One Day at a Time...

That's how we're taking things these days. Dad is STILL in the hospital - today marks 2 full weeks. Mom's still there with him, hanging in there, if only barely. The doctor had hoped that the leak in his lung from the biopsy would heal on it's own, but it didn't. He finally decided on a procedure than involved blowing some powder on the outside of his lung, causing scar tissue to form and seal the hole. It worked! It has it's side effects, but Dad's been pretty lucky and didn't react very much to it. He IS, however, ready to come home!

The doctor got the pathology back from the samples that he took during surgery and one lymph node tested "suspicious" for Tuberculosis. They did a skin test that came up "negative." As a precaution, he was moved to an isolation room this afternoon. It has negative pressure and the door has to remain closed at all times. All doctors and nurses going in and out have to wear masks, and I'm supposed to as well. Lot's of fun, huh?

Things are starting to look up though. His thoracic surgeon stopped by tonight and said that he's still scheduled to go home tomorrow, if all works out well. They will be turning off the suction for the chest tubes at midnight and doing a chest x-ray in the morning. If his lung doesn't collapse, the tubes will be removed and he'll be allowed to go home. We're praying AND have our fingers crossed - keeping all of our bases covered, superstitious and otherwise!

I had my appointment with the endocrinologist yesterday. She confirmed that I do have hypothyroidism. It's most often hereditary and I have quite a lengthy family history of thyroid issues. She feels that it's very likely that it is what caused my miscarriage. The treatment is Synthroid, a synthetic hormone that should even out my blood levels. I'm so lucky that my doctor thought to do the correct blood work and caught this before yet another miscarriage. It's so nice to know that there's something that I can DO to try to prevent another heartache. It gives me a little more hope for trying again. I'm still worried that, when I DO get pregnant again, I'll be terrified throughout the entire pregnancy...waiting for the bad news. It helps tremendously to know that I'm being proactive and lessening my chances of another hideous ultrasound. Only time will tell, but I'm optimistic for the first time in quite awhile.