Katie Update #6.5

Well, I'm on the night shift here at the hospital. I can't access Katie's e-mail from here, so I'll have to send out the "official" update later today. However, for those of you who might want to wake up to some news on the web site, I'll go ahead and write.

Today was a roller coaster. Most all of today was spent in a free-fall, at least emotionally. We started out the day with the knowledge that her temperature was getting very high. Then we got results from her blood cultures that showed the presence of a staph infection. Likely these two were closely related. Because of the staph, she changed status to an infection risk. Therefore, they had to move our MRI exam back significantly. We didn't get through with the MRI until 7:30 this evening.

When we got everything hooked back up, Katie's temperature had returned to a very good level. Her blood pressure and intra-cranial pressure (or ICP--the indication of pressure on the brain which is considered bad if high) was very low. Thus, it looks like the antibiotics that she was put on for the staph worked well in combating this infection. At least for now, she appears stable. Her neurologist decided to raise the level of steroids to try and combat the swelling that still appears in her MRI. Other than that, all remains pretty much as reported last night. We are all remaining strong and positive.

More when I get back to the house (sometime tomorrow). Bye for now...

Paul