Wednesday 10/31/18 continued

So they found the bleed on the scan, it was near her right kidney. She went to the OR around 11am. They also today had a vascular doctor in surgery. If the bleed was a vein they would try and go through it and fix it from the inside. He came out around 1pm and said it was not a vein bleed. It was ooze bleeding all over her abdomen again. They think the spot they saw on the CT was the contrast dye building up in one area. Doctor came to talk with Rob after surgery. She had the oozing bleeding in her whole abdomen. They found an arterial bleed that they fixed. They packed her again and had to undo the closure on the lower part of her abdomen. The top stayed the way they fixed it yesterday. Next surgery is Friday. The plan is to remove packing, drain out any extra fluids. Use mesh to close her abdomen and do nothing else internally. By not touching anything they are hoping things can heal. They will no longer be flushing her abdomen. If she does begin to bleed again they will go back in if necessary. The biggest issue is how weak her body is. They would like to see if not bothering the abdomen at all, with her own immune system and the medication to see if that will get the infection under control. She was given 13 units of blood, 10 plasma and 3 platelets. Meghan is now resting and hopefully a peaceful night for her!

Wednesday 10/31/18

Hemoglobin is now 4.2. They started giving blood in her room. They are going to do a CT of the abdomen so they can find out where the bleed is coming from. They also have vascular doctors now looking into things with the surgical team. If it is a vein they can do a procedure and go inside the vein and fix it that way. They have already given her 3 units of blood and 3 of plasma. She was sent to CT and will continue to be given blood products until they can read the scan. She is back now from that and now we are waiting to hear more info.

Tuesday 10/30/18

Meghan went down for surgery around 9am and was in surgery until 1145am. They did begin to close her abdomen. They have a mesh over the top and bottom with an area open incase they have to go back in for any bleeding. The doctor said pancreas is looking ok but can’t be 100% sure if it is done causing damage. There was no current bleeding and will monitor that for 6 hours. After the 6 hour mark if no signs of a bleed they will begin the medicated flush of the antibiotic fluid. During surgery they did replace the feeding tube in her nose and will have that ready once they want to start feeds again. That will not happen yet but shortly. Meghan didn’t need any blood during surgery. Meghan was resting and just relaxing as best as she can. Next surgery will be on Friday, to try and let things rest and heal as much as they can before going back in. Around 1030pm Meghan’s blood pressure dropped and they put her on a little bit of medication for it. They drew labs to see if anything was going on. Her hemoglobin was 9.2 around 4pm and now is 6.2. They are giving her two units blood and will re draw in 90 mins to watch counts.

Monday 10/29/18

Today was a day of rest for Meghan. The doctor opted to wait another day for surgery with the antibiotic wash out so Meghan can heal internally as much as possible. Damned if you do damned if you don’t with surgery. If they go in too early it could remove any clotting. If they don’t go in the infections sit and can get worse. Her white blood cell count is still rising and back up to 50. Meghan is set as of now to be the first case tomorrow for surgery. 

Sunday 10/28/18

She had a very busy night after again being rushed back to the OR. She is sleeping and getting rest. She will not be going to the OR today because of last night. Mom, Gram and I got to visit Meghan today. For everything she went through last night she looked good. She was communicating by mouthing with us and we showed her the cards that came for her. She enjoyed reading and seeing them. The rest of the day she has been resting. She will go back to the OR tomorrow later in the day for the antibiotic wash out as well as looking & checking for bleeding. 

Saturday 10/27/18

This morning one of Meghan’s drains fell out. The nurse was changing her dressing and it came out, looked like the stitch had come out. Rob also stated that her sponges looked like there was liquid just sitting on top and very saturated. Doctors were paged to come and take a look at her and stat labs were taken. Her blood pressure had gone down and another number they watch (MAPS) was 56. Doctors think she may be bleeding again. Back to the OR 😢 she went down around 1030am. I will update as soon as I have info. Please say a prayer! 

