Wednesday, February 21, 2007

ICU: San Diego


Merrie has been in the hospital since Valentine’s Day with what appeared to be pneumonia. The good news today is that all tests for infection in Merrie’s lungs have been negative. She does not have pneumonia.

Merrie had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1991, and a recurrence in 1995, with rounds of chemotherapy and radiation in her chest area. It turns out that her current condition is a direct result of consequent damage to her heart, lungs, lymph and blood vessels feeding the heart.

Her heart’s mitral valve is weakened, causing some backflow of blood into the heart and lungs. This has been going on for some time, and has caused her shortness of breath, and the pressure in her chest that precipitated our trip to the emergency room a week ago. It also caused the pulmonary failure and cardiac arrest which began her stay in intensive care yesterday.

She will have an angiogram soon to try to get more-specific information about damage to the blood vessels and the heart.

What we are looking at now is trying to help her get stronger over the next few days so that her mitral valve can be replaced. Her vital signs seem slightly better than yesterday, and she wakes up from time to time and tries to communicate. Her sedation is being reduced today, and she will be fed a bit through her feeding tube.

And so we wait and hope. We are very blessed to be receiving excellent care, and to have loving and supportive friends and family.

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