Simone Update 9/16

Today was encouraging. We went in and saw her at 10:30 this morning. She was the most alert we've seen her in about a week, and was excited to see us. She was laying down in the oxygen cage with the door open and her tail wagged exuberantly when we walked into the ICU. Every time her tail wagged down, it dipped into her water dish, and on the upswing, flung water all over us and the floor. We could tell that she was feeling better...such a relief!

We talked with Dr. Gordon for about 30 minutes. She said that one of her liver enzymes has come down quite a bit (her ALT was over 1600 last week, and was below 900 today. Hooray!) She is still quite jaundiced though, and her eyes, gums, and skin are all really yellow. Dr. Gordon said she's not too worried about that though right now. She said that her PCV had risen to 33, so she is definitely making red blood cells on her own now. Another encouraging thing!

Even though things seem to be getting better, she's still not out of the woods. Simone is still having difficulty getting enough oxygen. She is near the point when they may consider putting her on a ventilator, which is a little scary. Dr. Gordon said they would give her a bronchiodialator drug this afternoon and may put a scope down her trachea tomorrow to see what's going on in her lungs. She said her lungs may be inflamed as a result of the high white blood cell count or liver inflammation, or there may be blood clots in her lungs, which is a little scary. Hopefully we'll know more tomorrow.

Simone also isn't really eating at this point, which is the other problem. We won't be able to bring her home until she is able to breathe well on her own without aid and get her appetite back. But hopefully if they can get her breathing better on her own, and if the liver enzyme levels continue to fall back to normal range, she'll start to feel like eating more again. We are currently cautiously optimistic that we may just well get our miracle and that our girl will get to come home and be with us in a few days.

Please send her thoughts of clear and easy breathing, continued liver and red blood cell count improvement, and increased appetite! We really do believe that everyone's loving and healing thoughts directed towards Simone are helping her (and us) get through this scary time.

Until tomorrow... ;)

Love, Carley and Gary