Michele & Sherry Update Page

Michele is doing great! All her numbers are good. She sat up at her bedside today for about 20 minutes. She can eat real food. She only has 1 IV which is there for antibiotics. It seems that it's up to the neurosurgeon as to when she'll leave and go to the rehab hospital. Still waiting to hear about today's cat scan but none of the doctors seemed to be too concern about it so it should be pretty good. She is back on the 11th floor now. Feel free to give her a call she'd love to hear from you.
312-926-1103

QUICK!! Knock on wood!! Good news for Michele. The bleeding has stopped itself. They are going to do another scope today to see where it was from. But since it stopped itself they might not have to do more for it. The CAT scan scan showed no new fluid this is also good. They are weaning her off her IV meds so that she can get to a regular floor (11). Liver and kidney number still strong

Well Michele didn't get much rest last night. She started spitting up blood so the GI guys did a scope to find the source. They're not certain but it appears to be in the same area as the repair was. They are running the suction so they can do another scope and get a better idea of the problem this afternoon

Michele spent the day resting up from Monday's adventure. The CT scan showed all was good. All her numbers are good. She moved out of ICU to the recovery floor room 1111. They will probably start therapy up again tomorrow. Her new number is 312-926-1111.

Not a lot of sleep for Michele last night she would wake up pretty much every hour when the pain medicene was due; but that should ease up for her over the next day or so. Due to the surgery and stretching her skin and all, her right eye has swollen pretty much closed. The doctors say it will probably get a little worse before it starts to improve. She is on the 9th floor right now but should be back on 11 around lunchtime

Michele's surgery went good today. There was a concern about an infection that they didn't discover till the surgery had started. They believe the source of the infection was one of the ports that Michele has for taking blood and getting meds (they have now been removed). They started her on the antibiotic during surgery and are confident that it will not affect the bone. Michele will spend the night in the ICU and then go to a new room on the 11th floor tomorrow

Nothing new today, all the numbers are good and the fever is gone. Just a day to relax before surgery. Michele's surgery is scheduled for 7:30 tomorrow adn should take about 60-90 minutes.

I want to thank everyone for all their prayers and keeping me in your thoughts. I don't think I could ever describe how it feels to have everyone praying for me; but I want you to know I appreciate it.

Michele is doing good. All the numbers are stable. A little fever last night came and went, the doctors believe it may be do to 1 of her iv lines and are checking them. They want to make sure she stays ready for surgery on Monday. No therapy today but we're exercising at her bedside to keep her limber. She sat up at bedside for about 30 minutes yesterday.

Michele is doing good and working hard. All the numbers are good and she sees the therapist twice a day. They give her a pretty good workout. She can eat whatever she wants, tough her eyes are still bigger then her tummy

Michele had a good day and night. All her numbers are good. She got to sit up at bedside for a bit yesterday and today but she still doesn't have the strength to stand. The therapist continues to work with her doing exercises at her bed to regain the muscles.
The neurosurgery team has chosen Monday to replace the piece of bone and she will probably be at Northwestern for a day or two after that. Where she goes after that depends on her gains in mobility before that.

Michele had a good day yesterday and a better one planned for today. Her pain is a lot less and the tube is out of her nose. She had the last of her drains removed and is started on clear liquids and moving up to soft foods. They are discussing replacing the piece of bone in her head before she goes home. She will probably have one more stop before she gets home and that will be at the rehab hospital down the street. It will get her out of the hospital and away from the germs that lurk there and also allow them to concentrate on getting her moving. There is no timetable yet but it will probably start happening very soon. All her liver, blood and kidney numbers remain steady. Today she will be working to sit up then get out of bed.

Michele continues to recover from Mondays surgery she is in quite a bit of pain but they are doing a good job medicating for it. The lab work shows her hemoglobin has stabilized so the operation was just as advertised!!

Michele's surgery went good today. They repaired the section that connects her small bowel to her stomach. At this time Michele is still in recovery but the surgeons feel the operation was a success. She will have to go back on the feeding tube for a day or two while it mends. They are also planning a full course of rehab (to begin very soon) to get her out of bed and moving about.

Michele 's liver and kidney numbers continue to look great. This afternoon she will have a procedure done to correct a small blood leak in the area of the transplant.

