I've been slacking

Hey guys,

It's been 3 days since I last posted. Sorry about that. It's actually been because the news is good. No, she's not out of the hospital yet. But she is doing much better. Sara had a great Sunday with lots of visitors. I can't remember the exact count, but she had between 20 and 30 people come visit her for her birthday. She received a variety of well wishes. From homemade cards from a 4 year old, to jokes told by grade schoolers, to her favorite desert in the world. Chocolate chip cookie dough blizzard, which unfortunately she couldn't eat because of her diet restrictions. But I sure enjoyed it :).

Monday was filled with paperwork for transfering. Followed by an ambulance ride up to Mayo Clinic. She arrived in Rochester at aroun 9 Monday night. I worked all day, got a full nights sleep, and then left in the morning. I arrived at 3. I've been trying to balance my work with being available for Sara. I was able to work a few extra hours on Monday and then a couple hours today after I arrived.

Here is an update that Tammy emailed to a few relatives earlier with all that the doctors have been working on since Sara arrived at Mayo:



Sara arrived last night about 9 in good spirits & looking & feeling great. We took a long walk & she had a quick pace & didn't get winded.


She got checked in & vitals by nurse. Dr was in right away & asked questions about her history & the last week. Dr was going to study all the tests from Chicago last night to determine where to begin today. Lab checked her pic line & it is good. About midnight they picked her up for a chest xray and blood draw after.


Nurses let her sleep later this morning. She has a nurse & student nurse. 2 teams of 5 doctors came in this morning. The dr she saw last night was in the 1st group. After studying her case, they have decided to do a nuclear test today to determine the integrity of the thorasec duct and see if they can determine if and where there is a leak. Its like an MRI and the dyes they put in her system will "light up" and they can see what's happening. The fluid is continuing to fill although slower. After the results the thorasec surgeon will come in and discuss the next step with us. A nutrition team is working to coordinate the process begun at Chicago and with the specialists and surgeon when their action plan develops.


They feel continuing to tap her & drain fluids is not a solution.


Ok...change of plans...dr Nichols who is the sr thorasec surgeon & head of the dept here & written on this subject...just collaborated with the other 10 drs & has come up with a different approach. Because of his many yrs of experience, they have agreed on his order of events.


First concern is that they just don't have good enough pictures to see the lung and make decisions. So step 1 is now to put pigtail catheters in to drain al the fluid from around the lungs. The tubes will stay in 2-3 days to keep all the fluid off. Right away when the fluid is drawn off they will do a ct scan (yet today). Pigtails just will stay to make sure the fluid can easily be drained again. So then with step 2 being an immediate scan, they can get a good look at the lungs & texture of the lungs. They want to determine that there is no underlying condition. The assumption is still trauma caused, but will check for all sorts of things we don't want to have.


THEN they may do the nuclear test and/or a lymph angiogram. If there is a leak in that duct, he thinks they can find it. If the big surgery is needed he is the guy. However, there is another possible surgery that they can do that could basically seal it up through the vessels by an interventionalist radiologist.


But that is part of the "ifs". He thinks it may take a day or two to get to the bottom of the problem, and get a diagnosis & a solution. But he is very confident that we are going to get there soon. He does say that it is very rare but that many experts are working together for an answer. So on top of the 14 that have all ready stopped by, even more are part of the process.

Tim:
Everything went well with those tests and Sara is now slated to have the Lymphangiogram in the morning. This is a 3-6 hour test where they push dye in through her foot to see where it travels through the Lymph system, eventually spotting where the tear is. So hopefully, by end of day tomorrow, we should have a game plan on at home treatment.