Updates about Enmarie's Illness

I haven't posted for about a week now. If there's still anyone still reading this, now that Enmarie is firmly back in the world of social media, here's an update. All the signs are showing that Enmarie is improving across the board:  - chest x-rays show healing lungs  - lung volume is increasing  - blood oxygen level is normal  - blood tests show a normal level of white blood cells (WBC), which indicates that there is no infection remaining.  (Normal WBC levels are approx 4-10. Yesterday Enmarie had 9, two weeks ago 19 and four weeks ago 110.....yes, that's one hundred and ten!) The last diagnostic test which will be of great importance is an echocardiogram, to be done after Enmarie completes her six weeks of antibiotics, some time around 5th August. It's an ultrasound examination of her heart which will show whether or not the antibiotics have reduced the size of the infection. At this stage the WBC count indicates no infection but the echocardiogra

After discussions with Enmarie's doctors, it has been decided that she will be better off staying in hospital for another two weeks for intravenous antibiotics three times a day, rather than going home tomorrow and having antibiotic tablets for two weeks. Intravenous antibiotics will deliver a much higher dose to the remaining infection in her heart, and therefore increase the likelihood of killing off all the bacteria which will make heart surgery unnecessary. Though she is disappointed at not being able to go home, Enmarie obviously wants to give the antibiotics every chance to work their magic, so she is happy with the decision. Her case was among those presented to a national meeting of cardiac surgeons and cardiologists yesterday, and everyone agreed that continued intravenous antibiotics were the way forward, which is reassuring. Enmarie is generally feeling well and her lung function is improving. Hopefully there will be no further developments until the results of

Continued improvement today. Yay! Enmarie saw four separate doctors today, and everyone is happy with her progress. She must take things very gently, though. She was told off by one of the doctors for going to get a cup of coffee from the cafe downstairs. He was right, though. She's feeling a lot better but when she returned from the cafe both her blood pressure and her blood-oxygen levels were well below normal. It's going to be a long road to full recovery. It only remains to be seen whether the antibiotics clear up the endocarditis. We won't get an opinion on that until Enmarie's course of antibiotics is finished, and she's had another echocardiogram to see what's happening. That will be about a month from now. I'm not going to post every day from now on. Fortunately, Enmarie's condition is improving steadily and I'll post when there's something new to say. It's a great relief to have come to this, when we were all so worried

Enmarie continues to improve. Her lung function is getting better daily. She saw all three doctors today and the plan continues as before but now she has been given a "release date"! Yes, if there are no new problems, Enmarie will be discharged on Friday, 21st July, going home for two more weeks of antibiotics then another echocardiogram to check for healing of the heart infection. If all is well, there will be no more talk of open heart surgery!  As always, fingers crossed!

Much news today, with a cautious positive outcome. Enmarie is feeling much better. She has more energy, she's walking around, her appetite has increased and she's generally happy and smiley. It's very good to see! Since my last post she has seen the specialist in Emergency Medicine who saved her life in ICU, the specialist in Infectious Diseases who has been overseeing her treatment for the pneumonia and endocarditis, and a new doctor: a heart surgeon, of whom more later. An x-ray this morning showed continuing, improved healing in Enmarie's lungs. As a result of this she has been taken off the oxygen which is excellent news, meaning that her lung function is now good enough to give her a normal blood-oxygen percentage. Essentially, she is done with the pneumonia, apart from convalescence. The MRI showed the details of something I haven't mentioned before, because there was enough bad news already! As a result of the blood poisoning some bacteria found the

Today, no news is good news!  I've never really liked that expression but it fits in this case, because this is the first day where nothing worryingly medical is going on.  Enmarie continues with antibiotics for endocarditis and oxygen for her recovering lungs. She's not strong but is in good spirits.  There will be news tomorrow as Enmarie's having the MRI scan that was supposed to happen today. It was delayed for some reason.  Until tomorrow! 

