Sandi Update --8/18/17

Scott and I just got home from seeing Sandi at the hospital. She is doing a little better as she is off oxygen support and breathing on her own. She was awake and more with it than the past several days as well. She still has the catheter in her and still is being monitored for any possible heart issue. She has been fever free so far today.

The x-rays came back with no sign of a break. She does have a dark area on her right ribcage indicating that she has a bruise. They do not believe that the bruise extends inward to her lung nor does it appear that her heart is bruised. All that is very good news. It also means that I did not make things worse for her trying to get her up off the floor. The bruise is causing her significant pain, but there is no sign that I did anything to make that worse or cause any other injury.

We also now know for sure that the shower I helped her take after the fall was not responsible for her fever and everything else since then. I was very worried I had not done something correctly with her port in trying to cover it from the water and had caused what she is going through now.

The tests have come back and she does have a major bacterial blood infection. It is worse than the last one. We don't know if this is the staph infection that was not completely defeated and came back with a vengeance or something new. There is a very good chance that not only has the infection spread to her major organs (which they believe they can stop and clear) it has also spread to her tri-fusion port. If that has happened --they are running tests for that--there is going to be a major problem as the port would have to be removed. It also would seem that such a situation would preclude trying to put another one into her until the infection was completely cleared.

While they run tests and try to decide what to do about that, they are running massive amounts of various antibiotics into her along with saline fluids and platelets. She probably is going to have a blood transfusion of multiple units over the weekend. They also hope to get her out of the bed at some point this afternoon and have her walk a little bit with the therapists.

So, at this point, clearly there are things to worry about, but I feel a little better about her situation. Seeing her awake and oriented was a major relief. She has clearly been through a lot since Tuesday evening, but I think she is doing a little bit better.