Noon update

Harlie seems to be doing okay. She actually got a few hours of sleep this morning. But for most of the night something was being done to her. I slept some - maybe two to four hours with some interruptions. At one point I woke up and could tell there was a lot of activity in the room. I asked the nurse what was going on and she said that her blood pressure was trending low. And her blood gases weren't great. And because of those things they have not given her any pain meds since a dose of morphine right after surgery. They don't want them slowing down her system anymore.

The plan right now is to give her IV antibiotics for the infection. Infectious Diseases(ID) have been called and they are going to come and talk to me about their plan for ABs. She will most likely get a PICC line (just like she got last year - which is like an IV so we can give her those strong meds from home). That means weekly dressing changes which totally sucks for her on top of all the pain she's been through. But I know that things could have been way worse, so I am counting our blessings.

Unfortunately, she will have to go back into the OR on Thursday for another irrigation and debridement procedure and cast change. So I really don't see us leaving before next week. I have no idea how long they will want that vac dressing (suctions out the goo from the wound) to stay and we clearly can't leave with that.

I will have to talk about this more later - but that doc we saw in Richmond on Saturday (along with his attending physician) is getting a letter from me along with the photo of her wound. He was deceptive in the way he communicated his title to me (called himself Ortho Chief instead of Ortho Chief Resident) which is very different. And I just found out he did the same thing to the Resident in DC on Saturday over the phone. So when the resident here in DC was talking to him he thought he was talking to someone with many more years of experience, so he went with his decision. There are so many things wrong there that I cannot leave it alone.

All in all, I think we will be here till next week for sure. Her wound has to start healing from the inside out, and the vac dressing has to be out before we can go home. I will be happy if we are home in time for Murphy's birthday on the 11th. I cannot believe he will be 7 years old! I really hope he and Cooper are doing okay. It must be unsettling (even if they don't show it) to see everything's fine in the morning only to get home and find Harlie and I gone for the next week or so. Sometimes I can't believe this is our life. It is so weird to feel so incredibly lucky and blessed but cursed at the same time.

Thank you for all your support. You might not know what to say - but just knowing we aren't forgotten makes a big difference in our spirits - my spirits especially.

Thanks,
Christy