Katie Update #9

All,

Today we are greeted with both good and bad news. Katie's Neurology team
is upbeat about the efficacy of her latest treatment regime and feel as
if she is making some significant progress towards controlling her
seizure activity. Her seizures are now much further apart (6 hours or
so) and much shorter (about 1 minute) than they have been in previous
days. Unfortunately, the medical staff is beginning to worry about the
negative effects that the drugs and her continued coma are having on her
system.

(Warning: technical details to follow, so if you want the synopsis, just
skip to the next paragraph) Last evening, a portion of her lung burst,
leaving a hole in her lungs and filling her body with excess air. This
was caused because they had been maintaining a high pressure on her
ventilator to try and keep her lungs from collapsing and to keep the
pneumonia in check. Apparently, the pneumonia itself had weakened some
of the air sacks to the point that they simply weren't pliable enough to
support the higher pressure. They have reduced the pressure settings on
her ventilator, and hope that this issue will resolve itself. As a
barbiturate, the Pentobarbitol generally has a negative effect on her
cardiovascular system, as well. They are forced to give her drugs to
counter this effect (mostly Dopamine, but also Epinephrine at times),
which keep her blood pressure up to acceptable levels. Last night, her
blood pressure dropped significantly, which required an increase in
these drugs, as well. This process puts a great deal of stress on her
heart, so the doctors continue to be concerned. They are likely going to
begin to lower her levels of Pentobarbitol, which should begin to help
ease her cardiovascular stress. However, this is also the drug that they
believe has kept her seizure activity controlled. They are changing
their seizure control strategy slightly, as well. Prior to last night,
they have been responding to seizure activity with a large dosage of
Pentobarbitol (this in addition to her constant high-dose drip). They
are now going to try and respond proactively to what seems to be
detectable "pre-seizure" brain activity by injecting a different
anti-seizure medication to see if they can achieve similar positive
neurological results without the high Pentobarbitol levels.

So, in sum, we are still making progress, but they are changing things
up to try and ease the deleterious effects of the treatment on the rest
of her body's systems. The goal now remains to achieve near total
suppression of seizures while slowly allowing her brain activity to
return. This is a very scary time, but we remain certain that Katie will
pull through. Her body has been through so much lately that it is bound
to show signs of wear. Her physical strength is still her strongest
asset and we just know that we'll get her back soon.

Tom Greene's biopsy results did, in fact, convey positive results to him
and his family. He has a treatable, if undesirable, condition, and is
expected to recover fully from surgery and retake his place our lives.
We are all thankful for the positive news and for the relief given to
his family. On behalf of his family and friends, thank you for your
thoughts and prayers.

That is all for now. I know that you will keep Katie close to your
hearts today as you have throughout this ordeal.

Sincerely,
Paul