Now that she's awake...

Sweet Janet.  Can we even imagine how hard her body and mind are working right now to heal and begin functioning again?  She is continuing to make great progress, but of course, it's going to take time.  Now that she's awake after losing a full week of consciousness, Janet is beginning the hard process of putting all the pieces together of what exactly happened.  Her mind is still clearing a bit, but she is definitely sweet and funny Janet.  She noticed Mike got a haircut!  We have told her about this blog and about how so many people are praying for her.  We asked her what she wants prayer for, and she is really worried about her left hand.  Of course, waking up to the tips of her fingers being purple and learning that she could lose some parts of her fingers has been pretty distressing.  We told her we would definitely ask people to keep praying about that!  As we have been.  I think she is a little scared in general.  Please pray for her heart and emotions as she has to move forward in all this.

For a more clinical update, Janet's lab work is continuing to improve, but it isn't all perfect yet by any means.  Her white blood cell count has been a little higher everyday.  I talked to her night shift RN about that.  Although we want to see it start coming down, it definitely is a reflection of how sick she has been.  In some ways, her continuing high white blood cell count does show that she is responding to this attack on her body appropriately.  That is what our immune systems are designed to do: fight back when there is an attack.  Again, it is going to take some time.  She is receiving the appropriate strong IV antibiotics.  Janet's blood coagulation has been all out of whack and they are still watching different factors in her blood pretty closely.  They found a blood clot on ultrasound at the intersection of the splenic and portal vein near her liver.  In light of the big picture, this is not a huge issue and isn't causing problems but they are giving her medication to keep the clot from getting bigger.  The body will naturally break down the clot, it will just take time.  Janet's platelet level has been low though so they are watching her very carefully to make sure they don't make her bleed.  It's a delicate balance.  Janet's liver enzymes are continuing to come down which is good.  They are starting her on a medication for her heart (a beta blocker) to protect it and help her heart pump more effectively.  This medication is something she will continue to take after she goes home.

Janet, unfortunately ended up with a bad intestinal bug called c. difficile.  This definitely adds insult to injury - poor girl!  So you can definitely pray that it clears quickly from her system.  They started IV Flagyl (another antibiotic) for that.  On the positive side, they did a CT scan of her brain and found nothing abnormal.  They did a chest x-ray yesterday, and the little bit of fluid at the bases of her lungs is improving.  As I mentioned, being on ventilator puts her at huge risk for pneumonia.  Continue to pray that her lungs stay healthy.

They did not get Janet up in the chair yesterday as she was too exhausted, understandably so.  Physical therapy will be working with her today though.  She has been a little nauseated and only tolerated a clear liquid diet yesterday.  She is swallowing fine, though, and I'm sure they will begin to advance her diet soon.

Ok, I think that is the full update.  Just keep her in your prayers as she continues this new phase of her healing.