Home

Colleen was discharged Tuesday evening and is recovering at home. She is doing much better, although still complaining that her belly hurts. The diarrhea has resolved. Also her hospital "sample" was negative for C-diff, urine was also negative twice now, so that is good news. Looks like it was just the infection that brought on the "runs" and prayfully not any more of the nasty cronic bowel disease. She returns to BMT clinic next week and GI clinic the following week so hopefully she will continue to feel better and make it to those appointments without another return to the "inpatient floor". Her blood pressure continues to be low at home. At times I can barely hear it and have to "pump" it up several times to be sure. Got an alltime low reading of 60/30 last night, but she isn't acting faint or having any of the other warning signs I was educated to look out for.

Blood Pressure

Discharge today looks doubtful as Colleen began running low blood pressures last night. They've taken them sitting, laying down, standing up, different machine, the doctor taking them herself...she definately is running very low. This is not good. Also, her numbers continue to be up and down, potassium gets good, then magnesium is off, then potassium drops, etc. Please continue to keep her in your prayers. Now that the weekend is over, we have the usual childcare crisis for the other kids. Grandma Carol had minor foot surgery last week and is out of the loop, as is Grandma Donna who had major thyroid surgery two weeks ago. But we will get through this.

Hospital Admission

Colleen was admitted to Mott this afternoon. Her GI doctor had labs drawn at her appt yesterday, and didn't like the numbers when he got the results today. So she is an inpatient, because she needs to be monitored while they give her potassium by IV. She is a bit "tired" but otherwise she really isn't very sick, so we feel kind of silly. She was actually sicker on Monday when I brought her into the ER, but no admission then. Her apetite is still down, but the diarrhea has slowed, probably in response to the flagil working. However, since historically she can go from "great" to "bad" in zero to sixty seconds.........I understand the precaution. So hopefully the fluids and whatever she gets here will turn her electrolytes around, because when she feels better she eats and drinks better.... and then we can go home QUICKLY.

C-Diff

Colleen's "poop" has C-Difficile (sp?) again. She sees the GI doctor again today. My concern is that the ER started her on an antibiotic for it because the symptoms said that was true, even before the culture, but didn't give me a script. Then the clinic appt Tuesday didn't give me a script. Then on Wednesday, (she had only one dose of the drug in the ER about 2 AM Tuesday), I got a call from the Home Med just confirming the IVs were going okay. It was Home Med that told me her C-Diff was positive. So I called the BMT clinic, the nurse "had to check". Boy is that backwards! So the BMT clinic had to call in the script, but didn't call Walgreen's, so I was supposed to go to the UofM pharmacy who would conveniently have the drug after 4 PM and they close at 5:30, plus kids get out of school at 3:45 and have baseball at 5:30, and lets not forget M-14 is down to one lane both directions. Oh, and I have a sick daughter hooked up to an IV. God bless the UofM nurse! I called the pediatrician, who called in the same medicine to Walgreens, so at least she got two of the three doses in on Wednesday! Geez, remember when CSSWC tried to get me on "medication non-compliance"? Here I am telling the DOCTOR'S OFFICE what the results are for her culture AND telling them what medication she is supposed to be taking! Just like I always advocate for ALL my children, whether foster or 100% mine! The State of Michigan should be very sad that they just lost a great foster home.

Monday ER Visit and Tuesday Clinic

Colleen had to go to the ER Monday night. After her steriods were discontinued a month ago, the diarrhea slowly came back. The past week or ten days it really got bad and by Monday she had zero energy. Her appetite was non-existent, and although she was drinking on Monday, she almost slept the entire day. Monday night she vomited and we called the BMT on call doc, who said bring her in to the ER. She was dehydrated, which we already knew, but unlike last February, she was not so severe. Her numbers were not perfect, but she was treated with IV fluids and her urine was checked. Looks like a UTI and she has increased white blood cells (an infection). The ER discharged her directly to her clinic appointment Tuesday morning, I literally drove out of the ER to the parking deck at the clinic and took her there. Since her second set of ER blood numbers wasn't too good, she had to get a third blood draw. Thank God for the port, only one poke for ALL of that blood work. The final outcome is she got hydrated, her numbers improved, she got an apetite, no more vomiting, and she was sent home from clinic with home IVs. So we are back to giving her IVs at home, but much better than a hospitalization. Praise God. She is doing great.

Big News

Colleen is doing very well. She went to clinic on Tuesday and her Tacro medicine was stopped. She is allowed to go to places without crowds. Susan took her to see Ice Age with the kids at a 5 PM show. There was only one other family there, and she had a great time. She has also enjoyed the park a couple of times. She does need reminders that the sandbox is off limits.
Our big news is that we adopted her brother, Ben, on Thursday April 27th! Praise the Lord. The adoption happened 24 hours earlier than scheduled. We promptly closed our foster care license directly with OCAL in Lansing, as was prearranged through our legislator's office. The state of Michigan should be very sad, because we were an excellent foster home. We thank God for our four adopted children we would never have known if we hadn't become foster parents over five years ago. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for our entire family.