Karen Zaterman, RIP ...
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 5:41 pm
I think most everyone has already heard, from Facebook, that our Karen passed away yesterday afternoon.
She had successfully conquered an especially insidious type of Lymphoma, called T-Cell Lymphoma, about 1.5 years ago. After a rest, she started an 8 week long procedure that cumulated in a Stem Cell transplant. This procedure was suppose to protect her from a recurrence of Lymphoma, for as much as 10 years. A couple of weeks ago she had her one year check-up and was given a clean bill of health. CT scan, blood panel, check up with the oncologist. A few days later Karen started having the runs. She's very stoic and a bit stubborn, so it took a few days and pain to get her to go to the ER. I posted on Facebook that we were going to have to spend the night as they checked out her vitals and blood.
A week later she had suffered kidney, liver and spleen failure and faded away ... peacefully and painlessly.
One of the main other problems was a partial GI obstruction. They couldn't operate because her platelets were super low. They would give her platelets and whole blood but it would immediately fall again. You can't be cut without platelets. You'll just bleed out. Yes, I asked them about self sealing laser scalpels. We had a huge team of doctors and specialists. They were completely stymied. An autopsy is being done to get to the bottom of this.
She never completely recovered after the stem cell transplant, losing 70 lbs ... she would be the first to admit to being a bit over weight to start with ... and thus losing a lot of strength and endurance. She also always had a recurring sharp stabbing pain in her abdomen that didn't help. She was on opiates for quite a while but then got off of them by herself and tried just using Tylenol and Ibuprofen. She was having to take too much Advil so they prescribed something in between a couple of weeks ago. We NOW have found out that she had liver damage that could very well have been causing the pain. The liver was likely damaged by the earlier massive chemo therapy regimes. She was only doing the Advil for a couple of weeks. The doctors never were able to give us a good explanation for the pain ... nerve damage, chronic pain, tumor scar tissue.
She had successfully conquered an especially insidious type of Lymphoma, called T-Cell Lymphoma, about 1.5 years ago. After a rest, she started an 8 week long procedure that cumulated in a Stem Cell transplant. This procedure was suppose to protect her from a recurrence of Lymphoma, for as much as 10 years. A couple of weeks ago she had her one year check-up and was given a clean bill of health. CT scan, blood panel, check up with the oncologist. A few days later Karen started having the runs. She's very stoic and a bit stubborn, so it took a few days and pain to get her to go to the ER. I posted on Facebook that we were going to have to spend the night as they checked out her vitals and blood.
A week later she had suffered kidney, liver and spleen failure and faded away ... peacefully and painlessly.
One of the main other problems was a partial GI obstruction. They couldn't operate because her platelets were super low. They would give her platelets and whole blood but it would immediately fall again. You can't be cut without platelets. You'll just bleed out. Yes, I asked them about self sealing laser scalpels. We had a huge team of doctors and specialists. They were completely stymied. An autopsy is being done to get to the bottom of this.
She never completely recovered after the stem cell transplant, losing 70 lbs ... she would be the first to admit to being a bit over weight to start with ... and thus losing a lot of strength and endurance. She also always had a recurring sharp stabbing pain in her abdomen that didn't help. She was on opiates for quite a while but then got off of them by herself and tried just using Tylenol and Ibuprofen. She was having to take too much Advil so they prescribed something in between a couple of weeks ago. We NOW have found out that she had liver damage that could very well have been causing the pain. The liver was likely damaged by the earlier massive chemo therapy regimes. She was only doing the Advil for a couple of weeks. The doctors never were able to give us a good explanation for the pain ... nerve damage, chronic pain, tumor scar tissue.