Sheriff Sarah

Sheriff Sarah

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Tuesday Evening update

Patty and Sarah are firmly situated back at Children's as of about 1:30 this afternoon. We are awaiting the results of blood cultures to see exactly what type of infection is causing problems. So far they have eliminated the rotavirus and C-DIFF for those of you familiar with such lingo. Apparently those are highly contagious so that is a good thing.

Adding to the problems are an apparent issue with the line they have in Sarah's chest. They don't know if it is leaking or is kinked. They took x-rays and are now viewing those to see what they need to do: try to fix the line as it is or put in a completely new one.

We may not know the whole story on the infection until Thursday so we are expecting at least a two night stay at this point. The other major issue is that if they need to keep her on antibiotics they have already let Patty know she would need to complete those at home! In addtion to the TPN and Lipids - yeah right! The antibiotic would add another few HOURS to the process as they need to be changed over every eight hours. Patty is just not up for this. She is already lamenting the lost time with our three other kiddos due to her ultra-focus on Sarah and the TPN IV. She has pretty much said in no uncertain terms that she would rather stay at Children's to complete the antibiotics than go home and have yet more stress to deal with. 

Please amp up your prayers and thanks! We need a boatload of peace right now and something certain that Sarah is not having additional internal issues as Patty said she has been very fussy all afternoon and she has hardly slept a wink. I will update more tomorrow as I am able.

2 comments:

  1. Hello!

    I found your blog and wondered if you had heard of the Oley Foundation yet.

    We offer FREE information and peer support for families like yours with a member on home tube or IV feeding. Check out our website at www.oley.org.

    In particular you might be interested in the

    • Meet Patients Section (try all three links)
    http://www.oley.org/volunteers.html
    http://www.oley.org/call.html
    http://www.oley.org/forum.htm

    • HPN Complication Chart -- to help avoid those nasty infections
    http://www.oley.org/charts/newHPN.pdf

    • Oley's annual conference -- where you can learn a lot about tube and IV feeding and meet other families facing similar challenges. Preliminary details are posted now, but keep checking for updates at http://www.oley.org/2009_Annual_Conference.html
    There are travel scholarships for first time attendees.

    I am happy to send you some articles on TPN line infections. I don't have electronic versions, however, so I'd need you to email or call with your street address.

    If you have any questions or would like to be introduced to another family, feel free to contact me.

    Warm regards,
    Roslyn Dahl
    Oley Foundation Staff Member
    dahlr@mail.amc.edu
    (800) 776-OLEY

    ReplyDelete