She is out of surgery. She was bleeding again from her right side and they do not know what caused this to start. They could see exactly where the bleeding was and it has already stopped. They have packed it to keep pressure. The drain that fell was not working correctly and that is why the fluid saturated her sponges, it had no where else to go. Bowels looked the same, no better no worse. Overall look they said abdomen looked better due to medicated flushes. So they want to do those in the OR to help assist in fighting the infection. They may do these every 24 hours for a few days. Pancreas looked the same no changes or bleeding in that area. CT results from over night didn’t show anything they don’t already know. Blood pressure is back up and MAPS is currently 85. 

They had a sonogram done to check for blood clots in her veins. They did find a small one by her neck but it is on the wall and she still has good blood flow. They also believe she is having a small reaction to the new anti fungal medication they started today. Doctors told Rob that this is not uncommon since it’s such a strong medication. Next plan is surgery tomorrow. They will be washing her out again with the medicated fluid. Meghan had her bladder scan done since she hadn’t peed. She did have a full bladder. They told Rob the reason she wasn’t peeing could be from the low blood pressure. They thought it would be a benefit to put a regular catheter in so that was placed. She was put back on a little bit of blood pressure medication for now. Meghan had been pretty out of it today and in and out of sleeping. They noticed her coloring was off and she was very pale. Nurses had ACES (her surgical team) paged to come take a look. When the doctors came in they wanted labs stat and thought two possible things 1. She was becoming septic 2. A new bleed. Her hemoglobin has dropped to 2.6 and she started getting blood right away. Platelets have been moving in the right direction and was over 300 and now currently 65. She got already 8 units of blood, 8 plasma and 2 platelets in her room and headed back to the OR. She had a new bleed. It was an area by the pancreas. She got 2 more units of blood in surgery and 1 of plasma. 

Friday 10/26/18

Surgery is still on for this afternoon. During surgery they will be placing an erector spinae catheter. This is for pain medication. The doctors told Meghan that was an available option and she wanted to try it. OT was with Meghan today making changes to her splints for her hands to not be so curled all the time. Meghan had a little bit of a temperature and was given Tylenol for it. Doctors explained to Rob they believe since she has the current infection she may have had a small temperature the whole time but dialysis can cover that up. She went to surgery around 130pm. Meghan’s surgeon did not come up and talk to Rob but another doctor did. All the info they had was that the bowel is still very irritated, however no breakdown at this time. The infection is still not under control. They are switching out her irrigation fluid to a medicated one. She did get one unit of blood in surgery. Also now will only be pulling labs once a day at 4am. Since Meghan is off dialysis they said it isn’t necessary. With dialysis they need to monitor her electrolytes all the time. With her being off the machine they do not need to do this. Meghan is also scheduled for a CT of her abdomen just as a double check for everything going on. 

Thursday 10/25/18

Meghan did get some sleep last night. Doctors are trying to find a pain medication that works for Meghan, she is having some pain. They did change one medication but she felt nauseous again so they switched back. Other option would be an epidural but there are also risks with that. Good news of today because she is producing urine they have changed her to intermittent dialysis. They also have an external catheter, less chance of infection than placing a regular one to collect her urine. Her labs early in the morning all went in the right direction by a lot and was good but 4pm labs all went back up. They think the earlier ones were false labs due to her body continuously getting flushed. She has a lot of extra fluid inside. She was completely off the vent today for over 10 hours. She has been trying to get some rest as much as she can and surgery is set for tomorrow, she is the second case.

Wednesday 10/24/18

Surgery was pretty quick this morning. Doctors washed out her abdomen and really no changes. Her bowels are still very swollen and possibility of breakdown is still a very serious issue. She did not need any area repaired today and no bleeding. So the good side of today nothing got worse since Monday but nothing got better either. The bowels are a waiting game, not much the doctors can do for them. They would like to close her as soon as possible to prevent any new infections. That being said they need these current infections to respond to the medications before that can happen. The doctors theory behind the bowels being so bad is from the c-diff and everything else happening in her abdomen. Meghan got some rest for the rest of the day today and her next surgery will be on Friday with the hope they see some progression.

