Conference with the Doc

We had a good conversation with Dr. Katz. He is one the few who seems to have any concern at all.

At this point he suggests that we continue on the course we are on. The dialysis is removing 100 ccs of fluid from her body per hour. This will help take pressure off of her body. We are trying two meds to help the clotting. One is a clotting drug one is an arthritis drug that seems to help in cases like Jenni's

If the bleeding Jenni's lungs slows or stops the evidence will be in the decreased need for the vent.

Please continue to pray for us

Grace and Peace
Layne

PS Dr Katz is actually rather kind---so scratch him off of the disturbed cottonmouth list.

Never Wake a Sleeping Wallace

Well we now know why Jenni's pressure bottomed last night. Every time they move her to do something, she bottoms. It's like her body is yelling, "leave me alone." Happens most of the time any Wallace sleeps (and yes even though she is married she is still Wallace to the bone). Wake a sleeping Wallace at your own peril.

They moved her again this am, and the same thing happened. On both occasions her pressure stabalized quickly--without any additional medication.

The x-ray on her lungs has shown no change. I'm hoping that is good. At least things have not gotten any worse. The nurse yesterday said that it would be very hard to see any improvement on the x-ray. So I'll just take the "no change" comment as a good thing.

Jenni is now on a continious dialysis machine. Her swelling seems to be down. This is good.

Things are still very grave. The lungs need to stop bleeding, if not all of the other things are irrelevant.

The doctor this am is the south end of a north bound donkey. He was by Jenni's room talking to some of his associates and I stepped out to ask a question. He took one look at me and said, "ask the nurse." Almost enough to make this preacher cuss. I'd love to shake the devil out of him in the name of Jesus.

We still need your prayers.

Grace and Peace
Layne

7:00 Update

We have had a few frustrations this afternoon. First, during the 11:00-2:00 visitation period, they were supposed to be doing dialysis. They failed at their attempt, and did not inform the family. The frustrating part was that we missed an two and a half hours of time with Jenni. When you are measuring your remaining time with your loved on in hours, every one counts.

Second they did a bronchoscopy. Earlier in the day they decided not to do one because they believed she was to fragile. They failed to inform us about their decision. The doctors and I had a heart to heart about it, and communication seems to be a little better this evening.

She had a new port put in for a second attempt at dialysis that should start at 9:00 pm.

The doctor on the floor seems to be a little more optimistic. He thinks we can try a few things that have a chance to help.

Make no mistake, the situation is still very bleak.

Continue to pray for the lungs to STOP BLEEDING. All of this other stuff is rather academic if they do not.

Thank You,

Grace and Peace
Layne

Chest Tube Update

We have preliminary CT scan results (from the nurse). The surgeon who put the tube in checked out the scan, said that the tube was positioned correctly, and decided to leave it for now. They will be starting dialysis soon, but her blood pressure has been higher than normal so they are going to do an echocardiogram first. I don't know much more than that at the moment... still waiting to see her again.

Waiting Hours...

I'm a little less upset with the doctor I wrote about earlier. He made a point to speak to me when I came back in and he let me know everything that was going on. As long as he keeps me informed, I'm okay, although I still feel a little put off by not getting to be there for rounds.

I guess you could say that the team of doctors is working on a new game plan right now. They did another bronchoscopy this morning and informed me that the bleeding in her lungs is worse than it was last week when they did the first one. They also took some cultures, but they can't tell the results of those until later on. They have said before that they believe the condition of the lungs is driving all of her other problems and that the TTP is what likely created the bleeding in the lungs. 

The doctors are thinking about trying some special form of vitamin K, which they sometimes give to hemophiliacs to help form blood clots. They worry that the blood clots might be created where they wouldn't be advantageous (or perhaps make things worse), but now that they know that the lungs are worsening, they want to be more aggressive because it has become obvious that the treatments up to this point have not helped. They are also starting dialysis sometime this afternoon to remove some toxins from her blood that her kidneys aren't removing, and they are going to stop plasmapheresis for at least a day because it doesn't appear to be helping her.

Jenni looks peaceful. She is heavily sedated and has had quite a bit of pain medicine. Now I'm just waiting for the doctor to talk to me about vitamin K and for visiting hours to begin again so that I can go sit with her.