Recovery Day 3

I apologize for not getting this update posted earlier, but things are going pretty well again today.

This morning we got to see Dr. Sutherland who thought things were progressing well. Jennie began her Physical Therapy officially this morning, although we did get her to get out of bed and stand for a few minutes last night. Today she has moved to a recliner chair , and is supposed to do that 2 times a day for at least 30 minutes. Although she is still very sore when moving, she is handling it very well and is eager to do what is needed.

Today they also reduced her pain medicine some, as it was making her very sleepy and had lowered her breathing to where they had to put a full oxygen mask on last night to ensure she was getting enough oxygen. This should be helped both by the lower pain meds and also as she begins to move more and regains strength.

They started her on a antibiotic because her white blood cell levels are elevated, meaning she probably has an infection, although we don't yet know exactly what kind.

Another problem we have been having is that Jennie has been retaining a lot of fluid, which makes her swell, increasing her pain and restricting her mobility. Today Dr. Sutherland issued another round of lasix to help get rid of the excess fluid, and said he would like to get another round issued sooner if we start to notice it again.

The last issue we had to discuss we Dr. Sutherland was that Jennie's blood count dropped from a steady 9.2 most of the day yesterday to 8.7 this morning. He feels that this is most likely also due to the swelling and feels as her fluid retention goes down we should see this level out as well.

I am not sure that I have mentioned it yet, but we likely won't know much about how well the islet cells took for several days. Right now she is on insulin to give the islet cells time to rest and to get at home in her liver. When they feel her body has recovered enough to try clear liquids and eventually a limited diet, they will take her off the insulin IV and try to switch to oral medicine. This is when we will first be able to tell how the transplant of the cells took, and it will likely take some time to get the levels adjusted properly.

Jennie is very sleepy today, but I think her pain is somewhat lower except when we move her. Her spirits have also been very high, in fact we had her singing along with Finding Nemo this morning. I know that this positive attitude has helped her recovery immensely, and hopefully with prayer she can keep it up.