Monday, July 4, 2011

Where to begin?

June 14th, 2011

We thought we might lose Sarah yesterday. We weren't too sure about today either. She is very ill. The last two weeks in the hospital have been a constant game of one step forward and two steps back. She has been unable to eat, unable to sleep, and unable to breathe-- not a sustainable combo.

Yesterday, they realized her CO2 levels in her blood were causing her severe headaches and the readings were very high. Not yet dangerously high, but trending that way. If they got much higher, her organs could begin to shut down. This morning those levels had increased further and they moved her to the ICU.

She is now on a BiPAP machine that helps her breathe. It basically acts the same as a ventilator without having to be intubated. This way when she is wearing it and especially when she sleeps it will do the work for her and continue to remove the CO2 from her blood. If all goes according to plan her levels will normalize by tomorrow.

She is additionally slated for surgery in one week to put in a feeding tube and clean out her sinuses. Part of this is pre-transplant and has been planned for a while. More on the tube later. The expectation now is that she will be in the hospital at a minimum until that surgery occurs.

She has been moved up on the transplant list. If the donor is a match for blood type and antibodies, she will go in immediately. It could be hours, days, weeks-- but it will likely be much sooner than we had initially anticipated.

Tomorrow we hope to have an idea of where we are headed. The doctors are positive about how she is doing. As they have said, on paper she is healthier than the day she was admitted.

I'll add more when I can, or if I think of more that I forgot to include. Just know that she is tough and fighting as much as she can-- but she is tired, very tired. Every breath is labor for her and she said sometimes she feels as if she is being suffocated. She has said she just doesn't know how much fight she has left in her. She needs this ICU visit to help and the machine to give her respite.

Send your love her way. She needs all the extra strength she can get. We will read your postings to her.

Tony

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