Still Alive

Lynnea made it through the night. She is essentially in a medically induced coma for the time being -- she is on continual pain meds, sedatives, and a paralytic drug so that her body doesn't have to do any extra work. She is relatively stable for the moment. During the night she did wake up enough to move all of her limbs, which was very encouraging. This means that neurologically speaking, she is probably in pretty good shape. Her left leg, the leg with the damaged artery, is still noticeably cooler than her right leg, and as of a few minutes ago, they were having a difficult time finding a strong pulse in the left leg.


The plan for now is to run a series of diagnostic tests on her -- an MRI of her head, a CT scan of her entire body, possibly an ultrasound of her belly, and they are discussing the possibility of doing a spinal tap. Right now the urgent goal is to find the source of her infection and hopefully treat it. If they are unable to locate the source with the tests they run today, Dr. St. Louis will have to open her back up to do an exploratory surgery of her chest early next week because there is still the chance that the infection is in her B-T shunt, or in her sternum, or possibly in some of the scar tissue. This infection is taking a serious toll on her heart, but unfortunately, until the infection is cured, more reconstructive heart surgery, or a heart transplant is not possible. Please continue to keep her in your prayers.