Saturday, June 25, 2011

Katy update

An update on Katies week that I received from her mother Tricia.



Hi All!
Katie has kept us busy this week. We were discharged from the hospital on Sunday (Katie was hoping to leave on Sunday so she could give the homecoming as a gift to her dad for Father's Day). When we left the hospital, Katie had some bleeding from the incision. The doctors called it oozing. Jim and I certainly have different definitions of oozing and bleeding than her doctors.
After a few phone calls to the doctors on Monday, it was decided to draw blood to determine if the bleeding (I mean oozing) was due to the medications Katie was taking or her vascular malformations. In order to save Katie some additional pain, her Aunt Terri came to her rescue and stopped by the house on Tuesday morning to draw some blood. Jim then had to drive down to Children's Hospital with the blood samples. Before he got back home, Children's called and told him that her hemoglobin was a 5.4. It should be around a 13.
So we headed to Children's to give Katie a unit of blood. The hope was to bring her hemoglobin up to a 8. Unfortunately, by Wednesday morning we learned that 1 unit was not enough. Her hemoglobin only jumped to 6.7. Back to Children's we go again Wednesday morning.....this time for 2 units of blood and 5 hours of sitting. Poor kid had to be stuck 9 times on Tuesday and Wednesday! Finally, we had success! Her hemoglobin went to a 9.6.
Katie finally has some color to her face and she is eating and able to move around on her crutches a little bit. The past two days have been her best. The blood transfusions have help tremendously and she has some energy to endure the pain and do some moving around. Her bleeding has slowed to an oozing. Her Aunt Terri came by to help change Katie's dressing and her leg looks great!
Tricia

2 comments:

  1. So happy Katie is making a recovery. It's so sad when children are ill and suffering-leaves one with such a helpless feeling. I'm glad the blood transfusions have helped, and wish her clear sailing from here on.

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  2. Happy to hear the blood transfuions helped. I wish Katie continued healing.

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