The St. Mary Hotel

Last Friday night my mom stayed the night at St. Mary Medical Center. The nurse at discharge told her she just wanted to have a night at the hotel. Hahah!!

Maybe he was right, because she spent the night at "The Saint Mary Hotel" last night and will tonight as well.

Yesterday, my mom went to her doctor's office in Philly to get a unit of platelets. After coming home she was doing okay, but around 5 pm she began to get really cold and experience some chills. The doctor on call recommended she take another Benadryl as it's likely an effect of the transfusion. She did, but after taking it and seeing her temperature continue to rise, the doctor asked her to go the local hospital to have blood cultures drawn.

We arrived at the Emergency Department at St. Mary Medical Center at around 9:30 pm. We didn't wait too long in the ED waiting room before they took her back to a room in the West Wing of the Emergency Department. While down there they drew several big tubes of blood for blood cultures, gathered a urine sample, monitored her vitals, did an EKG, took some chest x-rays and tried to keep her warm and bring down her temperature.
(While she was doing all that, i was trying to keep from being nosy, people-watching amidst all the hustle and bustle of the Emergency Room on a Friday night!!)
They ran fluids and started giving her antibiotics. At around 1:30 AM she was finally brought up to a room on the Oncology Floor -- where our whole adventure with leukemia began. The evening was pretty quiet. Throughout the night they ran fluids and antibiotics. By morning her fever was down and she was feeling better. She's still cold, but better.

A local hematologist/oncologist who is familiar with her case (he was the original doctor who diagnosed her) came by to see her as well as a doctor from infectious diseases. They all pretty much believe that she is having a late reaction to the platelets she received yesterday -- not an infection.

From looking at her chest x-rays and the cultures so far it doesn't look like there is any infection. They are waiting a bit longer to give any other bacteria time to grow (if they exist) in the cultures. As long as nothing grows and her temperature continues to stay down... she should go home tomorrow.

Please pray that she continues to be infection-free!! Pray the cultures would confirm that there is no infection. Continue to pray specifically that her port would be free from infection.

It can be emotionally and physically draining going through all these treatments and being in and out of hospitals. I am thankful for the strength, courage, peace and comfort that God has poured out on my mom (and dad). Would you pray for a continued abundance of peace, strength, comfort and hope on them?

I'm off to head back to the "Saint Mary Hotel." Hoping for a quiet rest of the day and evening ... and an early morning check out!