From bad...to worse

The spot on Jen's heart appears to be a fungal infection of the tricuspid valve. I can't tell you how bad this news is, her prognosis is not good. I've stopped researching it for the day because it's too much to bear at the moment.

Because of her fragile state, they most likely will not try to remove the infection surgically, but try to control it with medication. I was looking into new research in this area and found little.

The best thing at this point would be to go ahead with the gastroectomy when she is more stable. The infection attacks through open areas, such as the PICC line site, and she has been at increased risk because of the TPN which is damaging her liver. If she can eat again or use the J-tube then they can remove that line, and her risk of infection reduces and she will hopefully get healthier...though this fungal infection will most likely never be killed off.

Please see her if you can, or call her. You can email me to find out the room number.

Shit

J has had a bad couple of weeks. She has fought off 3 infections now successfully but I was told today that an echocardiogram revealed a spot in her heart which may be a clot, or a fungal growth. I am hoping it is a clot as it is easier to remove according to the doctor. His opinion is that it is a clot as she is not showing the side effects normally associated with a fungal growth.

She has also suddenly developed a strange rheumatoid arthritis-like condition where all of her joints hurt. This is probably a side effect of the last infection, and since they have started to give her an anti-inflammatory she has regained some movement back. This should be a temporary condition.

Too scattered (read: angry, depressed, fuckealkfjlakjflakf) to write in more detail, sorry.

Updates

Photo: Doctor 'Betsy' shows us how many people she's screwed up this week.

So J is fighting what is probably a resistant staph infection. Her temp has gone up to 104, but is back now to 98. She is having some difficulty in breathing but there is no sign of pneumonia. I am still waiting on a reply to a consult from UCSF, and from my doc.

There was some drama the other night when her Ninja went missing...but he was using his cunning 'under the small of the back' avoidance tactic. Unfortunately we lost Rhubarb the Highland Cow puppet I got for her...apparently it went with the laundry.

That's it...nothing more really to report yet.

Unrelated but important: Who counts your votes?

Chubbles

Fuzzy fatness.

I'd be afraid to have a cat this cute because I might eat him.

That's pretty much it...J is stable at the moment. I told her doc to get a referral to a GI at UCSF and have contacted Health Net. Further news as events warrant.

Wow.

Photo: Wind + Tree = waking me up thinking a plane hit the house.

So I've decided that J should probably be moved outside of Kaiser and into the Health Net network...which includes John Muir. I'm going to talk to J about it tonight, but we've talked about it before and she's been for it. A friend mentioned getting her checked out by UCSF docs which I think is a great idea too.

This will take a little time I'm sure, I want to do it right so that she doesn't end up in some quasi-covered medical state where Kaiser and Health Net disagree who did what and end up doing nothing.


Photo: Not shown is me laughing hysterically...it's so fitting that this should be the only house in the neighborhood that this happened to.

New Year marker...passed.

Photo: The sad aftermath of too much New Year 'cheer'.

Well another year has arbitrarily been marked as passed...and here we are on the other side still (mostly) unradiated and non alien-invaded. We didn't even get one good asteroid scare this year. Oh well. A few things bug me though...like why does 2008 seem like 1995 only with shinier cell phones and more religion? Where are the calming, thoughtful supercomputers that try to either kill you or impregnate you? And as J always says, where are all the silver jumpsuits and jet packs??

J is doing 'OK' at the moment, she is recovering from an infection that set it on her PICC line. They had to take it out and move it to a different area. She has been 'stabilized'...with her hypertension under better control, and she has had lesser bouts of nausea recently. She is in moderate spirits overall, though we are pushing her doctors for a plan so that she doesn't sit in limbo forever. I still can't believe that she hasn't been home in over 4 months...and before that she was only home for 2 weeks out of any month for the previous 6. Ugh.

J is extremely happy about all of her gifts, and sends her thanks to everyone. She is currently learning super-secret ninja stealth techniques. The latest technique is to diguise herself as a pile of laundry to avoid blood sugar sticks and O.F.R.R.s (Overly Friendly Roommate Relatives). She is much more comfortably covered by new blankets, bathrobes, socks and slippers. She has a nice new collection of octopus/squid bathroom accessories that she loves, and some new clothes...and other things that she feels she does not deserve. She feels bad that she didn't get a chance to shop for anyone. It's OK though, I beat her with a rolled-up Kaiser mental health brochure for a hour or so and scolded her roundly for not getting to the mall in time to pick up Orange Julius gift certificates for everyone. She feels much better now.

Unrelated topic. The new re-issue of Blade Runner is worth every penny. The movie looks so rich and the sound...drool...it turns one of this humble viewer's all-time favorite movies into a festival of intense nerd fodder. Kick. Ass.

Learn about other 'new' years here

J update

Photo: Ayds. The quickest way to lose weight naturally.

J is back up to her 'usual' stable state now, and upstairs again. I am working to get all of her doctors to come together and have a meeting with us so that we can start pushing in a direction to actually get her better so she can go home.

The latest ideas are to basically kill off her kidney function, which would stop the protein spillage she is dealing with now and could possibly help control the nausea by reducing the edema in the lower bowel. In a best case scenario this would allow her to go back on a tube feeding and off of TPN allowing her to come home. The other option is for a gastrectomy, which we are trying to hold off as a last resort.

No new news other than that.

J Christmas update

Well...J tried, but had a slight overdose which made her so tired we couldn't wake her up. She was showing signs of going into DKA, so the call was made to send her to the ICU. She was moved and they gave her a regimen of drug reversal medicine to counteract the opiates and anti-nausea drugs she was on.

She 'woke up' around 22:00, and I stayed and talked to her until about 0:30. She was (normally) tired and in pain (since they took away her pain killers during the drug reversal), but they are starting to give her small amounts to treat her pain and watching for side effects.

So...I guess it's not a Christmas 'miracle', but we'll take what we can get.

J still fighting

J is still trying to get released for at least a day for Christmas, we have meetings scheduled to go over the TPN delivery machine and other items. They are not promising anything, but we're trying nonetheless.

Unrelated, the awesome S.F. artist responsible for the sculpture above here.

J fights back

J is fighting to try and get out by Christmas, the medical voice of dissent is weak and divided. I don't know the outcome yet but will post it here first for loyal readers to discover.

Had a request (Sorry K) about the Jack Frost in the last post...it comes from horror comic creator Todd Mcfarlane. He's Canadian too. Go figure.

I recommend seeing the movie "Fast Food Nation". It's not a great film, but it draws on data collected from the book of the same name and will open your eyes to the disgusting reality of the fast food industry. It also may have put me off of eating meat for good.