The Plot Thickens...

I apologize for being late with the update.  I wasn't able to get online from the hospital yesterday afternoon or evening.  I'm not sure what the problem was.

Anyway...

Alli's cultures finally came back from the lab.  They show that she has both a bacterial infection in her lungs, as well as a urinary tract infection.  She was already being treated with antibiotics, so they are monitoring her cultures to ensure they are responding adequately.  They determined yesterday that the leg with her central line was not getting enough blood flow due to clotting, therefore they removed the central line and placed a picc line.  A picc line can be used for longer periods of time, so they may have needed to go that route anyway.  The picc line goes through her arm so it should give the leg a chance to recover.  They have started her on a 2 week course of treatment with blood thinners (heparin - for my pharmacy family and friends :) ).  They did an x-ray when they placed the picc line yesterday to ensure they had appropriate placement.  As they were confirming placement on the x-ray they had a view of her left lung and managed to catch it as a pneumothorax (air pocket in the lining of the lung) developed causing the lung to collapse.  So, they were able to treat her immediately and replaced the lung catheter with a chest tube.  Busy day for her.  She is heavily medicated at this point on fentanyl, dopamine, epinephrine, xosin (sp?), occasional ketamine and versed when they do minor procedures, and of course, her normal course of seizure medication and a course of respiratory therapy.

As of this morning, her chest x ray still looks hazy on the left side.  They are going to try two less invasive treatments to see if that helps to clean up the lung.  If that does not work, then they will call pulmonology to endoscopically clean the lung from the inside.  They do this by placing a scope down her breathing tube and then applying suction to specific areas within the lung.  They are also planning to reassess her tolerance for feeds in the hopes of getting them started this evening.  They will reconfirm placement of her nj tube and make the decision from there.

We appreciate the many offers you have made to help us.  Jason and I are taking things week by week to determine what our needs are from an extra hands perspective.  My mom arrived yesterday and is holding down the fort at home, with the assistance of Megan, our nanny.  Alli will likely be in the hospital for quite a while, so once the baby comes we will need to determine who will be with Alli, who will be at home, etc.  Up until this point we haven't needed to leave Alli for long periods of time without one of us being with her and we're hoping to be able to keep someone with her through the duration, even if on a rotating schedule.

Hopefully my internet problems at the hospital will be cleared up today and I will be able to write another update tonight.

Until then, have a great day!  Thanks for hanging in there with us!  We appreciate the prayers and expressions of support from everyone.