Another Infusion

At 104.9 pounds, my mom is struggling with the new tube unit. After it was accidentally pulled from its socket a few weeks ago, a new gastric tube was needed. In that procedure we found pleasant news. Her intestines had opened up enough that a jujunal tube could be inserted. This tube allows direct access for simple liquid foods to possibly be digested. With her new three-way tube unit (the third regulates pressure) a thinner tube had to be used to draw out her stomach fluids. Gravity hasn't cut out for this situation, it pulls too slowly. My mom threw up more often because the nausea wouldn't draw itself out. So she now has an electric pump to pull the liquid from her body into a canister. This has caused some stomach bleeding. It really frightens us all.
She was called into the hospital today for a blood test, and her platelets have gone down from the week before. There was a drop from 27,000 to 14,000. Immediately, the nurse called the hospital for an appointment for a platelet transfusion.
Hopefully with this transfusion, blood won't flow from my mom's stomach anymore. But there's also the possibility that there's an abrasion of some kind in there. The doctor suggested having her stomach lining checked.

She sat in her recliner chair in the hospital and ate her favorite pebble ice. She looked exhausted with pimples and what the nurse called "tiki eyes" which look like little red sores on her face. They're a reaction to the new chemo she's had three treatments of now. She also has sores in her mouth that sometimes hurt when she eats certain foods. Hopefully this is the roughest part before the cure. I'm not sure how much more my mom can take. Her appearance, her tiny body, spotted face, and short salt-and-pepper hair combined with all the equipment she's always attached to is an embarrassment she says. You can see all the suffering, worry, and pain sitting in her face, and it's a very sad sight.