Welcome to Shirley's Page

Hello to Family and Friends. We have received many calls to find out how my mom is doing. That is why I created this blog. We will post an update daily to let you know how Shirley is doing. Please feel free to comment or ask questions. Steve and I will respond to these as well. Please understand that we are not doctors, so don,t be too harsh us if we spell a drug name wrong or use lay terms. Also, if you have questions for the doc, please let us know what they are and we will ask and post the answers for everyone.

So lets just jump in. Today is Wednesday, August 11th. My mom is still in ICU. Just to bring you up to date, my mom went in the hospital on Thursday of last week. She was taking Cumaden for a blood clot in her right arm. Unfortunately, her blood became too thin and she began bleeding. So she went to ER and was admitted. As of Monday, she was doing great, talking, eating and getting ready to go home. That was until later in the afternoon, when she had a seizure. To stop the seizure, they gave her Ativan to stop the seizure. This medication made her very lethargic and as a result they were worried that she could stop breathing. So Monday night, they brought her to ICU and put her on a breathing machine to be safe. Fortunately, today they took the breathing tubes out.

As a follow up to the seizure, they took a CT Scan on Monday. It showed that there was NO bleeding in the brain (from the blood thinner meds) thank goodness but that there is swelling in the brain from the tumor. To treat this she is receiving Dylanta to prevent future seizures and Decadron to reduce the in the swelling in the brain.

In the meantime, the Oncologist, told us that the tumor in her head may have grown. But the Neurologist said it may just be swelling. To find out what is going on, Mom just had an MRI. We dont know the results yet. But we will keep you posted.

If you have any questions, please let us know.