Tuesday 10/23/18

Meghan rested well last night, as far as labs go not much has changed. They had put her in the chair again today and off of the ventilator. She tolerated that well. Meghan was put on two new antibiotics to try and get this infection under control. Meghan also had something called touch therapy. It is just a light massage for her arms and legs. Meghan seemed to enjoy that and would like to have it done again. This is suppose to be helping in making patients be able to relax. Meghan’s labs have been changed to only twice a day. At this point the levels they are watching do not change that fast in a six hour window. A 12 hour gap will give the doctors more information to see if the new medications are working or not. Surgery is set for tomorrow morning first case.

Monday 10/22/18

Meghan went for surgery around 11am. The report today is steps backwards. 😢 The infection got worse. They had to repair a part in her intestines that they have already repaired once. It broke down again. No feeding tube was replaced at this time. Infectious disease doctors will be talking with Meghan’s surgical team and trying to see what medications they can change for the infections. Bleeding has stopped but the infection in her intestines is her main issue now. Doctors basically told Rob they are going to try and get a class of antibiotics that works and Meghan slowly starts healing or things are going to keep breaking down. Waiting to hear from infectious disease and her evening labs.

Sunday 10/21/18

They have opted against taking her lung fluid sample. Due to her body being weak it’s a possibility of causing bleeding and they don’t want that. White blood cell count is slowly going in the right direction and her breathing is ok. Mom and Dad got to visit with Meghan today. They said her swelling in her arms and hands have really gone down. They didn’t move her into a chair today so she could rest before surgery. Surgery will be at some point tomorrow, no set time yet. Hemoglobin dropped slightly but they will wait to see what labs are later and before surgery to see if she will get blood. Meghan rested for the rest of the day and hopefully will gain strength for tomorrow’s surgery.

Saturday 10/20/18

This morning nurses were moving some of Meghan’s lines & tubes to prevent infection. They do this every few days to keep everything clean. They have her again in the chair to sit up. Teagan got cleared again to go up and see Meghan. She had a good day with a few visitors. Meghan was having some pain but was given some pain meds to take care of that and rested for the rest of the evening.

Friday 10/19/18

Last night Meghan peed on her own so that was a positive. This is a sign her kidneys are functioning, although she still is and remains on dialysis. She has had a little bit of fluid in her lung and because her one blood level (white blood cell count) has been higher they are thinking about doing a procedure to get a sample to rule out infection. Doctors think they are getting the infections in her abdomen under control. That being said the white blood cell count is still high so they want to just check it maybe. Today Meghan was moved to her chair in the room to get her out of the bed. She did get sick twice and that shouldn’t happen with the tube down through her nose.  The nurse flushed the tube and gave her some nausea medicine to help with that.

Thursday 10/18/18

Surgery went well. The area of major bleeding has stopped, although she could be oozing slightly. Doctors were ok with that progression. She did receive platelets but did not need any blood during surgery. During surgery they did realize a small hole in her stomach from the feeding tube. The doctor explained to Rob that was a minor thing that can happen from movement of feeding tube. They did repair it and replaced the tube. Also doctors took new cultures from her abdomen to help get this infection under control. Those are checked daily to see what grows and what possible way they could change her antibiotics. After surgery Mom and Gram were able to visit with her today and she was awake and wanted to see pictures of the kids. Mom said she was smiling and even laughing a little when they were sharing stories with her. Meghan’s abdomen is still open and will have another surgery by Monday. They do not have a plan yet of what day. Continued prayers are appreciated and we hope this is our turning point to get Meghan heading in the right direction. 

