Harder to Breathe

This morning when I saw Erika she looked like she had a harder time breathing. The level of her oxygen settings for the past couple of days have been hanging out around a 4 and today they were upwards of 6, the scale being from 0 to 15. I think she was having a little more anxiety than before which was causing her to breathe shorter and faster. The doctors upped her pain medication levels to help compensate for the extra anxiety, but as a result she was a more sleepy than normal. She slept most of the day today. Tonight she has improved a little and has not been using the pain medicine as much and her breathing settings have moved back down to around a 5. Hopefully she will be able to rest a little tonight.

Last night I had the night off and it was the first time I have slept in my bed in a long time. I think I got about 12 hours of sleep and it was a nice needed recharge. I missed seeing the doctors come around again today, but from what my parents told me they seemed to be really nice and comforting.

A couple of days ago we had learned that the lung biopsy, which was taken over a week ago, has some evidence of shingles, which means that she has shingles inside her lungs. That’s somewhat troubling news because it lessens the chance that the doctors are willing to give Erika her next round of chemo, which is scheduled for tomorrow. I'm not sure how they determine if it is still in her lungs or not at this point, possibly it might show up in a blood test but I haven't had the chance yet to speak with the doctors. The shingles that are visible on her skin have crusted over, which means they are not active which is a good sign. I guess we will just have to wait and see what the doctors want to do about chemo tomorrow. Hopefully she will be able to continue with it.