Michele had a great day Saturday. Her liver numbers continue to be strong and her kidney numbers even stronger. She got to start eating again on Saturday. And enjoyed all her visitors. Her lab work on Sunday still showed good liver and kidney function but also showed some blood numbers trending towards the bad side; so they put back on ice chips before breakfast. The hemoglobin number is what they are watching now. This is the same as when she had the scope the other day. They are concerned that there maybe a small leak. They gave her 3 units of blood today and will watch the numbers to see if they stay stable. If the continue the trend then they will probably do some surgery on Monday to find and sew up the leak. Hopefully it will clot by then.
She also got some therapy on Sunday and sat up in bed with no support as well as working on her range of motion in her arms and legs. It was tuff for her but she keeps on fighting the way we all know she does!!

This afternoon Michele moved one step closer to the doors at Northwestern. She moved from SCIU to a regular room - 1116. Though she was sad to leave the staff there that took such great care of her she's happy to be moving towards home.
She will probably remain in 1116 till early next week then off once again to recuperate at the Marriott.
Her phone number at Northwestern is 312-926-1116

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!! This looks like a happy day for Michele. Her kidney numbers are better then ever. The liver numbers are good. They are working now to get her medications to a stable level. They removed 1 drain from her stomach, the port in her leg (the one that caused all the troubles) and the suction thru her nose.
She couldn't sleep to well last night so the nurse gave her a bath and a good hair washing. She's looking better and feeling better. She will be moving out of the SICU and to a regular room today. I'll pass on the number soon

Michele had a little scare last night she spit up a little and it looked like blood. They immediately did a procedure to look inside her stomach by sending a scope down her throat. They found a blood clot right were there should be one. This is where they did a little rework when they did her 2nd liver. (After the surgery the doctors said that in 1 outta 4 cases this area will not clot and they will have to go back in and touch it up.) They said that they will monitor her lab work for to see if it appears to be leaking further. This morning her labs came back better then ever. The hemoglobin levels in her blood were at her highest level this month. They are quite certain that this won't require further surgery.
This was due to the fact that she was so swollen at the time of surgery. They sewed the swollen items back to gether. As the swelling went down this became looser couplings and began to slowly leak. Now that they have clotted the new tissue will grow back making these as good as new. The down side is that Michele has a suction tube down to her stomach to remove the old blood and that she can't move past ice cubes for a bit longer.
All her liver numbers were down as well as her kidney numbers. The doctor said she had the kidney numbers of a newborn. She lost the oxygen line and is breathing fresh air with no boost. Her voice is getting stronger as is her need to get up and move. The physical therapists will be down today to get her started.

Good News! Michele finally got weaned off the ventilator and is doing great on her own. She is also up sitting most of the way. No new labs to speak of but she continues down the right road

Michele is still working on losing the ventilator. She was at the lowest setting but it was a little difficult for her so they bumped it up a notch. She is taking deep enough breaths just a little too fast. So they gave her some medicine to help her relax and they'll try again. They're pretty confident she'll be done with it today. The liver numbers are stable and the kidney numbers took a big drop(in the good direction). The nutritionist is bumping up her feeding and the neurologist says everything looks good up top and she'll probably get another CT scan on Monday

Here' a great link from some one very thoughtful. Spending a minute on this page could help others like Michele

https://www.ilsos.gov/organdonorregister/

A new Illinois law, effective Jan. 1, 2006, created a new Organ/Tissue Donor Registry making a person’s wishes to be a donor legally binding. Additional witnesses or family consent is no longer required for donation to occur.If you are listed in the old registry, family consent is still required for donation to occur. To ensure that your decision to be an organ/tissue donor is honored, you must join the new registry

Once again of small steps but good progress. Michele is still working towards losing the ventilator. Just a couple of more notches and she'll be free of it. Maybe even tonight!!. All her liver numbers look good. Her kidneys are putting out lots and lots. The kidney numbers have been steady but they should be going down soon. If they don't start dropping soon she may have a round or two of dialysis. That would also help her lose the extra 60 or so pounds she has put on. The kidney doctor (http://nmhphysicians.photobooks.com/profile.asp?pict_id=5485&LastnameSearch=Y&Lastname=fr) says sometimes the transplanted kidneys take about a week to fully wake up

Michele is doing well tonight. They are weaning her off the ventilator still but she's almost there. They started intravenous nutrition tonight; giving her sugar, fat and protein directly to her blood. This should start building her energy up and take away the feeling of hunger. They also removed the drain from her craniotomy today. She is awake and alert for hours at a time. She smiles, waves and understands what is said to her. This morning she told me (thru hand signs) that most of the pain she has is in her back. She is getting pain medicine so she is comfortable enough to rest.

