Admitted to Hospital Again

Just when I thought Abi had finally cracked it, she vomited again. She threw up the next day too. Not much, but quite a lot later on. She seemed okay afterwards, but there was hardly anything of her, so it was important that she kept down the few nutrients we did manage to get inside her. I gave her one of the sickness pills that the hospital had prescribed for her; Ondansetron, and that seemed to settle her stomach. I then managed to get her to eat a small vegan pancake before she went to bed. I was hoping that I would be able to get a good breakfast down her in the morning.

I went to bed dreaming of a fat Abi. Unfortunately, that scenario appeared unlikely when Abi, instead of that decent breakfast, started vomiting every 2 hours or so and later that day, she was admitted to the local hospital yet again. The vomiting pattern continued for the next few days. The hospital tried giving Abi different types of antiemetics, but none of them seemed to work. For the next few days, she ate nothing whatsoever. Consequently, her weight plummetted to 17.5kg and I could see all of her ribs and hips. Abi looked malnourished again, but she was kept hydrated via fluids so she was not in any danger.

The doctors think the whole episode was triggered by Abi getting a urinary infection. They told me that during chemotherapy, Abi is more prone to infections, and more likely to having a more severe reaction to infections. However, I couldn’t help worrying that it all seemed very reminiscent of her six-week stay in hospital last September. I couldn’t help wondering if the hypothalamic tumour was at work again.