Wednesday 10/17/18

Meghan finally had a decent day, after 43 days and 19 surgeries. Doctors got her back into a chair sitting up. She also was taken off the ventilator completely for a little bit to see how she would tolerate it and she did ok. Labs were pretty much the same all day. Holding at the same is better than going down. Surgery tomorrow will be to make sure the doctors see nothing new, flush out her abdomen and change sponges. Doctors really don’t want to poke at anything to make anything mad unless it’s necessary. She is set right now to be first case tomorrow morning.

Tuesday 10/16/18

Last night Meghan didn’t get much sleep, she was mouthing questions to Rob and nurses. She was asking about her surgeries and basically what has happened. In morning rounds they decided to change Meghan’s pain medication because she was telling them she was still in some pain. Her labs have been up and down as they have been for a while now. She did receive two units of blood today & platelets. Doctors are trying to possibly get her sitting in a chair soon to help with skin breakdown just from being in her bed so much. Ending up having a hematologist come in tonight to look at Meghan and she did a couple a tests to see if she has any underlying issues with her blood. Meghan’s body is consuming her platelets faster than she can regenerate them on her own. Surgery is being pushed to Thursday to let Meghan’s body have another day of rest.

Monday 10/15/18

Meghan had her next surgery and not much changed. Special packing has been removed, her abdomen is still open but just covered with the sponges. Pancreas still looks the same, no better/no worse. One culture done from her abdomen has shown some bacteria growing and it’s being treated with the antibiotics she has been on. They plan on still flushing her abdomen as well. Meghan’s lab has still been up and down, some head in the right direction and then go back. Right now plan is next surgery on Wednesday.

Sunday 10/14/18

Due to Meghan’s late surgery Friday into Saturday morning her next surgery got pushed until tomorrow. Meghan is on a lot of antibiotics to try and get this infection in her abdomen under control. She is still on blood pressure medication to help that stay up. She will keep receiving blood as needed. Her levels have been up and down all day. The doctors are hoping to see some progress in tomorrow’s surgery as always we are too! Gram, Jimmy, Nicole and I all got to visit today. Meghan did know we were there but she was resting most of the time. 

Saturday 10/13/18

Meghan got back to her room in ICU around 230am. She did have another bleed in an artery that the pancreas caused damage to. They were able to get it under control and repacked her abdomen. She received 12 units of blood during the surgery which was high but a lower amount than past surgeries. During the morning the doctor did a chest x-ray to make sure her lungs were clear. The left lung had a small amount of fluid but doctors were not concerned at this time. They ending up having to up the ventilator setting so that she does not have a CO2 build up in her lungs. Over night when Meghan is deep sleeping she was only breathing 6-8 times a min, the ventilator will assist with this. The infection that she has in her abdomen is the doctors main concern. They took cultures during surgery so that they can narrow down the exact class of antibiotics to help kill that infection. For the remainder of today Meghan did get some rest. Mom and dad got to visit with her and she was awake and responsive. She wanted mom to come back in the room after saying goodbye for the night and mouthed I love you! 💜

Friday 10/12/18

Meghan went to surgery around 4pm. Her abdomen is still open and the doctors said she still has the infection in the abdomen. Her pancreas has still caused a little damage and some tissue has been removed. They are still going to be doing the flushing in her abdomen to help get rid of the infection. When Meghan was back in her room after surgery her blood pressure went down a little and doctor put her back on medication to control it. Her blood pressure couldn’t be controlled. Doctors were monitoring closely and I guess because of levels they are bringing her back to the OR. They are thinking possibility of a new bleed. I will update this post once we know more info. 

Thursday 10/11/18

Meghan has been stable, they are still doing some irrigation in her abdomen to hopefully help with the infection in that area. Surgery is still on for tomorrow, she may go in the am but there is someone ahead of her on the schedule. Jimmy visited Meghan at the hospital today. He let us know she was talking (mouthing) a little bit but she was very tired. She pretty much spent the remainder of the day resting. Her hemoglobin has gone down a little bit but the doctors are not concerned at this point.

