the fluids and transfusion will improve her enough to make all the indignities worth it.
the next issue becomes where she goes next - back to the specialist dementia care where the level of nursing care isn't there, or into nursing or hospice care where I don't know if the understanding of dementia is there. the hospital staff, great as they are - don't have that understanding; I can tell people again and again that she has short term memory issues and problems with process memory but they'll still expect her to remember instructions while they go out of the room and come in again, or do things in a new way like using a bed pan rather than a commode. Will try phoning Macmillen again tomorrow, I couldn't get through today - thanks
dr_pete.so my expectation is it's going to be pretty draining while they get her stabilised and we decide on where is best for her to go, less draining while she's there and more draining next time she has another dip or starts the final decline. lengths, angles and other measures all absent of course, so I shall carry on taking the best care of myself I can as well as the best care of her I can.
We were supposed to go to Beijing in 2 weeks; I'd been assuming we'd have to cancel. I'm still very much in two minds.
