Update 10/22/11

Wow, what a wild day Thursday was! Fortunately, things seem to be a little more calm right now. After Thursday, we weren't to sure what Friday would bring. Mom has been stable, but still critical. The septic shock that has caused all of these issues is very difficult to bounce back from, so we look for little victories. Late Thursday night they also started dialysis, because of acute kidney failure. This is pretty typical when considering all of the medications and fluids Mom is requiring right now. The dialysis will help filter her blood so that everything isn't just stuck inside of her body. The other thing the dialysis has done is made her core body temperature drop, so no fevers (although there is likely still infection, at least her temp isn't up).

Friday, the doctors were able to start weaning a med for her blood pressure and they did some tweaking on the the vent (that is helping her breathe). She also had an ANC...woot woot! The ANC is one of the numbers we look for in the blood work to know how her White cells (the infection fighters) are responding...it was 200 on Friday and Thursday it was undetectable. They didn't have to add a lot of other medications, but they did order a special bed. I wish you could see this contraption--it is like a bed/bounce house (imagine poofy and full of air). Mom is lifted and moved by the air, so it's a little like laying in a bounce house while someone walks around you...low on one side, then another. Anyhow, this is done to help make her more comfortable so they don't have to physically lift her all the time to keep from getting pressure sores. This also will help her lungs so they are just stuck in one position. The doctors really encouraged Dad (and all of us) to go home and get some rest...they were comfortable with how mom was doing and promised to call if we needed to come in...so we did.

On Saturday morning I got a call from the ICU doctor to let us know that they had moved Mom to a different room. She is still on the ICU, but they have them divided into a few different specialties. When mom needed an ICU room, the one that was available was on the Transplant ICU, so that is where she was, but now she has been moved to the Medical ICU. It's still on the 6th floor at University hospital...they are a little different on the visiting rules though--no one in the room between 7a-8:30a and 7p-8:30p while they do shift change and only 2-3 people in the room at a time--good thing there's plenty of waiting room! Also, the doctor said that her ANC had gone up to 400 (again, small victories)! Today they took her off the blood pressure medication and she seems to be holding her own in that regard. Her heart rate has been a little abnormal, but not high, just bouncing around alot so they stopped weaning the heart medication to see if that would help. Everything else seems to be stable, so that is good. The attending doctor in the ICU said that she was pleased with Mom's improvement.

So that is where we are for now. No doubt all of the prayers and love are being felt by Mom and our whole family!! Thank you to everyone for your support!! (By the way, if you are on facebook, I started a "Prayers for Mary" page. You can like this page and post prayers (0r read other prayers and well wishes that people have posted for Mom). We're going to read them to her (of course), but we can't wait to show her all the love and support when she starts to wake up.