A very close call

My Spin For Kids campaign. Thank you.

It is out
Tuesday, 8/24/10
Step 1, taking it out, is done with success.  Confused?  Keep on reading.

This I believe
Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention:  I believe in Liam.  I really do.  It's difficult not to believe in her after seeing her in the past 15-something years climbing out of the deepest and darkest holes.  Not with the help of any god, mind you, but with her own will power.

Back in time
Monday, 8/23/10  (Yesterday....all my trouble seemed so far away...)
Back in November 2009, Liam almost said goodbye for the last time.  I'm not sure if today was comparable, but it had some scary moments.  Much like back then, I was sitting in the office when I received the call "get here NOW".  Unlike back then, when I was very emotional, I calmly sent an email to my team asking them to cover for me, packed my unfinished lunch (since lunch is the 2nd most important meal in the day), and drove to the hospital.  Back in Nov 2009 I was crying all the way over.  Today I very calmly was listening to sports radio (Falcons suck).  Strange.  And I was thinking about what's waiting for me in the hospital and remained calm.  If this is her time to go, I thought, then it's her time to go.

Just like Nov 2009, by the time I got to the hospital things have stabilized (why do I have to always miss all the fun?  Why?).   From what I've been told, while at dialysis Liam's oxygen saturation dropped down to a dangerous level, she was very pale - maybe white, her blood pressure and heart rate went up through the roof.  She was maybe, maybe, on her way out.  Yet, somehow she climbed out of the hole again - at least for now.  Anyway, they disconnected her from the dialysis machine and slowly things got better.  By the time I got there things were much better and I was able to complete my lunch (I know you wanted to get a closure on that).  Obviously, I'm giving the short version - without the high emotions and many details - none of which I witnessed myself.

This was completely unplanned.  This is not what we wanted to talk about today.  The topic was supposed to be:

Two for the price of one
In the past week two infections were discovered in Liam:  staph (which she had before once and was treated successfully with antibiotics) and yeast.  It's the yeast we wanted to talk about today.  Actually, I much rather talking about soccer and beer, but yeast it is:
While the staph bacteria adheres to the walls of the lead lines (and blood vessels), the yeast works itself into the material of the leads itself.  It becomes part of the hoses, sort of.  Thus, it's a lot harder to defeat with antibiotics.  The planned solution is:
1 - Pull her vas-cath out (vas-cath is the 3 lines which merge into the vein;  two lines for dialysis, one for the TPN).
2 - Bomb her body with antibiotics while the plastic is out.
3 - Verify that no other cath's in her body (shunts) are infected with the fungus.
4 - When the monster is confirmed dead, restore a new vas-cath. 
(5 - Optional: Pray for that it won't return.)

Both pulling out and restoration are a [small] surgical procedures, which Liam's not doing too well with.  But there's no other choice. 

Ok, so the plan was to pull the vas-cath out immediately following dialysis.  That would have allowed her max time to fight the fungus with no foreign infected plastic in her body between dialysis sessions.  However, it wasn't done yesterday.   As noted above, it was done today (Tuesday) - successfully.  It really took only a few minutes under very light anesthesia. 

Liam is breathing on her own, but still with the oxygen mask to help.


Now, two questions:
1.  How did the fungus get there in the first place?
Every foreign material in our bodies is an open invitation for infections.  If we have weak immune systems, as Liam does, it is much easier for the infection.  If it's being "fed" with TPN, the fungus is very happy (and even asks for a second serving).

2.  Why wouldn't the fungus return with the new vas-cath? 
Good question.  The answer is simple:  there are no guarantees.  For a matter of fact, Drs tell us about kids with different cath's who require repeating surgeries to replace infected ones.  Considering the fact that she had this one for such a ong time (6 months, approx), I'm hopeful for a quite period (but wouldn't be surprised if the fungus returns soon).

Technicalities
Some of you keep saying "I wish that I could help".  Well, maybe you can help the helpers.  If you'd like to help with meals, please contact Chance (chancita at g-mail);  If you want to help with driving little miss sunshine (Meitav) to-from, please contact Darma Natha (Robert):  runewit at yahoo. 

Unbelievably amount of thanks.