Friday, April 30, 2010

Comments troubleshooting

I have beEn told that it's hard to comment on the blog because you need my email address, too? Well my email for this is kkrie@mceschools.com. Please feel free to comment!:) Sorry about that.

Kate

Wishing for better news

Well the CAT scan didn't show anything that would explain why mom isn't really getting better, which is very disappointing. The only thing they did see was fluid starting to enter her lungs, which isn't good because her lungs were clear up until last night. All my current info is coming from Nick because I'm back in Muskegon for a few days to run back and forth to Ludington to take care of things up there. We were really praying for something to show up on the scan. The longer things don't get better the more the doctors don't seem so positive. I'm not a downer and mom has fought this hard, but please pray extra hard the next few days because there still hasn't been stable improvements. The hardest things for us is that it just happened out of nowhere and it is so bizarre. I'm one who likes closure or reasons why things at least happened and we don't really have a grasp on either. Thanks so much for all of your prayers and for caring about my mom so much! I know she has affected so many people!:) More later...

Kate

Thursday, April 29, 2010

As of Thursday morning...

We didn't have the greatest if days yesterday. There's still a lot of fluid compressing her belly and what not. Nick did talk to the nurses this morning and they did say they took off some fluid through dialysis, actually they were taking more than they thought and mom's bp was supporting itself with less pressers. That's decent news. I just hate the emotional rollercoasterof it all. Good news, then not so good, etc. The head doctor said there's a slight chance there may be an infection in her belly that's causing the fluid to stick around, so we consented to have him do a CAT scan to check it out. Sort risky since they have to transport her on the vent and dialysis, but she made it to xray to get the dialysis put in, so I'm hopeful this will be just as successful. That's about it for now. Thanks to all who have started sending cards and flowers. We aren't out of the woods yet, but we continue to press on! Thanks so much.

Kate

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Dialysis has begun

Dialysis has been started. It was a lot harder to start because of all the fluid build up in mom's body and they had to take her down to use an ultrasound to guide the process. She has gained a lot of fluid weight and we need dialysis to start pulling that off. The next few days will be crucial because they need her bp to become stable without the help of some many pressers and they need to detect signs of the bad fluid coming out with the help of dialysis. Please pray because if there are no real changes, we aren't really sure what would be next... We are just turning over the whole thing to God and the doctors because there's nothing we can do. Thanks for all the support. I'll will keep everyone posted on things.

Kate

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Tuesday, sunny and a poop bug!

Well, it's a "poop bug" as the doctor said referring to the bacteria. He had a name for it, but if you think I can't pronounce it let alone spell it, but they have a name and it started in her gut. I guess some people take to the antibiotic for it and some don't as much, so between to doctors and the pathologists, cultures of the bacteria and samples of different antibiotics are being tested to see which med will fit the best. It's all so confusing!! She has been given loads of fluids for different reasons and yet she still isn't urinating like they'd like, so they may start dialysis for a few days to pull some of the liquid out in order for her blood vessels to stop letting the fluids seep out. As soon as some of the fluids pass through her system, we are hoping that the vessels will be able to take on a normal amount of fluid to keep things in line. She's still on a pressed to keep her blood pressure up and they continue to give her less of those and her heart, right now seems to be reacting well. The random internal bleeding seems to be slowing down and she's using the vent still and it's working at a level of 30% for her which is better than when see got here. Like I said before, it's septic shock and in order for things to get under control, they need to kill the bacteria first. She is still unconscious and we are waiting for her to wake up. She's not sedated, but the sedation they used when she got here can take a while to clear out. Still very sick and we are just waiting for them to find the right balance of things. We've seen at least 5 different docs from different specific departments, so we know we are in good hands!

I have posted her room info in the previous blog and mom's good friend Don also commented and gave the full address. Thanks, Don. I will probably be back in Muskegon for a night or two starting Thursday, so I'll be easier to reacher then. Thanks so much for all the support and as my friend Dutch said, prayer is a powerful thing and I'm trusting in it to find the answers we need as well as answers for a lot of our other family and friends who are going some rougher times. Until then, my glass is still half full. Thanks so much.

Kate

Monday, April 26, 2010

Septic shock is a nasty little thing

Well we might have some answers. The doctors have narrowed down what type of bacteria family it is and now they are tailoring the antibiotics to see which ones might work to start attacking the infection. At this point we still don't know how and where it started, but the cultures that came back at least might have the docs on the right track. She still is extremely sick and like they said they need to fight the infection bacteria before anything else will start looking better. A lot of her system has been compromised by this lungs, liver, kidneys, stomach, but we are hoping things are progressing in the right direction...

I'm not sure if all of you know how bad it really is, but they have said she is the sickest patient in the CCU and that treating septic shock can be very difficult. She is very puffy from all the fluids and is still unconcious. Please continue to pray.

