6th Day In Hospital: Continued Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) Treatment And Chemotherapy Update (November 12, 2024)

Ali’s sister and I did our usual shift swap around 8:30 AM… she headed to work, and I settled in with Ali. I’m beyond thankful for the flexibility to work from anywhere.

The medical team came by Ali’s room this morning with an update on their strategy to clear the blockage. They’re ramping up efforts with several different non-surgical procedures… good news, since surgery is a route we’d prefer to avoid if possible.

Ali’s Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) treatment continues to be a steady source of nutrients. Once yesterday’s 24-hour infusion wrapped up, they started today’s new one. Yesterday’s TPN was a yellow mix packed with protein, sugar, electrolytes, vitamins, and water. Today’s formula is white, with a bigger emphasis on fats but still includes proteins, sugars, electrolytes, and vitamins. At 10:00 PM tonight they will switch over to the third Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) treatment.

Ali is still dealing with the nasogastric tube, which means she’s getting all her nutrition through the TPN line right now. The goal is to remove the nasogastric tube in the next day or two if the fluid output decreases enough… fingers crossed that we can check that box soon. Ali hates this thing with a passion.

Dr. Deepa Magge stopped by with some updates on the chemotherapy plan. She’ll be consulting with Dr. Michael Gibson to figure out how to handle Ali’s chemotherapy treatment. Ali was scheduled for chemotherapy last Wednesday, November 6th, but with her admission for the GI tract blockage, they postponed it. Dr. Magge told us we should have more direction on this tomorrow. The hope is to avoid too much delay… the first nine rounds of chemotherapy showed progress in shrinking the cancer, and we don’t want to risk giving it any chance to push back.

Ali also made a solid effort to keep moving today. She got out of bed and walked three laps around the floor… a big help in keeping her strength up and reducing the risk of blood clots.