Playing the numbers game. Again.

No getting around it. Last week was rough. And it culminated with my Sweet Hubby being admitted to the hospital Sunday afternoon. I spoke with his oncologist who called orders to the ER to get the ball rolling with testing and pave the way for admission. We knew it would more than likely culminate with the need for blood. We know the signs. Unfortunately.

This was the lowest my Sweet Hubby has ever been. His hemoglobin was 5.5 upon arrival in the ER, hematocrit 17. I knew at that point that this would not be a two unit fix. And it wasn't.

Yesterday morning and two units later, labs showed the hemoglobin at 7.1. Two more unit followed. One of the other oncologists in the group was in yesterday morning and she told us that they would repeat the labs after the last two units had finished, but that my Sweet Hubby would not need to hang out for the results if he didn't want to...we could just go on home and follow up with Dr. Clark toward the end of this week. That sounded good to us. We should have anticipated the monkey wrench I guess..

The last of the blood finished infusing at 7 p.m. They redrew labs at 7:40. And we waited for discharge. And waited...and waited...and...well, you get the idea. At around 9 p.m. there was a lot of commotion and I heard the words, "I'm trying to page Dr. Clark..." Oh boy. That's never good. So I called the charge nurse in and asked what what going on. She was a bit hesitant, but I guess she could see that I was the dog and she was the bone upon which I would continue to gnaw, so she told me that the labs had come back and my Sweet Hubby's hemoglobin "was not where it should be." So I gnawed some more. 5.3. I questioned the result. It had been run twice. 5.3. Yes. It was now lower AFTER 4 units of blood than upon admission. Talk about feeling defeated. My poor, poor Sweet Hubby.

Needless to say, they could not discharge him with that lab value. And they were having trouble paging the doctor. At this point I'm thinking, "forget the oncologist, we need GI stat to the endoscopy lab to find (and hopefully stop) the source of this bleed." They came in and redrew the lab.

So my Sweet Hubby and I did the only thing we knew to do at this point:

"Lord, please be with us and give us your peace. We ask that you touch the source of this bleeding and stop it. In Jesus' name, Amen."

The lab redraw came back. 8.2. We got home at midnight. My Sweet Hubby and I slept in our own bed, side by side. No interruptions, no noise. Peace. Precious peace. Thank you Lord.

"For I hold you by your right hand -- I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, 'Don't be afraid. I am here to help you."
Isaiah 41:13