Michele is wide awake this morning. She opens her eyes wide and follows all the requests. She is pushing the ventilator so it will probably be gone soon. She's looking better than yesterday

She's still sleeping.... but not quite as much. This afternoon she opened her eyes and seems to be looking and following with her eyes. It taks alot out of her as she does this for about 5 minutes and then needs to rest. The doctors put a feeding tube in so she can start getting some nutrition. The last time she ate and got to keep it was Thursday the 2nd so I'm sure this should help a lot.

Still sleeping...... She's added a little flicker of the eyes to her tricks. All the vitals and blood work show she's doing great. Just got her to open her eyes about half way!!!!

She's still sleeping.......We can get the hands to wave a little and she'll move her foot if you tickle and other little signs like that. The staff says not to worry about it with all she's been thru.

Sisters 

All Michele's numbers are good and her vital signs are strong. Her new kidney is working good but they are considering a little dialysis to help it out. Learned a little something about kidney transplant today; they leave the old kidneys in. So Michele now has 3. Her liver is working good; she had an ultrasound today and the doctors said it was on the right track, good blood flow. No word yet on what caused the last liver to fail. The infectious disease doctors said the cultures that came back, came back clear. The liver doctor thinks that it will probably be a combination of things including the restrictive blood flow; but that's just speculation for now.
The CT scan on her head came back good also. I misunderstood somebody somewhere about when she would be waking up but right now she is still sleeping on her own. Once in a while she will raise her hands or roll her shoulders. I got her to flutter her eye lids once and when I touched her eye brow she turned away. They say it'll will probably be in the next 24 hours she wakes.

Sorry I got things out of order the post below this should be at Thursday 3/8 in the after noon.

Michele completed her transplant surgery about noon today. The surgeons came out to see us and we found there was a complication. As they were finishing the surgery the ICP pressure (measured by the 'bolt'), rose to about 40. This indicated a subdural hematoma, fluid was trapped in between her skull and brain. They took her immediately to neurosurgery for an emergency craniotomy. For this procedure they had to cut open her skull about 3"X 3" on the right side and remove the fluid. Her brain showed no signs of trauma and the surgeons believe that there was no permanent damage done. They left the piece of skull out for now and just closed it with the skin. They will leave it like this for 2 or 3 days till they are certain everything is ok. Then they will replaced the piece of bone and redo the skin.
Right now she is sleeping probably for a few more hours. When she awakens she will go for another CAT scan to check everything. Her new kidney started working right away as did the liver. All her vitals signs, pressures are strong and her blood work is coming back good.

Please keep your prayers coming for a continued recover.

Michele & Sherry Update Page

Thursday March 9th. 2:30PM
Michele had a very difficult night and morning.
An incision had been made to get at the artery in her right leg for some tests. Due to the poor condition of her blood it was not possible to stop the bleeding. During the night she received 9 units of blood and considerable effort has been to stop the bleeding.
Several times the bleeding was stopped, but started again.
At about 1:30 PM the bleeding was stopped.
Her Doctors are treating her to under go another transplant as soon as a suitable donor liver is found. Michele is sedated and not aware of all the activity around her.
Due to the seriousness of her condition her family, friends, cousin , aunts; uncle and grand parents gathered at the hospital to give her love and support.
Please keep Michele in your prayers she has a long road back to good health.

The word from the surgical suite this morning at 5am: Everything is going as it should. They have replaced the liver and were starting on the kidney then to the bile ducts.

Thank you for your continued prayers

We almost lost our angel this morning. But thanks to the dedicated staff in the Northwestern SICU and all your prayers she is her waiting for her new liver and probably kidney. Her surgery is scheduled to begin around 1am Friday. It will be a 6-12 hour procedure. Followed by about another day in SCIU.
Please keep praying for her and that her new organs will keep her healthy.

