Very Critical Condition

Karin's system is struggling under a very serious infection. Her kidney is not functioning and lungs are barely functioning. They have done everything they can safely do right now and she is in critical condition. Her system could fail with the slightest disruption at this point. All they can do now is wait and hope the antibiotics are effective. They estimate she will be in critical condition for at least through the night. If she can hang on till then and the infection get knocked out, then her system should start to revive.

Her mom and I are with Karin, and dad arrives around 8pm.
Pam Slice and our wonderful new nanny are with the kids, and someone will stay the night so we can stay with Karin.

My Love may be going to her etternal home tonight, and I know they are eager to welcome her there, but I pray that she can stay with us longer, because she is the joy of my life and I and the kids will miss her so much for so so many years still to be lived before I could be with her again.

Respirator

Karin's breathing became more difficult, so I signed consent for her to be sedated and put on the respirator.
She is still very pale, but stable and getting the care she needs.

In case anyone is wondering it is best that she have limited visitors - definitely no germs!! And no flowers of fresh fruit (also can bring some germs -I never knew that!)

Pneumonia

Karin has significant pneumonia in one lung. It came on very fast, and her blood pressure droped from something like 170/90 Monday to 70/40 today. She didn't have breathing trouble until she was in the ER. It is a very good thing that we got her in when we did as she was in very serious danger of organ trouble from the low blood pressure. They've got her blood pressure stablized at normal now.
We are told to expect that she will get worse before she gets better. As the infection in her lungs breaks up in will reduce her breathing even more and there is a good chance they will need to put her on life support, maybe for several days, to make sure her lungs keep going and get enough oxygen into her system.
Very serious, but they know how to deal with this and get her well!

ICU

Karin is being admitted to an ICU bed, due to very low blood pressure and low oxygen level - I guess that's why she was weak and and blue lips!! They will be giving her multiple antibiotics for possible infection, and drugs to boost her blood pressure.

Going to the ER

Steve just called my nurse practitioner at Duke and described how I've been doing since I was there Monday. And she said I should go to the ER today. :( She said we don't have to drive all the way to Duke if we don't want to, so we're going to our closest hospital instead. She said they'll check me out and possibly admit me. UGH!! I have so much to do this week, and I do NOT want to go to the hospital. :(

High Fever

This is Steve. Karin is not well and has a fever of 103 :-(

She had a bad morning, moaning for a couple hours from GI/gas pain and feeling cold, but couldn't keep her eyes open more than a few seconds. She was also very ghostly pale. It was breaking my heart to see her in that shape. I really needed to get to work (can't live without an income) but I couldn't bring myself to leave her like that. Finally at 10:30am she woke enough to sit at her computer and talk. She insisted she was ok and pushed me to work.
I got home at 6:30pm. She was able to wake for a few minutes for a brief description of her day. Grandma says she was awake downstairs long enough to eat some cottage cheese - the most food she's had in a few days, but she seems to have slept most of the day - that's our guess - grandma was busy with kids and Karin was mostly in the bedroom with door closed. Karin's temp was 99 at 6pm. She had no interest in getting up for dinner, then I too was busy with kids until 10pm. Then checked her temp again and it was 103. I got her up and out of bed and to the bathroom. She was unsteady and held me for fear of falling.
She seems very weak. I'll probably call an oncology nurse soon to find out if/when she needs closer attention/treatment.

10:50pm update: she still can't keep her eyes open for more than a few seconds, but her temp is down to 101.

Bracelets!! and Discomfort

Today was Aria's 2nd Sunday at church...and for the 2nd week in a row, we ended up being quite late. Between taking 3 kids to church and my slowness in the morning due to discomfort, it's hard to get there on time. But little did I know that we missed something significant this morning!! Before we arrived, an announcement was made about ME!! I knew about these bracelets ahead of time, but I didn't know that today was the day. So it was announced today that a couple hundred bracelets were made with my name on them...and they were passed out at the back door after the service today!!! They are to serve as reminders for people to pray for me!!!! WOW!!!! :) :) Thank you to everyone who is praying and wearing a bracelet reminder!!!! :) :) I feel sooo blessed!!!!! Kevin got a bracelet too, and he was pretty impressed.

That reminds me that last week in Children's Church, apparently Kevin's class talked about a story about healing. And if they knew someone who is sick, they were to take a band-aid as a reminder to pray for that person (I think I got the story right??). So as I was talking to a friend after church, Kevin came up behind me and stuck a band-aid on my back!! HA!! :) I later found out the explanation from him and even saw that his teacher had written "Mommy" on the band-aid. :) So Kevin had specifically talked about me in his class. What a sweet boy!! :)

As for my status, my side effects are getting worse and more uncomfortable. Some have gotten pretty severely uncomfortable. But today was my final day of taking one of the trial meds for this cycle. Hooray!!! I now get a week off and hopefully will get back to normal for a bit. :) Yesterday and today, I had to eat ice cream for dinner, because there's nothing else I can tolerate due to my sore mouth. Tomorrow is my next appointment at Duke, which will probably last all day, as usual. And I hope to get some help with some of these brutal side effects!! Fortunately, my pain is pretty much under control though. :) And my walking was really great today!!! :)