Simone Update 9/20

Tonight will mark Simone's ninth night in the ICU. Hopefully she will only have one more. She seemed pretty good this afternoon; not as energetic as yesterday, but still happy to see us. We were able to pet and talk to her for about an hour. She seemed pretty sleepy, and dozed quite a bit while we sat with her.

Her bilirubin did drop from 15 to 12. That was a significant change. Now if it will only continue to fall, and the closer to 1.0 it gets, the better. The nurses noticed this morning that her eyes were a lot less yellow, and this was evident to us as well when we saw her at 4pm. Her skin is also starting to look more white/gray, without the orange tinge. So, that's good. But, one of her liver enzymes (alkaline phosphatase, ALP) was higher today, and that is concerning to the doctor. Hopefully when they check her again tomorrow, they will discover that it too is on the decrease.

She's eating okay. Deborah asked us what her normal feeding schedule was because they were noticing that she only seemed hungry at 4am and 4pm. We told her that's what she's been used to since she was a puppy. Gary is always the one that gets her breakfast when he gets up and dinner when he gets home. She's gotten set in her ways over the years!

Once her bilirubin drops a little more, and hopefully her liver enzymes as well, they will consider discharging her. Tomorrow may be a bit optimistic, so we'll likely see her released Saturday or maybe Sunday. Then she'll be able to come home and rest. It sounds like we'll have to give her subcutaneous injections of the heparin to help prevent any more clotting, and limit her activity, meaning lots of time on the futon! Dr. Brownlee said that provided we can successfully make it past this hurdle, Simone should be able to have a normal lifespan. That is so encouraging to us. A week ago we feared the worst, and now it's looking like she's going to make it through this and have many more happy years ahead.

Thank you all again for keeping her in your thoughts and prayers :)