Day 49

Today more platelets came into the Blood Bank, so she had the lumbar puncture today. It won't get analyzed until Monday. The MRI will be done again, but I'm not sure when. It depends on her body temp. It hasn't recovered from yesterday afternoon. This is unusual. It generally recovers after 12 hours. Granted she has had a lot done to her, and the lower the temp, the more she sweats, the more she has to be changed, the more she is uncovered. She is losing a bunch of fluid from the sweating. Her sodium has been too high for a longer period of time also. She is more confused and forgetful in this state. Between Tracy, Alex, and I we have been able to get enough calories in her. Last night during her totally awake night, Alex had is hands full. She had to be talked to all night, explained to over and over again, and he was very close to her face. She said, "Get out of my face, Tyler." He argued that he wasn't Tyler. Then he asked her why she thought he was Tyler. She said that he was bothering her. This would be normal. Tyler is the antagonist. Then, he asked her where Alex was. She said probably at home or most likely working. He got out his driver's license, showed her, then it was like oh, ok. Poor Alex. It is really hard when she is like this, but she recovers. While I am writing this, her temp just hit normal. Now the vigil becomes even more critical to maintain it. They stopped the viral drug today. If there was any question yesterday, it became clear today. She went neutropenic meaning she doesn't have the immune system to fight off anything else. It currently cannot help with any virus or bacteria issues. They believe it will recover, but that it will take at least a week maybe more. During this time, it is a huge prayer request that the first viral drug she was put on, kick in to finish the job. By itself, for the 1st week it wasn't working on the spinal fluid and brain, only the blood. Now, the hope is that it has had enough help from the other one to work. Typically it works by itself as shown on other patients. But, hey when was Kelsey ever normal medically. She still is throwing all kinds of unknowns into her scenario. This is a very nervous time for the doctors and us too. They say that we will notice clinically if she worsens. Pray we do not see this at all. Pray that by Monday we still see improvement. Pray nothing else happens to her during this neutropenic time. Pray, Pray, Pray without ceasing. Pray that we have turned the corner for all things to become new. We found out today that one of her doctors is B+, so she went in to give platelets. Tracy has an appt. tomorrow to see if he matches her. He has a 25% chance of being B+. He is giving anyway, so a big chunk of his afternoon is spoken for. We were blessed with an extra room for a few nights. This is needed and welcomed. It wasn't anything either of us was worried about, and things always work out for the good. So, those of you that were praying unbeknownst to us, it has been answered. Praise God!

Karly had to say good-bye to Zach tonight, but only for 3 nights. They were so funny yesterday. They got ahold of my hair flattener. This is what teenagers with too much time on their hands do. They both came to dinner with straightened hair. They went over and showed Kelsey who approved. The jury is out with me. Zach was pulling it off pretty well, but I'm not sure about Karly. How did my girls end up with such awesome guys? Praise God!

All the family members are finding things to do everyday. The girls did cookie decorating today. I was able to go back to the Inn a little earlier than usual last night and snuggled with Kassidy while watching Santa Claus 3. That was relaxing. I'm looking forward to just having a break while Alex is holding the night shift, Tracy the early morning shift, and then I can loiter in when I wake up. This will all change on January 3, so I'll take it when I can. Pray that by January 2, the family can return to Muncie and feel peace in leaving. This will be extremely difficult for them... for me, too. So many things to pray about. Thanks for lifting us up.
Love,
Mom