Synopsis

Erin is typing this so here's a synopsis of Carol's state as of 6/14/08 to the best of my knowledge. Scott will add to or correct anything he needs to shortly.

Carol is at Swedish Hospital in Seattle in their Pediatri Intensive Care unit. She is unconscious due to a combination of pain med and another drug. This way, she isn't feeling pain nor wanting to tear out her ventilator or feed tube. She was admitted there on Tuesday the 9th in the afternoon. The doctor's did an emergency C-section around 4:45 pm or so because Carol and the baby's blood pressure dropped very rapidly. Carol stayed in surgery until after 7 pm because the doctors could not get her blood pressure stable. That night she had a CAT scan to see what is would show. It ruled out a perforated colon.

The following day, Carol's temperature spiked at 106.9 F so the doctors wrapped her in ice blankets to help bring her temperature down. Later that evening, it had come down to around 100 F. She started showing signs of DIC. That is when the body trys to fight the infection by sending clots to places that don't need clots. Eventually there is no blod flow to those places so the skin necroses (or dies) and begins to slough off. This also means that when she does bleed (i.e. scratch from inserting a feed tube) she doesn't have the clotting factors to stop the bleeding, so she bleeds a lot.

Carol started dialysis yesterday (6/13/08) because her kidneys are now starting to fail. They started to fail due to low blood pressure or flow. It is also why she is so edematous or swollen. The dialysis is helping with Carol's excretment and diminishing water retention. There is a 20-30% chance Carol will need ongoing dialysis after this is over from permanent damage to her kidneys.

The doctors have not given an estimated time to expect Carol in the hospital. It could be from weeks to months. So prayers and positive thoughts for Scott and the many doctors and nurses that work with her are always welcome.

Since all this Carol has had both her leg's below the knees amputated, her left arm below the elbow amputated, her right ring finger amputated; and is now blind. All of that is due to ischemia from vasopressive drugs used to keep her blood pressure high enought to survive.

On a different note, Safiya (say it phonetically) Christian was born on June 10th around 4:45 pm! She weighed in at 4/15 lbs. I don't know how long she is but she is BEAUTIFUL! She has Chloe's lonf feet, toes and fingers. She doesn't have nearly the head of hair that big sister had when she was born, but Chloe had a little while longer for growing it! Safiya is doing well in the NICU at Swedish Hospital. She was on the ventilator but I think they have her off of it. She has a bit of rapid breathing but I think that is ok. Scott will need to update us all a little more on Safiya's progress soon.