This will probably be rather short but I plan to update more in the morning. Kennedy’s prognosis is really good and they expect her to make a slow but complete recovery. They also plan to do everything in their power to prevent this from happening again.

Kennedy received a special “air” mattress today that has a continuous flow of air circulating underneath her. This is to prevent any breakdowns in her skin from pressure points. She is already showing signs of redness around her bottom and on the back of her head. It takes up more space but she looks much better.

She had another ultrasound today and it revealed that there is little fluid left in her abdomen around her organs. Her liver, spleen and kidneys were slightly enlarged probably due to the stress of her VOD. This does mean that they do not plan to drain off any more fluid or insert a chest tube they are however, increasing her diuretics to help her void out the fluid in her stomach and intestines.

She is also receiving TPN, a nutritional supplement that goes through her central line. They have modified it so that her liver will not be strained in metabolizing it.

She has a new “mask” for breathing. This gives her a break and allows her to sleep better because they will not be interupting her every 2 hours. It assists her in breathing but is not as invasive as incubating her. Just another tool to keep her off the respirator.

There is some concern about her soft palate/throat function as she was vomiting fluid (from her full stomach) through her nose. That does happen to everyone but she was already having problems when speaking with this closure and now it is more of a worry that she will aspirate fluid/vomit in to her lungs.

She received platelets today but did not need plasma or red cells-much improvement over the last few days for sure!

We signed the paperwork today that needs to be sent to the FDA for Kennedy’s new med. Dr. Olson has 5 days to get all the paperwork submitted. There was some pretty scary info on their regarding severe VOD so I was thankful we were not given it on Saturday. However, we know that this is Kennedy’s best chance at beating the odds.

She will have many changes in her chemo and I will actually give more infomation about that tomorrow.

Holding on to hope and faith,
Mel