Saturday Evening Post

Today we had a little scare with the rise of Andie's lactate. But after several blood test her results have come down to a 1.6 from a 3.1. Zero is the optimal marker for this reading, but this is good where she's at now. So much that they have stopped drawing blood every hour from every 4 hours, now to 8 hours. So the next blood test will be at 4:00 AM.

With the waiting of her lactate to decrease the doctors decided to stop weening her from her meds and put her in a holding pattern. But since we got the latest test back they finished Andie off of the epinephrine - she's free and weened of it. And her stats are still standing steady. I find myself looking at her blood/oxygen reading the most frequent and noticing it's staying in the mid 90% range.

Tonight she'll start the process of weening off of dopamine. This should help with the blood pressure but who knows what else it'll affect. The idea is we don't disturb her vitals while weening. After dopamine we'll start Flolan and Nitric from the breathing machine next. Once they have these completed the rest will follow.

We are at a very crucial point in her recovery. Playing around with too much can put Andie into a tailspin. With all the progress we've made, please understand that we do not want to go there. She has been a real strong trooper and maintaining her strength and pulling through the hand she has been dealt. But we are not out nor are we close to being out of woods. Believe it or not there is a method to their madness to this weening process.

She has been as alert as she could be today. She is still under some pain medication (Fentenal) which causes some mild sedation as well. But she has flashed her big baby blues several times at her mommy and I. So we've enjoyed her a lot more today.

We continue to get strong support from our family and friends. You just cant understand how it makes Brooke and I feel whenever we get calls or a drop in to check in on us. It means the world to us. Our folks have been great with helping us out with the kids and supporting us at the hospital. And our friends have been outstanding. It's truly amazes us to see how our friends have come to our rescue. We love you all. And Marcus - thanks for mowing my grass and fixing my sprinkler line that was broke. I had no idea I had a broke line. I totally appreciate it.

Thank you to all for everything you do for us.

Duane