Sunny Update, anniversary edition
I apologize to those of you who have been waiting for updates on how Sunny is doing, but I've just kind of run out of steam. I'm going to try and make a pretty accurate update today and then I probably won't until there is something specifically important to say. If anyone wants to know anything specific at some point or really just needs an update, email or facebook me and I'll answer when I'm up to it.
So today was Sunny and my anniversary which really sucked. Sunny's mom and I went down to the hospital together today for a few reasons. First because she hasn't had the opportunity to go down as often as I have due to watching the kids and being available when I needed her for things. Second because, as she so astutely pointed out, two people talking to the doctor works better because you can both ask questions and you have two brains remembering instead of 1 (or .5 in my case lately). Thirdly simply because it's nice for both of us to have some support from each other.
We got to sit with Sunny for a while and had an opportunity to sit down with a social worker and then a doctor. Sunny looked relatively good today. Her hair wasn't as sweaty and she looked less feverish than before. Her colour was better too I think. The social worker got us some information and explained some stuff and gave me some stuff for Wes and Madison. Speaking with the doctor was a but sobering though. Basically the way he put it is that Sunny has had three organ system failures (or at least I think that's the term he used). Her lungs, her kidneys and her pancreas. She is still showing signs of sepsis and her heart rate is still a bit high. They are trying to keep her sedated, but it's taking an unbelievable amount of drugs to do so. I believe the doc said that the normal patient is kept sedated with .5 mg of sleepydrug per day and Sunny is getting 50mg every 4 hours and she's still not completely out. So there is a bit of a balancing act trying to give enough but not too much of the sedation medication. Her lungs seem to be doing a bit better since they opened up her abdomen to drain fluid and she is being safely weaned off the ventilator a bit. Hopefully she'll be off that in the next few weeks. The fluid being absorbed in her body had her up to about 220 pounds and now she's down to about 180 I think. They are continuing to drain, but they want to make sure they don't take too much fluid out as her body needs it. Her pancreas didn't get necrotic at all, but it's still really unhappy. It's on track to improve and I believe the gall stone that started all this has been removed already. Her kidneys are still not working at all. She's getting dialysis every day for 8 hours currently and they are hopeful that due to her overall age and health that they will recover.
Her infection seems to be improving they believe because her fever is going down, although they are still not sure where it is. They took some cultures from various parts of her insides when they took her to the OR to clean and close the incision they had made during the surgery (she was not well enough to take to the OR when the did the surgery so it was performed in the ICU). Her heart rate is still high (at about 130 bpm), but that is significantly down from what it was last week. The clot in her Splenic vein is still there, but not getting worse. It's being treated mildly with blood thinners but they can't go full strength right now as that could affect other things.
I think that's basically how things stand right now, although I'm probably forgetting something.
The less clinical perspective that the doctor gave was that patients with her symptoms have about a 60 to 70 percent mortality rate. That does not take into consideration someone of her age with her general health though so they are much more optimistic for her specific case. They indicated the she would hopefully only be in the ICR for another 6 to 8 weeks but she will probably need to be in a hospital until around Christmas time (both said with double crossed fingers by the doc).
Work is being super cool (Sunny's work has been very cool as well).In fact, there are a bunch of people from TELUS who have been really amazing to me in this ordeal and I'm really appreciative. On top of that, the GIA (greater internet area) has been pretty amazing as well and I'm likewise really appreciative for that. My family has been totally holding me together and I really would be totally lost without them. I have no idea exactly what I'm going to be doing for the next six months. For now, the kids are heading to Michigan for the next few weeks and they'll play some more grandparent tag and probably have a pretty fun time, with some visits with me and Sunny every now and again. We'll figure out school once we get closer. We're just going to have to redefine normal for a while. Money is going to be tight, bit we'll manage and I think moving is going to be pushed back quite a ways, but eventually we'll get back to the old normal and move forward from there.
