One Year Ago Today 12/3/2012: She's Awake!

(12/3/2012, Monday) Evie woke up around 8:00am.  She remembers nothing between now, and about an hour before her seizure.  Things are still very up in the air.  There is no definitive diagnosis yet as to what has caused her problems.  They have done a course of dialysis to clean her blood and plan a course of plasmapheresis to swap out what they believe is antibody laden plasma with fresh donor plasma which isn't quite so ready to attack her system. In any case, she is much better off now, as she's been able to start drinking water on her own again, and she is well hydrated thanks to an IV drip.  Heather reports that they are letting her eat real food for lunch, so we'll see what happens.

They let her eat real food, and she's kept it down. After a week hiatus, she settled back into food <sarcasm>nice and slow</sarcasm>, so she had Mashed Potatoes, Apple Pie, and a Hamburger.   Heather reports that she bit into the hamburger and said "This is sooooo delicious!"   She promptly fell back asleep mid-meal -- her little body is very tired. She is very coherent now that she's off the loopy medicine, and enjoyed watching "Good Luck Charlie" on Heather's iPod.   She's a bit old hat when it comes to hospital stays, but she is annoyed by the additional cords etc due to the hemodialysis.
So her kidney's performance is sub-optimal.   And so far they don't seem to be willing to make a U-turn.   So we are starting to talk about long term fixes/plans for that particular issue.   We have not yet determined what the cause of everything was. They have had two E-Coli tests come back negative.   They have a few leading theories, and are awaiting test results that probably won't be back until Thursday.   So that is where we're at.   It sounds like she may get to move out of Intensive Care earlier than they'd originally said, but she'll likely continue to be at the hospital for a while.

Evie has been allowed to drink water, and drunk so much (3 sippy cups overnight (12/3)! And she kept it all -- no vomiting) so they have ceased the fluids in her IV (at least for now.)   If I understood correctly, they will remove extra fluid during her dialysis tomorrow morning.   You wouldn't think that would be a good idea because she had been dehydrated right?   Apparently she is not producing any urine (but she is producing poop-not diarrhea--hooray!) thus the need to help with her excess fluid -- She has gained nearly six pounds since being admitted, which must entirely be water weight.

Marissa (10) and Breanna (6) are handling Heather's absence fairly well. TJ (18 months) misses his mother, but he still handles it well for a teething toddler. Sometimes my parenting style leaves us all wanting something a bit more apropos.

DISCLAIMER: Posts Labeled "One Year Ago Today" are a record of what transpired when Evie first became ill.  The slightly edited text comes from emails which we sent to family to let them know what was happening, and to keep them updated.  These posts are usually long, but if you want to truly understand what life was like for us, and what led to this point, it makes for great "light" reading.