Week 2 begins with more of the same and phone calls went to family members informing them of the current situation. The race began to get to Austin in order to see me and support Mike, my parents and the kids.
Krista, Mike's sister, made a mad dash to Texas when she got the call from Mike on Sunday that things looked bleak. She was able to make arrangements for the kids and throw some items in a backpack and head to the airport in short order. As I talk to Krista now, she tells me she had Mike put the phone to my ear so she could tell me she was on her way and that she would she me when she got here. While on the plane, she prayed the entire flight reminding God that he had already taken so many family members from her life.
Brandy picked Krista up from the airport. Having never met, Brandy asked what she was wearing so she would recognize Krista. Krista told her to look for the purple backpack! At least I think it was purple, anyhow you get the picture.
Stuart, my brother, flew in from Maryland. Angela, my best friend, flew in from Lubbock eventhough it was her 40th birthday. Friends and family came from all over Texas: Houston, Temple, Lubbock, San Antonio, San Marcos, Austin and of course, Kyle.
Below are emails that recount the week in detail:
Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:07:03 -0500
Heather made it another day. Her left lung showed a little improvement and she kept her O2 level up. Krista arrived fine and we all spent the day at the hospital together. Not a great way for Krista to meet her in-laws…but I guess Heather had a similar experience. Let’s hope we don’t have any more like that. I’m pretty tired, but just wanted to drop you a note to say we made it another day.
Love Mike
Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:11:47 -0500
For those who don’t know, my wife Heather was admitted to Seton Hospital ICU last Wednesday for pneumonia. Her condition worsened and turned into ARDS (please do a Google search on the subject for more info) She was put on a special rotating bed last Friday (RotoProne) that keeps her alive until she can start to heal. I created this distribution list of friends, coworkers and family members so that people can get regular updates. It’s difficult to answer the same questions over and over. This seems a simpler way to keep people updated on her condition.
10/14/09
We had another stable day yesterday. Her O2 was up a little from the day before. Sorry I missed sending an update yesterday. This all is pretty overwhelming. I spoke to the rep who makes the RotoProne bed at her bedside yesterday and he said that H1N1 (which this may have started as) patients a lot of times are on this bed for 2-3 weeks. They gave her a paralytic drug yesterday which paralyzes her body so she doesn't move or cough. This keeps her O2 at max potential. A good number is above 89. She stayed around 93-94 yesterday. The outpouring of support has been tremendous and one day I hope she'll be able to read this and thank you herself.
Mike
Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:08:05 -0500
Heather had another stable day. The doctors dropped the O2 to 80% and her PEEP to 16. (That’s a good thing. You and I breathe about 21% O2 and a PEEP of 5-8) She had been on 100% O2 and 18-20 PEEP. Little improvements make my day. Her kidney numbers seem to have plateau’d too rather than getting worse. She does have a low grade fever but they’re giving her Tylenol to bring it down.
Mike
Hello, I am Heather's neighbor and I hope not to offend anyone by sending this email, but I wanted to share some links that I researched that explain Heather's condition as well as the special Rotoprone bed that she has been placed in.
What ARDS is and this one pager seemed to explain it well:
http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec04/ch055/ch055c.html
The Rotoprone bed that she has been placed in is described as follows:
http://www.kci1.com/cs/Satellite?c=KCI_Product_C&childpagename=KCI1%2FKCILayout&cid=1229624988017&p=1229538260433&packedargs=locale%3Den_US&pagename=KCI1Wrapper
This is a Dallas news article just written today about a man that was in the same condition and feels this bed saved his life:
http://cbs11tv.com/local/rotoprone.bed.baylor.2.1248534.html
I hope these links work if you haven't had the chance to read about this.
Keep the faith! - Laura
Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:48:55 -0500
We had another good day today. One of her doctors said that he was more positive about her condition. Her O2 was at 70% and PEEP of 14. (as opposed to 90% O2 and 18 PEEP Tuesday) He mentioned that her x-rays from yesterday were slightly improved. She did have a fever today that spiked at 102.9 but the doctors ran cultures and didn’t seem too worried about it. Her kidney doctor will put her on dialysis tomorrow to make sure her kidneys don’t get damaged from the stress they’ve received. We watched the nurses take care of her skin today and change out some of the padding from the bed. Her O2 rate stayed above 89 for the whole hour they had her on her back taking care of her. She’s not out of the woods yet but I’m starting to feel better about her condition.
Mike
Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:04:38 -0500
They've dropped Heather's O2 to 50% and PEEP to 10. She does have a fever that's of concern but all the cultures have come back negative. (I told the doctor she's a hottie anyway) They think it may be a nasal infection or urinary infection. Her doctor said she'd made great strides compared to Sunday. They decided to hold off on dialysis to verify if her kidney functions improve as they're borderline right now. My wife's a fighter and she's young. I can't wait to hold her again. This last week and a half has been surreal and absolutely insane!
For all you Mom's and Dad's out there, when you have a child who's sick...take a lot of precautions so that you don't get sick. This started as the flu (maybe H1N1) progressed to pneumonia and became full blown ARDS...which is deadly.
Mike
Heather was able to be on her back last night for 4 ½ hours. Absolutely amazing since they could barely put her on her side this past Tuesday. Her fever went down and the doctors found it was the combination of drugs which caused it rather than a secondary infection. Her lungs are starting to clear too. Both doctors we spoke to today said she’s starting to make progress and things are cautiously optimistic. She probably will be on this bed for another 3-7 days before she will be moved to a regular bed. Her friend from Lubbock, Angela came down despite it being her birthday so we celebrated at Papadeaux. Can’t wait until Heather can join us for her favorite Mexican martini!
Mike
It was good to see Heather “on her back” Sunday evening. I had a nice visit with Heather & I got to do all the talking! Heather is starting to look a little more like herself, you know she’s laying around in that bed naked!! She just had a towel covering her front side, thank goodness it wasn’t her back side that was in the “up” position. Heather is very fortunate to have so many friends that love her and are praying for her…………..
Connie Hollingsworth
Volunteer Program Assistant
0 comments:
Post a Comment