Lynn's Illness...June 2015

So much has happened lately that its hard to know where to begin.  After our anniversary in June, Lynn refused to go to the hospital, even though he was not well and struggling to breath.
One Friday he had a scan scheduled at Huntsman Hospital for a regular check.  I told him we were not going home until he saw his doctor or his nurse.

Wanting to get a daytime oxygen tank for traveling, we had to get a doctors consent for insurance to cover it.  Lynn's doctor was not there, but his nurse was.  She informed us that the only doctors here were the ER doctors at the University Hospt.  which was next door.  She also lesson to Lynn's chest and said to get a xray of his lungs, for she could hear sounds in there.

As Lynn was explaining to the Dr why he needed a oxygen tank, I told him what the nurse had said about a xray.  I saw the xray when it came back....The Dr. said it looked like his lungs were full of cotton candy with water in the bottom.  Telling Lynn he was not going any where, they were going to keep him.

Two weeks Lynn was in the hospital, part of the time in the ICU.  Doctors were concerned that Lynn was not responding to the medications they were giving him and needed to get a biopsy from inside his lungs that would tell them what they were fighting, but Lynn was so week that they were afraid he wouldn't make it, as they had to put a tube down his throat to get a sample.

So they decided to put him on two different wide antibiotics, hoping it would give them a break to do the test.  Three days latter they were able to get the sample.  The new antibiotics had started working and the lab was unable to tell what was causing the problem.

Doctors discovered that his Myelofibrosis had advanced to Acute Leukemia which is very serious.


Oct 8 2015

A lot has happened with Lynn's health...Acute Leukemia, cancer of the blood, is very serious, and there is no cure for it.  Basically the bones have stopped producing blood cells and platelets, which one needs to survive.  Platelets only live 72 hrs. So when you receive a transfusion of them, they have to take account of when they were drawn from the donor.  Lynn is surviving on transfusions of Red blood cells and Platelets.

Lynn was kept in ICU for almost a month and a half, with about two weeks being moved to the fourth floor in between.  He was so sick I was not sure if he would pull through.  He also had gotten a infection called Bariese Syndrome.  All visitors and medical staff wore gowns, gloves, and mask.
One of the head Doctor on staff, informed me that Lynn may only have eight weeks to live.  As he is very sick, and with Leukemia, the body will go down.

Lynn is home now, its been going on two weeks. He goes to Hospital in Tooele, Mountain West Medical Center, Mondays and Thursdays.  He was going in everyday has his blood drawn and checked then the Nurse calls Huntsman to find out about transfusions.

Not only have they decreased the number of days to be checked, today he was told the blood count was lowered, so no transfusion today.....none this week... and it will be  four more days before he can get checked again. I am not sure why...