Wednesday 10/10/18

Surgery this morning was around 8am. The doctors said the bleeding has stopped. They didn’t see any new damage and uterus looked ok. Plan moving forward is start again with light irrigation to flush out her abdomen while she is still open. This will help with the infection in her abdomen. She will again have surgery on Friday with hopes of starting to close. Labs will still continue every 6 hours and will be monitored closely for levels and the output of her drains.

Tuesday 10/9/18

Meghan was been resting a lot today. Her labs were up and down. They put compression sleeves on her arms to help with her swelling. Jimmy and Nicole went to visit at night and said her arms and hands did look better. Plan for surgery tomorrow is still to go in and recheck and hope there is no new bleeding and the bleeding they saw on Monday has stopped. She is still receiving IV nutrition, they will not start feeding tube until her bleeding in the abdomen has been controlled. Surgery will mostly likely be in the morning tomorrow.

Monday 10/8/18

She went for surgery around 8am. Mom and I got there as she was returning to her room in ICU. Nurse practitioner came up to tell us about surgery. She still has ooze bleeding and was repacked with special packing that has medication to help the blood clot. Packing was done on her upper left quadrant, that is where most of the bleeding was. Her right ovary was removed because it was looking necrotic. Her colostomy bag was placed on her right side. Current labs, hemoglobin dropped a little and they were giving her a couple units of blood in her room. They turned down her ventilator setting and she is breathing more on her own. Hopefully Meghan gets some rest tonight. Next surgery will be on Wednesday providing everything stays the same for tomorrow. 

Sunday 10/7/18

Family had a meeting with Meghan’s doctors today. Pretty much no change in Meghan. They need to get the bleeding under control before moving on with anything else. Surgery is going to be tomorrow to recheck everything and plan of the day for Meghan is to rest. 

Saturday 10/6/18

Meghan is resting and not much has changed. Levels up & down. She was given blood and platelet to help keep the blood count up to have it heal. Meghan will continue to rest for the rest of the day. 

Friday 10/5/18

This morning Meghan had her drain on her abdomen repositioned to better spot for it to continue draining. Doctors had to change the antibiotics for the infection in her blood because the ones she was on the bacteria was becoming unresponsive to it. Meghan’s abdomen was becoming a little big again. ACES (her surgical team of doctors) came in to evaluate her they don’t like her abdomen. Back to the OR, they believe she still is bleeding and want to get in to see and control it. Doctor came back to update after surgery and it was the same issue. The ooze bleeding was unable to clot because they were continuously flushing her internally it didn’t have a chance to form the clots. Flushing has been stopped and repacked. Next surgery will be Sunday or Monday. 

Thursday 10/4/18

Overnight labs were similar and no major changes, slightly up and down but not alarming. She went for surgery around 1:30pm and surgeon came up to talk to everyone right after. Doctors were happy with what they saw. Pancreas and area near it has stopped bleeding! Didn’t have to repack with the pressure and said things looked a ton better than the last 48 hours. They redid the placement of her drains so she can continue to drain internal fluid if needed. Also looked at her ovaries and uterus. One ovary looks ok, other one is questionable. Uterus is pretty beat up but at this time they don’t want to remove it if it isn’t necessary. Could be a potential future surgery. Next surgery to recheck again will be on Saturday if no major changes in between time. Recent labs have been looking ok and nothing alarming. They have been checking for skin breakdown just from being in the bed so much and they are having a wound specialist check her out as well. Overall a good night for Meghan and we will all continue to pray that we still head in this direction.

