January 21, 2011 - 6 PM

We need a good news list:

1. Sarah's infection is under control.  All blood cultures since her surgery are negative.  The fluid from her right knee did not grow any bacteria.  She is tolerating her antibiotics.
2. Sarah is recovering nicely from her heart surgery in that her wound is healing well, her heart is strong, and her pacemaker is running like "clockwork." (See the end of the last post.)
3. Sarah's right leg where the large infected clot was removed from an artery now has pulses all they way down to her feet and leg blood pressures that are around 80% of her arm pressures.  This is an improvement from 0% before her leg surgery and 50% the day after, 80% is close to the normal of 100%, and enough to insure good circulation to her leg.
4. Sarah remains on her life path.
5. She has the love and support of a strong family and of 100s of wonderful friends who are visualizing her recovery.
6. She has health insurance.
7. I am sure there are more - feel free to make suggestions.

Unfortunately, there's a bad news list, too:

1. She remains unable to eat anything more than sips of apple juice and fresh water.  The reason for this still eludes identification.  Today she was examined by an ENT physician to see if there was anything suspicion in her mouth or throat.  Nada.  She will not be able to go home until she can consume food and gain a little weight.  Some of her physician teams are mentioning intravenous nutrition (a somewhat complicated undertaking) or a gastrostomy tube (another procedure resulting in what would be a morale crumbling situation for Sarah). 
2. She has a yeast infection in her mouth that has now turned up in a another vulnerable area.  This may be the cause of the swallowing problem, but so far, its treatment has not yielded striking results.
3. She has pseudogout.  (I wish she had pseudo bacterial endocarditis instead.)  This is the diagnosis earned by having a swollen, painful left knee without another good explanation.  You can do your own Google search if you like, but pseudogout turns up under (who would have guessed it) stressful conditions.  Unfortunately, it is treated with ibuprofen-type medications which she cannot take while taking blood thinning medications.
4. She has canker sores on her tongue and lips - another miserable consequence of stress.  Why are all of the consequences of stress painful?
5. She needs to be stabilized on Coumadin to thin her blood before she can go home and will need to take this for the rest of her life.
6. She is just miserable today which makes it hard to remember a better day yesterday or any day.  However, it is clear that when her pain is well-controlled, she can be in excellent spirits.
7. Unfortunately, there may be more negatives, but don't bother to suggest any of them.

We were grateful for visits from a number of great friends bearing smiles, good cheer, flowers, and gifts for Sarah or to sustain her family (super snacks and fruits) (thanks so much, Pia, Susan, Sandi, Linda, Arnie, Leah, Will, Ed).  She has a new set of somewhat oriental-looking pajamas that has her looking like a Swedish-Asian princess (thank you, Beth).  Also, a big box from Amazon.com arrived this morning containing a large, soft dolphin pillow pet compliments of incredibly thoughtful and generous California friends (thank you, Dave and Karen).  Sarah took one look at the blue dolphin and handed Eliza back the mystery bear - dog - bunny.  Scroll to the bottom of the blog for a photo of this newest member of the stuffed menagerie.