Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How does Adsense work?

A. Adsense is an advertising service run by Google. Companies pay Google to post their links all over the place. In turn, Google pays the people whose websites show those ads each time a large number of people see the ad and each time someone clicks on an ad. If you add Adsense to your website, you will earn a little just for page views and a larger amount for each person who actually clicks on an advertisement link.

Q. I see that there is a number of comments at the bottom of each post, but how do I see them and/or post my own?
A. There are two ways to get to the comment form. One is to click on the link for the number of comments. The other is to click on the title of the post itself. Either way, you should see what others have written and there should be a blank form at the bottom of the post that you just fill out and click on "Post Comment."

Q. Why do I have to have a Google account to post comments?
A. You don't anymore. I realized this and fixed it. Now anyone can post.

Q. I signed up and I'm not getting email updates? Why not?
A. First of all, the email updates only happen once per day. I'm working on a solution to this problem but I don't have one yet. Second, you have to confirm your subscription. If you haven't yet, it won't send you anything. If you didn't get a confirmation email, make sure you check your spam folder in your email account. By the way, if you know how to make Feedburner send email updates more often or if you know of a service better than Feedburner, please let me know.

Q. I have updates, but I don't see pictures and sometimes it looks like you didn't finish writing!
A. The email updates only show the title and the first part of the post (I'm guessing 200-300 characters but I'm not sure). If the update was longer than that or included pictures, you'll have to click the title to see the whole post. The email updates also don't include any of the hyperlinks, so if I linked the word pneumothorax to a page that explains the term, you won't see it on the email update.

Q. What happened to the posts at the bottom of the page?
A. After a certain number of posts are reached, the older ones rotate off. You can still find them by clicking on "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page. Also, I have added a linkbar at the top of the page that links to stuff that I think should stay on the front page of the site.

Q. What can I do to help?
A. Keep praying and keep coming back to the website / hospital to check on Jenni. Forward the web address to folks to whom we haven't sent it. Post messages for Jenni. She's been reading them and they make her smile (which I like to see).

Q. You didn't answer my question!
A. Just post a comment on this page and I'll try to get to it as soon as I can.

A Big Thank You

I just want to say thank you to all the people who have visited the hospital and/or the website. All of your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated. Yesterday, your website traffic generated approximately $16. Today (assuming no one visits between now and midnight) your visits generated approximately $136, not to mention the $20 in direct donations.

I feel like I should say something really eloquent and profound, but everything I start to type seems horribly inadequate. Just... thank you, everyone.

Tomorrow, in addition to updates about Jenni's condition, I plan on answering some common questions about the website, the Adsense program, and the email subscription service. I also recognize that this blog has extended far beyond our circle of friends, family, and coworkers, so I'm going to add some information about Jenni's history and some pictures so those of you who don't know us can put a face with the name.

For now, I'm crashing... thanks again, everyone. Goodnight.

ICU Waiting Room (Part II) and Fixing an Email Issue

I'm sitting in the waiting room again, waiting for the next set of visitation hours. I was able to speak with one of the doctors about her and he told me that her case of pneumothorax is mild... not the fully collapsed lung that I envisioned when I started researching the condition online. There is air in her chest cavity outside of the lung, but it isn't one of the more severe cases of pneumothorax.

I also just learned that the email subscription that I set up on the site only provides updates once per day. I'm about to check the settings on the service to fix this issue, but as of right now, if you want up-to-the-minute news you'll have to either subscribe to the RSS feed (which you can check with Google Reader or other services) or keep checking the site. I'm working on it, but I only have a few minutes before visiting hours resume and I don't know if I'll be able to fix it until later. Hopefully I'll find a quick fix... sorry for the delays on information...

Introduction

Jenni has now been at Duke Medical Center for eight days. We don't have too much information on exactly what has been happening with her health, but we do know that things went downhill fast the first weekend of March and have pretty much stabilized since we arrived. We do know the following:

• She has graft vs. host disease in her eyes and mouth (not the primary concern, but frustrating for her).
• She has fluid in her lungs, and a bronchoscopy showed evidence that there had been bleeding in the lungs as well (DAH). They are treating the fluid with lasix (which will also help her kidneys, from what I understand) and the rest with steroids.
• She has CMV, which appears to be the main thing affecting her lungs.
  
• She has TTP (thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura), which is what the focus of the treatments have been on. They're treating this with plasmapheresis. The doctors seem to think that this is the driving factor behind the other issues.
  
• Her blood sugar is bouncing all over the place. This morning it was 96 (normal range) but it has been as high as 500+. They have a bag of IV insulin running at all times.
• She has extreme joint pain in her legs that no one seems to understand, but that they have treated with diloted (hope I spelled that correctly). It might be because of the increased steroids, but it might also be due to fluid buildup from her poor kidney functions.

In any case, there are so many things going wrong right now that I have probably forgotten something, so please forgive me if I have. I'm beginning this project to help fund Jenni's caregivers (short term goal) and cover any other medical expenses that arise due to her current condition (long term goal). On this site, you'll mainly find updates on Jenni's condition, but you may also see the occasional post about Adsense or my goal of making money online while Jenni is out on disability and I'm missing so much work.

Hopefully we'll be able to generate enough traffic to help pay the bills. Notice the emphasis on traffic. Although there is an option to donate at the bottom of the page, all you need to do is visit the page to help us out financially (thanks to Adsense). Thanks for everyone's support and prayers!