All I know is this would be so much easier if I could just sit down for a few hours and talk it out with Sunny. I wouldn't ever say I've taken her for granted. In fact I just about always say that every day no matter what is wrong, when I get home and see her, things just get better for me. That makes this so much more difficult, but I'm hanging in there and I think the rest of us will all continue to do the same.
So today was Sunny and my anniversary which really sucked. Sunny's mom and I went down to the hospital together today for a few reasons. First because she hasn't had the opportunity to go down as often as I have due to watching the kids and being available when I needed her for things. Second because, as she so astutely pointed out, two people talking to the doctor works better because you can both ask questions and you have two brains remembering instead of 1 (or .5 in my case lately). Thirdly simply because it's nice for both of us to have some support from each other.
We got to sit with Sunny for a while and had an opportunity to sit down with a social worker and then a doctor. Sunny looked relatively good today. Her hair wasn't as sweaty and she looked less feverish than before. Her colour was better too I think. The social worker got us some information and explained some stuff and gave me some stuff for Wes and Madison. Speaking with the doctor was a but sobering though. Basically the way he put it is that Sunny has had three organ system failures (or at least I think that's the term he used). Her lungs, her kidneys and her pancreas. She is still showing signs of sepsis and her heart rate is still a bit high. They are trying to keep her sedated, but it's taking an unbelievable amount of drugs to do so. I believe the doc said that the normal patient is kept sedated with .5 mg of sleepydrug per day and Sunny is getting 50mg every 4 hours and she's still not completely out. So there is a bit of a balancing act trying to give enough but not too much of the sedation medication. Her lungs seem to be doing a bit better since they opened up her abdomen to drain fluid and she is being safely weaned off the ventilator a bit. Hopefully she'll be off that in the next few weeks. The fluid being absorbed in her body had her up to about 220 pounds and now she's down to about 180 I think. They are continuing to drain, but they want to make sure they don't take too much fluid out as her body needs it. Her pancreas didn't get necrotic at all, but it's still really unhappy. It's on track to improve and I believe the gall stone that started all this has been removed already. Her kidneys are still not working at all. She's getting dialysis every day for 8 hours currently and they are hopeful that due to her overall age and health that they will recover.
Her infection seems to be improving they believe because her fever is going down, although they are still not sure where it is. They took some cultures from various parts of her insides when they took her to the OR to clean and close the incision they had made during the surgery (she was not well enough to take to the OR when the did the surgery so it was performed in the ICU). Her heart rate is still high (at about 130 bpm), but that is significantly down from what it was last week. The clot in her Splenic vein is still there, but not getting worse. It's being treated mildly with blood thinners but they can't go full strength right now as that could affect other things.
I think that's basically how things stand right now, although I'm probably forgetting something.
The less clinical perspective that the doctor gave was that patients with her symptoms have about a 60 to 70 percent mortality rate. That does not take into consideration someone of her age with her general health though so they are much more optimistic for her specific case. They indicated the she would hopefully only be in the ICR for another 6 to 8 weeks but she will probably need to be in a hospital until around Christmas time (both said with double crossed fingers by the doc).
Work is being super cool (Sunny's work has been very cool as well).In fact, there are a bunch of people from TELUS who have been really amazing to me in this ordeal and I'm really appreciative. On top of that, the GIA (greater internet area) has been pretty amazing as well and I'm likewise really appreciative for that. My family has been totally holding me together and I really would be totally lost without them. I have no idea exactly what I'm going to be doing for the next six months. For now, the kids are heading to Michigan for the next few weeks and they'll play some more grandparent tag and probably have a pretty fun time, with some visits with me and Sunny every now and again. We'll figure out school once we get closer. We're just going to have to redefine normal for a while. Money is going to be tight, bit we'll manage and I think moving is going to be pushed back quite a ways, but eventually we'll get back to the old normal and move forward from there.
All I know is this would be so much easier if I could just sit down for a few hours and talk it out with Sunny. I wouldn't ever say I've taken her for granted. In fact I just about always say that every day no matter what is wrong, when I get home and see her, things just get better for me. That makes this so much more difficult, but I'm hanging in there and I think the rest of us will all continue to do the same.