As expected, Enmarie left ICU yesterday evening and moved to an ordinary ward. That's a step forward.  I am now allowed to stay with her overnight, sleeping on the couch in her room. It's quite comfortable but there are hourly interruptions for the nurses to check Enmarie's vital signs, but I'd rather they checked than not!  Today, the cardiologist gave Enmarie an echocardiogram, an ultrasound examination of her heart. She was found to have bacterial endocarditis, an infection of one of her heart valves. This was caused by the same bacteria which gave her pneumonia.  The treatment for endocarditis is antibiotic injections, three times a day. The course is four weeks long but with all the antibiotics which Enmarie's already had for pneumonia they say that, if all goes well, she will need only one more week of treatment in hospital and then home for more antibiotics, in tablet form.  Fingers crossed that they're right!  Tomorrow, Enmarie will have an MR

Posted from a smartphone in a cheap Thai restaurant.  The font looks very large but I'm sure you'll understand the constraints I'm working under!  As quickly as she sped towards her doom, Enmarie is now embracing life!  Today she will move to a normal ward where your blogger will be staying every night.  Among other items to occupy her attention, I'm taking a guitar because Enmarie is getting bored (a good sign of healing) and has always wanted to play....I will teach her the basics. On the medical front Enmarie has been seen by a cardiologist because her heart rate is higher than normal and they suspect a heart valve infection from the septicaemia.  An ultrasound today appears to have confirmed that but they're doing a more targeted investigation as well, in the afternoon.  She's on more antibiotics already, just in case.  The nurses gave her a bell today, so that she can call me to do her bidding. No change there then!  More news from the cuttin

As a blogger, I'm almost out of a job! Enmarie has improved dramatically in the last 24 hours. At ten o'clock this morning she had the ventilator switched off and the endotracheal tube removed so that she could breathe on her own, and speak again. Her first words were, "Get me a Coke!", and I don't think she's stopped talking since. She is all smiles and is obviously very happy to be back in the world of breathing and talking folk.  She also had the nasogastric feeding tube removed and, at lunch today, is going to have her first solid food for two and a half weeks. Now, free of all life-supporting aids apart from a little oxygen flowing up her nose via a plastic tube, Enmarie has normal blood pressure, a normal blood-oxygen percentage, a slightly high pulse rate and a normal breathing rate. These are all very positive indicators of healing lungs. It's now hard to believe that she was at death's door only a week ago. If all goes well, s

In the last 24 hours Enmarie posted to Facebook, while still on a ventilator! I think that's a pretty good indicator of her improving condition! "The Facebook Force is strong in this one!" This morning the doctor told me that she is continuing to improve and that, if all goes well, she will probably come off the ventilator tomorrow morning. This is great news. Enmarie will be so glad to be able to talk again, and breathe on her own for the first time in two weeks. As her lungs have started to heal, Enmarie has needed a lower and lower percentage of oxygen from the ventilator, to maintain a normal blood-oxygen level. Now that the oxygen percentage (currently 25%) is nearly down to that of normal air (21%), the pressure of the ventilator has been reduced so that her natural breathing mechanism is doing more of the work. She will come off the ventilator when the doctors are happy that she will be able to maintain a good blood-oxygen level by breathing on her own. F

This morning I saw the doctor who is in overall charge of Enmarie's case. He is a specialist in emergency medicine, and has been very conservative in his pronouncements about her condition. However, today he said that her condition had improved and that she now has an 80-90% likelihood of making it through this.  That's such good news! Last Sunday, she was given only 50%! Enmarie is still on a ventilator but if all goes well she will be able to come off it in 2-3 days. More good news: her daily chest x-ray is now starting to show some healing of her lungs whereas, up until yesterday there was no sign. What of Enmarie herself? This morning she was awake and only lightly sedated. She recognised me (for the first time in two weeks) and even managed a smile. She was coping with the ventilator extremely well. It's one thing having it when you're unconscious but to have a tube in your throat, breathing for you, when you're awake must be very distressing. Hap

Hello, friends of Enmarie. My dear girl is having a very trying time at the moment and I think the time is right to tell you about it. The extremely shortened version is that Enmarie has a life-threatening illness, but the indicators are starting to look hopeful and as of today, 8th July, it's almost safe to say that she will survive it. The details are as follows: On Friday 23rd June we went to see our doctor after Enmarie had had a high temperature and back pain. The doctor diagnosed a chest infection, prescribed antibiotics and referred her to hospital for an assessment and IV fluids. We are very lucky that he did. After an initial assessment the hospital admitted Enmarie. She lay in bed with a saline drip and morphine for the back pain she was having. The morphine didn't seem to be dealing with the pain and Enmarie was suffering a lot. I stayed with her overnight and we tried to get the staff to give her enough morphine to stop the pain but she had a very d