Here is what we believe as of today. Ginny was experiencing some symptoms that led her to have a lung biopsy on September 10th. She likely received her diagnosis sometime the middle of the following week. She was diagnosed with a “Small Cell Lung cancer”, which is an aggressive form of cancer, but is also very responsive to chemotherapy and radiation. Surgery is not a good choice for this type of cancer.
Uncle Charles drove from California to her home in Bullhead City, AZ around Sept 24th to make sure someone was with her. She was having friends drive her to and from doctor appointments that were two-hours from her home. Ginny seemed a bit confused, was using an inhaler and oxygen but was having difficulty managing these and several medications on her own. Additionally she was using patches for relief from pain in her neck and back because of difficulty breathing. Her weight is down to 112 pounds.
On September 24th she went to have a port put in for chemotherapy administration, which was a three-hour procedure. While she was there, they realized she was oxygen deprived. They intubated her because her tumor was constricting her airway. Doctors had to use a pediatric tube. She has been sedated and on a ventilator since.
The hospital closest to her home was not equipped for the level of care Ginny needed, so she was life-flighted to a Las Vegas hospital on September 26th. They have attempted to take her off of the ventilator but the airway has closed up when they remove the tube, so she was re-intubated.
On Tuesday, September 30th, chemotherapy (intravenous medication)was started and she received three days of treatment. Because her cancer should be very responsive to treatment, the physicians planned to do an MRI to check on the tumor size. Since she must be off the ventilator to have the MRI, a bronchoscopy was done instead. This is a visual look with a tube to see into her airway
and the doctor can tell the compression from the tumor has decreased. They were able to reduce the sedative medicines and take Ginny off the ventilator on Sunday, Oct 5th for a short time but had to put the tube back in and resume the ventilator when her oxygen level became too low.
Lorraine and Frank were able to see her this past week, but she was sedated due to the ventilator. Charles, Theresa, and Tom have taken turns staying near the hospital to be an advocate for her. This will need to continue as long as she is on the ventilator. The staff in the ICU are very caring, competent people and we trust she is getting excellent care.
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