Karen’s labs continue to improve. Her creatinine (measure of kidney function) is 2.2 vs 2.8 yesterday (1.0 is normal). Her liver is improving also. Blood pressure and hemoglobin are both stable and her color is good. There’s no more discussion about the blood clots – I don’t know why, but it must not be a terribly urgent thing at this time. Much of the pneumonia has been cleared up though there’s still some left.
Her liver is still quite enlarged though. We saw it on the x-ray – it intrudes into almost 1/2 of her right lung space, and this is causing a major breathing problem. She simply can’t move her lungs enough to take normal breaths so when she’s off the ventilator she’s breathing very shallow and fast (like hyperventilating). This does not allow the body to take in oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide very well and over time that can cause all sorts of problems. So they’re leaving her on the vent so her body can continue to heal. They’ll do another trial to see how she breathes on her own on Monday or Tuesday. Frankly, it appears to be several more days before she’s ready to get off the ventilator.
On a separate note, as Jeff and Mel mentioned, Karen has been waking up from time to time. They have reduced the sedative dose somewhat and that gives her some waking moments. She’s still pretty out of it, and it’s virtually impossible to communicate much. Her arms are so weak she could not write to us, but it was good to see her eyes open and her nodding her head and stuff.
