Puzzle

Well, we had 6 weeks of horrible agony (as Maggie was critical and on the ventilator), a week and a half of glee (such rapid progress), and now 3 or 4 days of cautious concern. Maggie's oxygen requirement has crept up to 1 liter, her x-rays are quite cloudy, and she's been having weird dips in her oxygen saturations. Within the day, Maggie's oxygen saturations bounce around quite a bit, sometimes in the high 90s, sometimes dropping into the 80s. At night (while asleep), she has been sitting close to 100 but has sudden and more dramatic drops--tonight she dropped to 69, then brought herself back up within 30 seconds. Oxygen saturation numbers below 80 are dangerous if they last longer than a minute, and these kind of drops just shouldn't be happening.

Maggie's GI doc, whom she's been seeeing for quite a few months, joined the attending oncologist in a care conference--to discuss what the plan is for Maggie. There was a lot covered, and I don't feel up to typing it all. However, although her GI issues are pretty significant, they aren't really keeping us in the hospital. Over a long period of time, we'll be working on Maggie's diarrhea and managing Maggie's nutrition (TPN, tube feeds, maybe NJ tube feeds which bypass the stomach). Her stomach is injured/weakened enough that we are worse off on GI issues than we were before this whole ordeal. We can work on that outpatient, though. Her lungs are a bit concerning as they are worse than they were a week ago. A pulmonologist came and consulted with us today as well. The possible causes of her slight worsening over the last week seem to be: a) fluid retention, b) gastric reflux (could lead to gastric juices irritating her airway or even seeping into her lungs) c) aspiration--food and drink that doesn't go down the right "tube" and gets into her lungs, d) new pneumonia/infection. There are a series of things that they'll look at in the coming days to try to figure it out. It's quite unnerving actually. Maggie's lungs are quite injured and will be vulnerable for months and months. Any new pneumonia will be serious with her weakened state. The pulmonologist expects that Maggie will be on oxygen indefinitely--it could be a long time (months or even years?) It's all a mystery at this point and it is impossible to predict. We're still looking at several weeks more in the hospital, at least. So we're not quite able to relax like we'd like to.

Please pray for Maggie's lungs and health. It is still a scary time.

When awake, Maggie has been energetic, happy, filled with joy, and talkative. She has begun crawling on her bed, she painted pictures with the occupational therapist, and has been pretty sociable with the staff. So that has been a blessing.