Tuesday, June 17, 2008

6/17/2008

ok, so busy day for me. First day back at work. I am living in Seattle for the forseable future, so saw the girls in the morning, then drove down to work.

Carol is doing good again today. Her dialysis machine began leaking again this morning at 4 am. This is the 2nd time this has happened, and all the nurses are a little baffled by it. The decision was made to stop the dialysis. This has seemed to be beneficial becuase she is peeing very well now, which was the worry that she wouldn't.

Temp good, circulation good. the vascular surgeon came in this morning and moved the dialysis line just in case they needed it, and got some special topical burn cream for skin for her, and come special vascularizing gel for her fingers and toes, that may help with some of the gangrenous fingers and toes.

Doing a little research of my own, since I could finally get to a computer, this morning. I really think this all has started with a spleen problem. A hypofunctioning spleen (not working). This is not too uncommon in a patient with ulcerative colitis for 10+ years. Hyposplenic patients have a high incidence of septic strep pneumonia infections. It would would be very rare for an otherwise healthy individual to aquire an infection of this type. So I suggested that they check that out this morning, so they are going to take a ct scan (which might not really show anything), and check her blood for some chemical that would indicate a spleen problem:). I really think this is what has happened, all the symptoms seem to match up, plus her going to the ER the week before with severe left posterior flank pain........who knows...we'll see

scott

6 comments:

Stephanie said...

Scott,

We are keeping up the prayers on the east coast! So happy to hear that she is making urine!! Carol is a fighter!! We hope that Chloe is doing okay, too. I am sure it's been hard on her to not have her Mom around. Thinking of Carol, you, the girls, and your extended family all the time.

Love,
Stephanie & Arthur

Unknown said...

It's very nice to see more good news, Scott. Indeed we are working overtime in the prayer department in Boston. Y'all have a lot of friends here who are rooting like crazy for Carol.

Love,
Pete & Ally

Erica said...

Are visitors allowed at this point? What can we do to help? Anything!

todd storch said...

Thanks for the update Scott. So impressed that Carol is off dialysis.
Carol is amazing, but you already knew that!
Todd & Amy

Scott and Carol Decker said...

Thanks everyone....erica visitors are fine, just know she doesn't quite look like the Carol you may know, at the moment.

scott

Tanya said...

Scott - thank you for your detailed updates. I appreciate you informing us. Your baby is beautiful. Give Carol a hug for me, I'm thinking of you guys often.I'd love to help with anything.
Love
Lori Stafford
(360)802-6694