12/7/03:
They are not treating the liver at all --- they are trying to get rid of the spinal cord abscess --- which, I guess, they think is a more immediate problem. Everything I’ve been able to find on the web about spinal abscesses says that they require “URGENT” surgery. But she doesn’t have the option because of the damaged liver. She’s on six-weeks of antibiotics, then they’ll do another MRI. I think they’re in the fourth week now. But again, from what I’ve read, the antibiotics will not penetrate the abscess.
Until this week I did think she was improving. She wasn’t as groggy as in the beginning and wasn’t sleeping as much. But this past week has been all down hill. She was without a catheter for about thirty-six hours --- but that’s back in. And back in a hospital gown too. Until yesterday she was asking for the bedpan for bowel movements, now she’s just pooping in the bed. Another spinal abscess symptom. Urine, which was black until the day after I posted the original prayer thread, remains reddish. At one point it turned to a darkish yellow for a day or two. Eyes remain white but there is a yellow tinge beneath them.
She is not eating; her face is becoming thin as the rest of her body swells. Her torso and legs are gigantic. I can hardly fit a sock on her foot --- I’m bringing down crocheted booties today, they’ll stretch. She’s always cold. I tucked her in last night with three blankets and wrapped another around her head. I’m bringing a hat too. It’s supposed to go down to freezing here tonight.
They have those pulsating leg thingies on her now and have put a trapeze above her bed --- so she can grab with her arms to try to move. She’s just about paralyzed --- has trouble turning her head. She cannot roll over by herself to get cleaned. If unabated, the progression of the spinal cord abscess is severe permanent paralysis and neurological damage --- and possibly death. Her breathing was labored last night and she’s had a cough for a few days. Her speech is slurred --- very slurred --- I have trouble understanding anything she says. ‘Tho everything she’s been saying is so confused --- she’s paranoid --- if it’s not the ‘army people’, it’s someone stealing something from her at her home back in New Jersey, or people hiding in the bathroom.
Marilyn’s being hit hard by two different things right now and I don’t know if she’s going to make it. She’s so weak.
On top of it all, she has no medical insurance and the hospital has been bugging me about her assets. As they’ve pointed out, she owes them hundreds of thousands of dollars and they want to put her on Medicaid after taking just about everything she owns. She recently relocated to Florida from New Jersey and wasn't able to find employment here yet. She wanted to leave a hospital setting and either work with animals in her new life or in a doctor's office on a part time basis.