1/28 Lots of news...

For many days we have been waiting to hear what type of infection Dorothea has (her white blood count has been high for a while). They have finally diagnosed it as a rare lung infection called Citrobacter Freundil. The doctors are now able to treat her specifically for that type of infection, so hopefully they can get that cleared up quickly. Last night before they knew a lot about the infection they had Dorothea in isolation and were requiring everyone to wear gowns and masks. Now that the staff knows more about the infection, there is no more isolation, and we do not have to wear gowns and masks.

Dorothea's temperature and white blood count have come down a little. Her sugar levels are great! Her kidneys are still not functioning. The doctor has said that he has seen patients who have had to move to dialysis, but then 2-3 months later the kidney starts working again. Hopefully this is the case here. She is undergoing another dialysis treatment this morning, removing 1.5 liters of fluid today. They will not do dialysis Friday, but will start back up on Saturday. Dialysis can be very exhausting, so the break will probably be good for her tomorrow.

Her heart surgeon has been out of town for the last week. He returned this morning and was disappointed to see where she is at right now. When he left town she was alert and talking, so this obviously is not what he had hoped for. He and Harold have discussed that they both want to see her off of the respirator and not so sedated. They are planning on removing the respirator tube early this afternoon. They still need a way to help her breathe in case she "forgets" to breathe - so they are going to do a tracheotomy today also. Harold says that this will be temporary - it is there in case they need it. When she is no longer having difficulty with her breathing, they will remove it.

She still has a lot of fluid and some wounds that are not healing, but they are doing everything they can to help with these issues.

Please continue to pray for her recovery, and please keep Harold in your prayers as well, this is so very difficult for him.