After going around in numerous circles with BRMC and Quest (lab) in Greensboro, NC, I finally got results of Teresa’s CBC and chest x-rays from 9/6.
The pleural effusion is still visible but it hasn’t gotten any worse. Dr. Greene’s Medical Assistant, Ashley, confirmed that if she keeps up with her breathing exercises as well as light exercise (ex: walking laps around the first floor where she can make a complete circle), the effusion can go away on its own!
Her hemoglobin was up to 10.6! They consider normal 11.7, so she’s getting close! This also tells us she’s making and keeping her blood now! That test did not check her potassium (which she was prescribed prior to leaving the hospital), but Ashley said we can go to a local urgent care and ask them to do that test. If we do that, I’ll also have them do another CBC so we can keep a good eye on her hemoglobin.
Also, as I’ve mentioned before, part of Teresa’s healing is keeping her positive, and laughter is a good way to do that. She has healed enough that laughing is not as painful on her abdomen. She still has to be very careful (we don’t want her to get an incisional hernia!) but laughing is good for her.
To help her in this (the quest for more laughing), I’ve created 2 forms that I hope you all will take a moment to fill out for us. You may have recommendations for funny things that we haven’t thought of yet.
You can find the forms here (they’re in my Google drive, so the links are safe). Please leave your comments about the movies/books on the polls, not as comments on this site. With the forms, I can export the answers to excel and easily take them with us to the store. 🙂