On a positive note, the head doctor of the CCU heard mom was a teacher and he said in her first 30 hrs at Michigan he would have rated her an F and that she almost died, but in the last 8-12 hrs he gave her a grade of an A, so that made us feel like at least SOMETHING is getting better!:)

Her room is in CCU 6D, Room 6808 at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. I don't know exactly how it would be addressed, but those are the major items that would be needed. People had been asking, so there you go! More to come later. I send my love and thanks to all of you!:) I'm the family optimist and my glass still remains half full!:) More later...

Kate

It's Monday and sunny... A good sign?

Back at the hospital and the nurses and doctors have said that she's about the same this morning, but her levels are a tiny bit better. Better is better than worse!:) Her blood clotting is still an issues and they started her on some yellowish plasma which is supposed to put more protein in to help it clot better. I tell you, I could totally be a doctor without going to medical school just from being here and learning all the lingo and what not. My friend Daryl would be proud!:)

Nick and I just left for lunch (the cafe here IS great for all those who told me about it) and we are trying to take breaks from being in the room because we start to fester on things and overanalyze, which can drive anyone crazy. It's just hard because you feel so helpless, so we keep reminding ourselves that the move to UofM was helping. She's in great hands and everyones support has also been uplifting for us.

Nick can tend to get a bit anxious and as a good social working sister I've been trying to keep him calm because then I'm more calm. So, we continue to wait. If nothing else, I've been curing my boredom with people watching and there are all kinds of characters here!:) And I'll keep my comments about the doctors to a minimum, but there are some decent looking fellas up in here!:)

More later...

Kate

Sunday, April 25, 2010

I hate to say it, but UofM is amazing!

I cannot believe how smart the people at U of M are and that's coming from a MSU fan!:)

First off, she's getting GREAT care and attention. A lot of one on one and she has her own nurse. I'm amazed. She's on a vent and doing some breathing on her own. There are tubes making sure the blood is draining out from where it shouldn't be. They say there's bacteria in her blood and that it probably started from somewhere in her colon because her colon was already compromised due to her Crohn's. Her blood cell counts are rising and her liver levels are improving, everything is going slow, but in the better directions. The biggest concern is her clotting issues. They are trying to get her to be able to clot, so they can scope to see what might be going on. We are still waiting for virual/fungal lab results, but since the lab here does everything, results come back a lot faster. They have been giving her blood and they said when they check the levels later it doesn't seem to be dropping, so if there is bleeding internaling, it seems to be getting more under control otherwise they levels wouldn't be rising, they'd either be the same before the blood was given or even lower. She pretty out of it due to the vent and other tubes, but they say she can hear us, so it's because of the hospital's sedation not because she's unconscious from something bad.

There are so many terms and names of meds that are getting thrown at us, so I'm trying to keep everything in order in my brain. Hopefully I'm making sense to all of you and keeping it all in terms we all can understand!:) Keep the prayers coming and please let others know about the blog because I know a lot are concerned and I can't contact most of them. More to come soon, but know she is in very good hands here! Thanks so much!

Kate

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Up, up and away...

Well, mom got transfered to U of M this afternoon via helicopter from Mercy. We are praying the U of M doctors can continue to search for what's going on. Nick and I are thankful for everything that Mercy's staff did for us and that they were so supportive on our decision for a second opinion. Please keep the prayers coming and hopefully mom won't hold anything against the new doctors... We can't help it they went blue and maize instead of green and white!:) I think we will respect them just the same. More updates to come...

Kate

First update on mom...

Ok, I haven't ever had a blog before, but I've always considered myself to be Internet smart, so here goes. Because there has been such a pour out of people concerned about my mom and we don't have a load of time to update people, I'll be doing the updates on here as much as I can.

I first want to thank everyone who has been praying for my mom. Most people know that I'm not the most religious of people, but I will take any support from God and others alike. We all are hopeful that everyone watching over us will be the combined energy we need in order to get things back on track.

As for right now, here's what happened...
She thought she was having a Crohn's flair up, so she went to the Ludington Hospital and was admitted. They wanted her to be sent to Mercy because she seemed a little off and her Crohn's doctor was there. At this point she was weaker, but still thinking it was a flair up. The doctor did a colonoscopy and everything looked "ok." She was feeling good that night and was going to have another colon type procedure done the next day, well the next day rolled around and she went into respitory distress and we don't know why. To make a long story shorter, she has been at Mercy since in and out of ICU because of low sodium, dropping blood cell counts, rising liver enzymes, low bp and trouble breathing. She is conscious, but very weak and groggy, so it can seem like she's not. Nick and I have decided to have her sent of U of M for a more intense team to look at her. Now we are waiting for Michigan to accept her charts and open a bed. We don't know how long this will take, but the doctors are monitoring her in ICU a lot and the nurses have been great.

So, that's where we are now. We ask for no visitors right now because we'd like her to be on the mend before she really sees people and I don't think ICU allows random people anyway. Thanks again for all the support and I'll continue to update.

Kate