Oh, WindSparrow - book catalogs are evil. Step away from them carefully, and then go to the nearest used books store.

At least, that's what I do.

The last three to four months have been insanely rough.

S went in to the hospital on September 1st. Two days later, she went into respiratory distress due to severe pulmonary edema, and was intubated and placed on a ventilator. Her chest films from that period were very white and cloudy. She was suffering from multiple infections that her body was in no condition to fight off all at once, including one in her brain. She was on the ventilator for almost two weeks before her lungs cleared up and she could breath on her own.

After she came off the ventilator, she was utterly delirious for almost three weeks, due to a combination of hepatic encephalopathy from her liver problems, the infection in her brain, and her reaction to the massive cocktail of drugs she'd been fed. I cannot even begin to imagine how people care for loved ones with severe dementia, as those three weeks almost did me in.

Just as she seemed to be recovering from the delirium, the infection in her brain flared up in her right hemisphere. She began manifesting symptoms very similar to a stroke; she lost all sensation and coordination in her left arm and leg, and the left side of her face fell. She also began having fairly frequent seizures on the left side of her face.

Many MRIs, EEGs and two lumbar punctures later, the neurologist and infectious disease specialist were stumped, and recommended a brain biopsy. The only thing that stopped a brain biopsy was the neurosurgeon pointing out that it was unlikely a biopsy would show anything that would cause them to change the course of treatment she was already on, and came with a very high risk of catastrophic complications, including brain hemorrhage and death.

She slowly recovered from that ordeal enough to be re-listed with the transplant center and released from the hospital. She's come such a long way, and made such an incredible recovery.

But she's definitely come back a little different. I feel like she'll eventually make a complete recovery, but she's not there yet. She's able to walk pretty well, but she hasn't remastered it yet. She's considerably slower at processing things than she was before, and she's kind of blind on her left side. She's not actually blind -- she can see out of that side just fine if she closes her right eye, but she has no peripheral vision on her left side, and even things right in front of her face can "disappear" on her if they are on her left at all.

One of my students just addressed me as "H-Dawg."

t edit: x-posty with Sean

It's good to hear the updates, Sean. Hope for a smooth transition.

What H-Dawg said.

Oh Seany, it feels like a miracle she is alive.

And just as I'm tearing up and sniffing I read Hil's next post...

Many MRIs, EEGs and two lumbar punctures later, the neurologist and infectious disease specialist were stumped, and recommended a brain biopsy. The only thing that stopped a brain biopsy was the neurosurgeon pointing out that it was unlikely a biopsy would show anything that would cause them to change the course of treatment she was already on, and came with a very high risk of catastrophic complications, including brain hemorrhage and death.

Lord, it's like a House episode.

Thanks for the update, Sean. It sounds incredibly rough, but I'm glad she's out of it now.

Also, you would make a good medical writer.

All the doctors and nurses at Cedars were huge House fans. They gave her a pericentesis in her room one night, and the team threw it on while they were performing the procedure.

Also, you would make a good medical writer.

I can certainly keep up with the lingo.