Home!

Ugh, I have been absent for a couple of days.  But, for a good reason.  Amy got transferred out of ICU and into the regular ward and it was a bit trying.  It's an old part of the hospital and the rooms are shared and very small.  They are the typical 50's institutional green and white - you get what I mean - and they just feel dirty even though they are clean.  You FEEL like you're in an institution.  About 30 minutes after they got her moved, they brought in a roomate and she was horrible.   NON STOP TALKING!  Didn't matter whether we pulled the curtain or tried to talk to each other, she just kept on and on incessantly.  Then, when it was time to go to sleep, she snored all night long.  Loud, old overweight man snoring!  Thank goodness, the next day she got discharged! 


It didn't appear Amy had any more fluid accumulating and her red blood cell count had dropped a little, but not enough where they were concerned there was internal bleeding.  They wanted to keep her and monitor her over the weekend to ensure she didn't have another effusion.  Her strength started coming back and she was feeling a lot better. 


In a nutshell, they believe a chemo pill she is on made room for a viral pneumonia which then led to inflamattion and bleeding/effusion in the pericardial wall of the heart.  The cytology results came back negative for melanoma!  They were certain it was melanoma that caused the effusion and thought a tumor had grown onto the pericardial wall, but cytology results disproved that.  So, we're happy that the cause was not melanoma related directly, but it was quite a week to say the least.  Thanks for all the support and comments.  Getting some sleep!