What we know...

Well, unfortunately, we don't know a lot, but we have more information than we had yesterday. After piecing together little tidbits of information that various people shared with me, I think this is a pretty good recap of where we are right now.

The doctors seem to think that yesterday's episode was most likely caused by one of two things; A side effect of chemo or an infection. Additionally, when mom first came to the ER yesterday, she was extrememly dehydrated and her blood was showing very low levels of white plateletts and elocrolytes. However, after retesting, the doctor said her blood was not nearly as "low" as the doctors thought when they re-drew it. The earlier numbers were in error, which is good news. So for the time being, we are in a holding pattern. Hopefully today will bring some answers. They did do some tests on her lungs and those look good. There was some fear that there could be fluid build-up which could complicate things.

They did another CT scan and mentioned that her liver enzymes looked better than a few weeks ago at the hospital, which is possible sign that the chemo is having some positive effects. The swelling in mom's legs has pretty much gone away which could also be an indication of some progress. Once we get CT scan results back it could shed some light on this, but the doctors stressed not to put too much stock in a CT scan that is done this early. After all, we're only on day 10 of her chemo regimen, and medically speaking, that really isn't much time for the chemo to work.

So for now, Mom is resting in intermediate care. She is doing much better than she was yesterday morning and has even started walking around by herself. Most of the new pain from yesteday is gone, but she is still extremely tired. The hope is that with a few more days in the hospital she can get everything straightened out and regain her strength.

Becky is going to be writing about the great benefit concert that my two younger brothers put on yesterday. For some reason, I keep thinking back to the end of "It's a Wonderful Life." While I hate to equate monetary donations with love, in this case, it was fairly obvious that the two went hand in hand. Everyone just wants to do something, anything to help this wonderful woman.

I leave you with this quote, from Uncle Billy in "It's a Wonderful Life." You can change the name to Jeanette and it's dead-on:

Uncle Billy: She told a few people you were in trouble and they scattered all over town collecting money. They didn't ask any questions — just said: "If George is in trouble — count on me." You never saw anything like it.

Harry Bailey: A toast to my big brother George: The richest man in town!