Sandi Update

We had blood work scheduled this morning as it was, but things went downhill a little bit over the weekend so they had to work her in for an office visit as well.The blood work was mainly for INR and that barely budged so that med has been boosted.

The surgical site is healing and they are very pleased as to how it looks. It continues to weep stuff, but what is coming out is normal. Everything happening with that is a good sign.

What is not a good sign is the fact that, starting late last week and going through the weekend, Sandi's breathing with and without the oxygen sharply worsened. By Sunday it was very clear that something had to be done so I contacted her doctor over Sandi's objections as she didn't want to be a bother and discussed what was going on.

About two weeks ago Sandi was taken the rest of the way off the steroids in order to give her body a rest as long term steroids can do nasty things and to allow her immune system to climb a bit. Steroids can and do suppresses the immune system and with cold/flu season on us with additional risk, it was deemed a good idea to cut her back and then remove the steroids. What is happening now is that the basic condition of pneumonitis is trying to flare up in a new way and creating an asthmatic like situation for Sandi.

Later today, if the prescription gets filled fast enough, she will be start using a steroid inhaler. The hope is that the steroids in the inhaler will help things in her lungs without causing the steroid side effects and risks that the normal steroid pills have.

While this is a definite and significant setback, she is nowhere near as sick as when she had to be hospitalized a couple of months ago when this started.  At this point, she gets to stay home and try the inhaler and see how that works. Hopefully it will work as fast as hoped and Sandi will start doing better again.

Blood work and an office visit remain scheduled for Friday.