Saturday Update

July 5, 2008
By Karen

We have felt like we have been in a holding pattern for the last several days. We are waiting to make any sort of movement (in treatment, facility, therapy, etc.) and things have remained very similar ever since Thursday or so. (Thus, the lack of entries since Wednesday.)

Doreen has been cleared to begin rehab, but the long holiday weekend has slowed things down. Dr. Kachmann has requested for Doreen to stay in the Lutheran Medical Complex in Ft. Wayne until she is finished with the current round of antibiotics. They were prescribed in response to the fever of last weekend. Kachmann wants to monitor her condition in the few days after the course of antibiotics has ended to see whether the fever returns. If it does, then he will interpret that as an indication that there is an infection in the shunt, and he will need to remove the current shunt and then replace it. It would be okay with him for her to move to the rehab hospital on this campus, but he does not want Doreen to have to travel back and forth between North Manchester and Ft. Wayne; therefore, he wants her to stay here until it has been determined that her shunt is clear of infection rather than move immediately to Timbercrest in N. Manchester. However, we have had a hard time finding out how long her current course of antibiotics is to last. This morning, Linda spoke with the infectious diseases physician and we believe that the antibiotics should be finished sometime in the next week, but no clear timeline has been communicated to us. I guess we’ll have to wait until Monday to get any solid answers about what will happen next.

We are working diligently to get Doreen to eat more in order to avoid losing any more weight. Last night and today for lunch and dinner she has done much better! She has been more willing to try foods, has complained less and is no longer worried that the food will upset her stomach. This feels like a great accomplishment! It is very satisfying to see her enjoy eating again – even though the amounts are still very small. In fact, tonight at dinner she seemed proud to be able to feed Carl with her leftovers. Karen suggested that, while this may seem economical, Doreen needs to work toward feeding only one person with her meals – herself – so that she builds the strength she needs to learn to sit and stand again.

Doreen moves between times of great clarity – she gave very specific financial information to Karen and Carl this afternoon – and times of obvious confusion – she argued that she IS attending the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference in Richmond, VA next week: “They have wheelchairs!” she explained. It seems that she is struggling with determining the difference between her dreams and reality. We are trying to encourage her to open her eyes more often – they are closed almost exclusively. She says that it is very hard work to keep them open and that it wears her out; however, we believe that this will provide her with the needed information to sort out when she is awake and when she is asleep.

We’ll provide another update as soon as we have something new to report. Thanks for your continued love and support. She told the nurse the other morning that she could feel the prayers and thoughts of those who love her. Keep them coming! (The cards and letters help a lot too!)