Wednesday 10/3/18

Surgeons told rob to have family come to the hospital - Meghan went back to surgery to see what the leaking is and check for internal bleeding. Went down to surgery around 4am and now waiting to here from the doctors. Pancreas was irritated again and area around that was bleeding. This bleed is oozing out and only way to stop it is applying pressure.. so they were doing that in the OR. They got it under control and Meghan received a lot of blood during surgery. Doctor let Meghan sit in the OR for a little after packing her abdomen to make sure she was stable enough to go back to her ICU room. She is now resting and that is the plan for the day, another surgery is set for tomorrow to re check everything and will continue this pattern for a few days. Saying goodnight Meghan was sleepy but awake and knew we were all with her. I told her I would be back in a couple days but mom, dad, gram, jimmy & Nicole would be there tomorrow. I said I love you and she mouthed it back to me 💜

Tuesday 10/2/18

Tuesday 10/2 - White blood cells up more overnight to 68 and blood pressure has slightly dropped. On a positive note kidneys have slightly improved and no dialysis at this time will be needed. Feeding tube is at the highest setting so Meghan is getting some good nutrition today. One drain is going to be removed as it has not had fluid output for 3 days. Heart procedure was done too and nothing was found sticking to her heart. Late labs came back and white blood cell count is up to the 90s. Doctors are retesting and think the high count is from the C Diff. Meghan just went into surgery around 745pm . They noticed her incisions were leaking. They opened a few of her stitches in her room and fluid was coming out. They want to see what is going on. She is currently still in surgery. Out of surgery - pancreatitis enzymes damaged the blood vessel & supply to her colon. Colon was removed. Meghan was left open and will be for monitoring. When she came back to her ICU room, slowly she began again to start leaking again out of incisions and which is the body’s response when something is wrong (like stress/infection) body wants to send blood to heal it.

Monday 10/1/18

Overnight white blood cell count went from 44-60. The doctors at this point still think it is the  c diff because of the high white blood cells. They are having a gastroenterologist come in and see Meghan. He is suggesting a fecal transplant, which is giving Meghan healthy stool to have good bacteria in her digestive tract to help heal her. Also a procedure will be done to take pictures of her heart to make sure the fungus in the blood isn’t sticking to her heart. The fecal transplant was done and have to wait at least 36 hours to see if she will need a second treatment. Heart procedure will be done tomorrow.

Sunday 9/30/18

White blood cell count in 40-50 range which is high but stable. Kidney levels are still about the same. The doctors did a abdominal CT again to see if any changes and nothing come back out of the ordinary. 

Saturday 9/29/18

Meghan has been given laxatives and a rectal catheter to help control the C Diff. Labs all day and just another day to try and let Meghan’s body rest. Rest is the best for thing for her.

Friday 9/28/18

The rash Meghan has is about the same no worse. Off all medications except medicine for C Diff. Kidneys are looking ok but doctors still want her on dialysis. White blood cell count is about the same still high but not much change. Infections have put off getting Meghan to stand but PT is still doing some exercises with her in her room and getting her sitting in a chair.

Thursday 9/27/18

White blood cell count is more stable today although lactade is rising. They are thinking possible bowel infection, tested and positive for c-diff. She will be on antibiotics and limited visitors due to that being contagious.

Wednesday 9/26/18

White blood cell count was still a little high today. She did have two bowel movements. Meghan developed a rash which they think could be a reaction to a medication. Meghan is still mouthing she wants to go home. Drs want us to bring Meghan’s socks and sneakers to have her try and get standing by the end of the week

Tueaday 9/25/18

Meghan’s white blood cell count went up and having a CT to check for infection. No infection was found at this time. She did have an enema done to try and get her bowels moving. She was sitting up today again too 

Monday 9/24/18

Brought Teagan up to the hospital so Meghan could see her again. Meghan was sitting up in the chair for a while again today. Physical therapist came in and started stretching and moving Meghan’s arms, hands, legs and feet. Nurses kept on checking her feeding tube and tolerating ok. She was taken off constant dialysis and moved to intermediate dialysis. 

Sunday 9/23/18

Meghan was sitting up in a chair today and also asking the doctors if she could go home. Labs were all good today and about the same. Meghan’s main goal of the day was to get rest.