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!