Updates: Helen Into Surgery

Monday, July 23, 2007

Helen Into Surgery

Helen went into surgery about 20 minutes ago. Her anesthesiologist is German, and has been doing anesthesia for 11 years. Her other nurse comes from the University of Colorado Hospital. She taught nursing in Colorado, but she says she loves OHSU. The medical staff is very competent, but don't take themselves too seriously. She promised to call us with updates.

Keep praying!

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Visiting Rules

When Elizabeth and Helen are able to receive visitors, there are a few rules that need to be observed. There are two reasons for these rules. Helen is immune suppressed, and Elizabeth, while not immune suppressed herself, is on an adult transplant floor, where many of the patients are immune suppressed. Both of them are receiving pain medication. The pain is controlled, but it is still there.

So here are the rules. Please be very careful to observe them:

Visitors must be healthy. All visitors must be completely healthy. If you or any of your children have even a sniffle or a cold, we're asking that you wait until the cold is long past before coming to visit.

No flowers. Please do not send or bring flowers or other agricultural products. They can have "fellow traveller" fungi that can cause very serious trouble for Helen or any of the immune suppressed patients on Elizabeth's floor.

No children under 12. For similar reasons, we're asking that you don't bring children under 12 (except nursing babies) to the hospital.

Keep visits short. Elizabeth and Helen are still experiencing pain, and will tire easily. Of course, they will want to be gracious, and may not admit that they're tiring. So we're asking you to keep your visits to 15-20 minutes in length.

Keep praying. Prayer is the most important thing. We have a long road ahead of us, and many new habits to learn. Your prayers are extremely important in helping us make these changes. Keep them coming.

What Does "immune suppressed" mean?

The natural tendency of Helen's body is to recognize her new kidney as a foreign object, and launch a host of biological defenses to destroy it. Helen has been given massive doses of medicine to prevent this "rejection" of the kidney. Unfortunately, these medicines also make it much more difficult for Helen to fight off diseases, even simple colds. They also make it much more difficult for Helen to protect herself against common varieties of some fungi and herbs that can actually kill her. Viruses are a greater risk than bacterial infections.

Her doctors are following a new "low steroid" protocol that limits the amount of steroids Helen will have to take, but she will still be taking some form of immune suppression medicine for the rest of her life. The risk is greatest, however, in the first 3 - 6 months. That's when we have to be extremely careful about Helen's environment, to make sure that she's not exposed to any diseases or other factors that can harm her.

Updates

Monday, July 23, 2007

Helen Into Surgery

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Helen and her Surgons

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