February 18, 2010

BELOW is the first post I made regarding my illness. I can't figure out how to get it at the beginning of the blog so you'll have to read this and then go back to to the beginning of the blog. I've got one more to post from 2/19/10 and then you can read from the beginning of the blog.


I was admitted to Dallas Presbyterian hospital on Monday 1/15 suffering from vomiting and then the discovery that I was in renal failure. This hospital was the closest one with a dialysis center in the hospital. It's been blessing for me to be here...the doctors are wonderful and thorough and caring.

On Tuesday when my creatinin levels didn't come down it was decided that I needed to have a temporary port put in so that I could do dialysis as soon as possible. I was in the procedure for that by 9:30 a.m. and had my first dialysis from 1-3.

Erik was supposed to leave for a business conference in San Diego Monday and I encouraged him to go...that I'd be fine and he would be back a few days anyway. When he left I was just dealing with the vomiting and by the time he landed at noon our time I was in acute renal failure and being transferred in an ambulance from one hospital to another. He made the decision to leave San Diego and fly back to me that night which he did. He got in around 11:30 pm after having been up since 3:30 taking me to the
ER in the morning. How I love this man!

My initial dialysis made me feel a lot better and my kidneys put out a lot of urine...which they had not been doing. We were all hopeful that this would just be a short battle. I've had 2 more sessions including todays. Today was a little rough though.

I have a new complicaton unrelated to the kidney issue. It's a blood disorder called D.I.C. It's a clotting problem that can be caused by a variety of things, one of which is this autoimmune problem that I have. You can read about the illness here....http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec14/ch173/ch173h.html

Today I had 4 units of fresh frozen plasma, fibren and platelets. It kind of made me fee crummy.

On top of that I am also dealing with an allergic reaction to Bactrim. It's caused me to look like the Crypt Keeper. My facial skn is so dry and tight that sometimes I cannot open my eyes and mouth. I look like someone has poured glue on my face and let it dry. NOT pretty. It's a shocking sight to most people who deal with me. I now have a picture of myself as my wallpaper on my cell so that I can show people the "real" me. You know it's bad when your Hematologist says.."Oh my...look at our face!" first thing in the morning!

I'm hoping for good news tomorrow but realize that this is going to be a process. They are telling me to expect to be in the hospital through next week.

Thank you all for your love and prayers! You'll never know how each little note brightens my day. I am humbled to know that so many people love and care about me. I'll try to keep the notes up to date as well as my status.