Alost Over The Hurdle………..

Greetings from UW Medical Center!

I owe each and everyone of you an apology, I haven’t been on my “blogging game” the last few days. Boy has it been a whirl wind. I am happy to report I am feeling much better today, almost back to my spunky old self! I also want to thank everyone for their kind words and prayers, they sure are working!!! I cannot thank you guys enough!!!

Had a great time while Alesha was here visiting, pretty sure we covered every square inch this city has to offer. We got home late Friday night from the Mariners game (yet another disappointing loss), I was pretty pooped but I felt great. Woke up Saturday morning with a raging headache, vomiting, and just felt completely wiped out. I was up long enough to see Alesha off, then it was back to bed for this girl. I figured I just had over did it, and needed to rest. Plus Saturday night was Arena-cross and I wasn’t going to miss that for anything, so I thought.

I didn’t even have enough energy to do my morning routine, I swallowed about half of my morning meds and that was it. My mom arrived around 3 o’clock or so, she came into my room, put her hand on my forehead and said “honey you are burning up!” She quickly went and got the thermometer and my temp was 103. YIKES! She quickly called the post transplant team to let them know what was going on, and they wanted to come into the emergency room and be admitted. Boy I will say getting from the apartment down to the car, then to the ER entrance was a huge challenge. I had cold wet wash clothes covering my head trying to cool my body down, any light would kill my eyes, so I kept them closed as much as possible. We finally arrived at the ER a nice young gentlemen came out with a wheelchair for us, assisted into the building while my dad parked the car. We were seen right away. I had a hard time communicating I was in my own little world!!! Once we got into an ER room I started sweating profusely and dry heaving like there was no tomorrow. I seriously thought my chest was going to burst open. It hurt so bad.

The ER team instantly placed an iv line and started pumping me full of fluids, and then my blood pressure for some reason decided to take a dive. I was in the 60/30’s range, pretty scary. I don’t remember a whole lot Saturday, I do remember the ER team trying to place a central line in my neck and that hurt like the dickens!!!!!!!!!!! From there on until Sunday I only remember bits and pieces, If i wasn’t having blood drawn, blood pressure checked, or being sent to X-ray I was out like a light. I do remember when doctors or nurses trying to wake me up, they had to get in my face, and literally shake me to get my some what attention. I also remember doctors telling my I had no neutrophil count. When I came in Saturday my count as 1.0 by Sunday my neutrophil count was .01. That was alarming!!!!! Monday I started to perk back up, Tuesday I was definitely feeling better and then today I feel so much better!!!

What all the doctors are speculating is I am currently growing pseudomonas in my sinuses, and it trickled it’s way down into my new lungs. With my immune system being suppressed already it didn’t take much for the pseudomonas to take off and cause an infection. On my recent X-rays the doctors were saying it looked like I was developing pneumonia in the bottom portions of my lungs. As for the neutrophil count being wiped out I am on two different medication Valacyclovir (which help treat the CMV virus in transplant patients) and Mycophenolate (which is an anti-rejection medication), they both weaken your immune system and can decrease the ability to fight off infections. With those two antibiotics they completely wiped out my white blood cell count and that is why I got so sick so quickly. Since Saturday the doctors have held both my daily doses of Mycophenolate an Valacyclovir and are rethinking of a new plan.

It truly amazed at how many “teams” of doctors up here. You have your General Medicine team, Pulmonary Team, CF Team, Post Transplant Team and an Infectious Disease Team. When I say the word “team” I don’t mean 2-3 people, each team is made up of at least 5-6 individuals. It is pretty impressive!

We are still waiting for several cultures to come back and their sensitivity to what medications they will send me home on. Tomorrow morning we should know and once we know we can bust out of this joint!! Fingers crossed!! I am more than ready to go back to the apartment! I forgot how much I HATE laying on this cardboard beds!! Ha ha!

Today was filled with just roaming the halls!! I feel like these walls are closing in on me! Ha ha! Well the Mariner game just started better go and watch, on tv that is. Hope everyone had a great Wednesday!

Until next time………

~Jen~
“Just Breathe”