Michele is stable and we are all hoping that a donor comes soon

Tonight Michele had a "bolt" put into her head. It is a device that is put thru the skull to monitor the pressure that may occur from the buildup of fluids. This way they will know before it can do any damage. They had to do this since she is unable to follow verbal commands to check her response.

Michele is in critical but stable condition. They have no idea why the liver is failing. She is receiving medication for viral, bacterial and fungal infections. Do to the liver problems her kidneys are also having a little problem. The doctors say that sometimes in these types of situations they also transplant the kidneys along with the liver. The kidneys would come with the donor liver. She remains status one nationally

The doctors have just come and gone. They changed their thinking. Now they believe Michele's liver is in full rejection. They won't be certain for a day or two more but they are going to put her on the list. She should have high rating on the list and hopefully won't have to stay on it long.

Thanks for your continuing prayers

Michele's liver numbers were up again today so they moved her to Intensive care where they can keep a better eye on her. She had an ultrasound this morning, Had the last stent removed around noon and will be under going another liver biopsy this afternoon. The ultrasound showed that she was still getting flow to and from her liver. They will compare today's biopsy with Friday's to see if they can learn more. As of this morning they were still saying that the mild rejection is not a problem and that they can treat it with drugs. The concern is the amount of blood that the artery is allowing into the liver. I'll pass the results on when I get them. Michele's new number is 312-926-5186 and ask for room 719. Michele is very weak and tired so she does a lot of sleeping but Sherry or I are usually there.

Today should be a day of rest for Michele. Her numbers were up a little today probably from all the tinkering they did Saturday. Doc wants her to catch up on her sleep and eat today (things she hasn't done since Thursday). She had another ultra sound today to make sure they didn't hurt anything yesterday. The plan is to continue to treat the rejection with medication and get the transplant team together on Monday or Tuesday to decide about the artery.

When they did the ultrasound on Thursday they noticed that the artery that feeds the liver seemed narrow. The artery is open enough right now to supply the liver but it left little room for any future problems. So today Michele went down @10am for an angiogram that was supposed to take 30 - 60 minutes. They finally started about 12:15 and finished about 6:30 pm. The plan was to pump some dye into her arteries so they could map out the hepatic artery then snake a balloon in thru the artery in her groin and inflate it to stretch the artery. If that didn't work they would try to put a stent in to hold it open wider. After all was done they accomplished nothing. It seems that Michele has a rather 'unique' anatomy. The artery that feeds the liver has about 3 bends in it. The doctors were unable to get thru these bends to the narrow part of the artery. They will decide on Monday or Tuesday what the next step is. One option is to go in thru the arm and then there will be one less bend.
As far as the rejection problem they are confident that the drugs will take care of it. Her fever is gone and the kidney numbers are returning to normal. The liver numbers are still off but she just started the medication so it hasn't kicked in much yet.
She will be staying at Northwestern till at least Monday. And not to forget Sherry; she's doing good still. She stretched her workday another hour a day this week.

Well this week started out great. Michele went Monday to see the doc and have her blood draw. The lab numbers came back the best yet. The docs were talking about maybe taking a drain or two out next week (that brought a smile to Chele's face). She did not have to go back again till Thursday (another smile). Thursday she went for labs and was in and out in half hour. Her temperature was about 1 degree high but there was no worry. We were home for about 2-3 hours and the nurse called and said here numbers took a jump (indicating rejection) she had her come back down for an ultrasound. Her temp was a little higher so she gave her a bag of fluids to keep her from getting dehydrated. The nurse explained that the numbers could mean a mild(??) rejection (a mild rejection is one that they can control with steroids) or could be due to too much of one of her meds but either way they decided it was a good time for a liver biopsy. and scheduled it for Friday. Michele's temp climbed thru the night and was about 102 Friday morning. She was showing all the signs of the flu. On Friday she went down for the biopsy, which they do thru a vein in her neck, and blood draw. The numbers were higher again. The biopsy showed mild rejection and they then did a procedure (ERCP) and go thru her throat and look around. The surgeon said everything looked good (no leaks, puss or clogs). Right now she is spending at least one night down at the hospital (312-926-1117) so they can monitor her and keep pumping her up with fluids. They didn't say how long they thought she would be there. But I'll pass on more info when I get it.