GOD SAVE THE QUEEN

After two months of posting mostly fluff, this is my most difficult post to date. This is for those of you who click in to get updates on Angelique.

As you may know, this Friday is the third anniversary of her diagnosis of cervical cancer. After three years of radiation, chemo, radical hysterectomy, more radiation, then more chemo, then chemo again (and more pills than China has rice), she is not going to have chemo anymore. Yesterday morning her oncologist and she decided that the Taxol, the second tier of drugs in her cancer battle, is not affecting the tumor(s).

She was admitted to Seton Medical Center yesterday about noon. The initial objective was to get her pain under control and get a catheter into her bladder. During her week-long trip to the coast, she began to experience swelling in her feet, ankles, and face. She asked aloud last Tuesday, in Port O’Connor, “do you think I should call the doctor?” Of course, the unanimous answer was the question, “will you leave here to go see the doctor?” As you might expect, she did not make any call to any doctor.

Turns out, her doctor thinks the swelling is a symptom of her not being able to empty her bladder due to the location and the growing size of the tumor. As of yesterday, her kidney counts were up, she was in intolerable pain, and the doctor put her in the hospital to get a catheter in her and relieve her immediate misery.

Well, after two unsuccessful  attempts by the nurses, the urologist finally inserted a catheter into her bladder. She immediately released about one liter of fluid. In doing so, her bladder went into spasms, from being so full to being so drained so suddenly. Needless to say, this caused excruciating pain on top of the pain she already had. A helluva deal for being in the hospital for “pain management” to begin with.

After enough morphine to choke an elephant, she fell asleep to fight another day…

That day was today. It began with a visit from her oncologist. The oncologist’s assessment wasn’t exactly positive. Hospice was put back on the table, as were terms like “go home and get your affairs in order”.  But Angelique finally began to show signs of feeling better. She bitched about the food. She bitched about all the goddamn noise those machines in her room were making. She bitched about how long it took the staff to respond to her touches of the nurse-call button. Bitching=feeling better!

And then……………………….and then………………….and then……………….SHE HAD A BOWEL MOVEMENT!!!!!!!!!!! GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for caring. Stay tuned.