Melissa was moved to the surgical floor today. When she went in they did not have a bed so she ended up on the cardiac floor. She is back in her home away from home.

She is in pain but has lengthened out the pain meds a little. The nausea seems to have stopped for now. She just doesn't feel like eating.

Today they did an echo cardiogram because her blood pressure was low and she had run a fever all night. They were worried that the VRE had gone to the heart but everything looks good. They told her she has a good heart. But then I could have told you that. We thought they were also going to put an another drain in today but that will happen tomorrow. They think there is an air pocket right beside her intestines which has been there all along, same shape and size, they just thought it was inside the intestines. She may also have a scope of the lower intestine done to make sure there are no problems there.

If they don't find anything they may do surgery on Monday. It sounds terrible but we pray that they find something so she doesn't have to go through another surgery. It would be a major surgery and she might get the bag back if they have to do the surgery. The doctor has already booked the operating room but says he has plenty of work to do if he doesn't have to do her surgery.

Back in Hospital

Same song, different day.

We took Melissa to the ER last night about 10PM in pain and nauseous. They kept her because the white cell count had gone up some more from Monday. They did a CT scan last night and said it looked the same as the last one that was done.

This morning the wound care nurse came in and put a mini illiostomy bag over where the drain comes out her belly. Hopefully that will help in the drainage. She is still in some pain.

Please pray that they will find the right combination of meds to work on her.

Melissa came home Monday March 21. She came home with her PICC line in. She is taking one IV antibiotic and two oral antibiotics. She also has in the wound drain that she has to keep track of what is coming out. She has finished all meds as of Saturday. She gets tired very easily but is trying to gradually increase her activity. It was a major accomplishment for her to put away a stack of t-shirts.

She went to see the surgeon today and he was pleased with how she was doing. Just a few hours later she is running a slight fever. The home health nurse comes tomorrow to check on her and to change the dressing on the PICC line. That has to be done once a week. She was definitely exhausted today. We left a 9 to get her breakfast and be at the hospital by 10:30. She didn't see the doctor until 2:00. Then we ate lunch and shopped at Wally world. She finally just had to go sit in the car and let me finish.

Continue to remember her in prayers. She still has a ways to go.

Good News....maybe

Today my white cell went down to 7, a very good thing. This morning I had a CT scan and a drain check where they shot contrast through my drain while running continuous X-rays to see where the contrast went. It was interesting to me because I could actually watch the screen and see my insides. Between the two test it showed that the pocket of fluid had collapsed but there are two holes that the contrast went through and into my intestines.

Tomorrow I am getting a surgical drain put in down in the operating room. It is set for 7:30am so they will probably come get me about 6:30. The doc thinks that the drain I have isn't always draining right. It keeps getting clogged or at least slowing down causing my white cell count to go up and me to feel awful. Then when it gets to flowing right again and I feel good for a couple of days until it clogs once again. The larger drain shouldn't clog and will be easier to take care of, he even thinks it might help me get home a little sooner. I'm just glad we are finally trying something new.

Well....

I'm back on for once. I've been having good days now, sometimes up to two in a row, but it keeps ending with pain late on the second night and on the next day. I talked to the on call Doc who has been seeing me when my doc isn't around. He said my white cell was back up to 13 so he thinks it may be possible that the drain works properly for a few days then gets a little backed up then starts working again. I may have to go in and have them replace the drain I have for a larger one.

Still in isolation

Melissa is still in isolation. (Love the yellow gown and blue gloves) She is having some good days although Wednesday night was a crash and burn. Thursday wasn't any better. She is off the TPN now and will lose the saline solution tonight if she could eat supper and keep it down after the CT today. The CT looked good and she will not have to have another drain put in. It doesn't mean she'll lose the other drain though. They are still not talking about when she can go home yet. We would really like her to not break her old record of 28 days straight in the hospital. The doctor had started her taking 2 pills and 2 IV antibiotics but today put her back on all IV antibiotics. Her spirits are pretty good. We always look around us and find someone who is worse off than us. Today a patient went home that had been in the hospital 5 months- through all the holidays. At least Melissa was at home even if she was not in tip top form.

Into isolation

Melissa has VRE and so is put into isolation. That is one way to keep her private room. Don't know what the plan is but it had been to have another CT scan done on Friday to see if things are healing. The drain is working and collecting icky brown stuff.

VRE is bacteria that is resistant to a antibiotic she has been taking.

Melissa had another CT scan done on Monday. The air pocket had gotten bigger and so they decided they could put a drain in. She has that in and it is draining fluids. They are doing a culture on the fluid to try to identify any infection. They also added three new antibiotics to what she is taking. Her white cell count had gone up after the weekend so they are hitting it with everything.

Today, Tuesday, was a day to see if things are working. She had a good morning except for being sleepy (who sleeps in a hospital). This afternoon she became nauseous again and couldn't eat lunch. She also was in some pain. She was able to finally eat some supper. When she can eat with some regularity she will be able to get rid of the IV nutrition stuff. They had hoped to do that today but that didn't happen.

They do think that Melissa has a very small leak someplace. They are hoping to collapse the abscess with the drain and by taking the meds it will seal and heal itself.

Thank you so much for your prayers. Please continue to pray for the doctors to understand what needs to be done to heal Melissa and that she will heal completely and gain her strength back.