an Epic Tale

On the Eve of this sacred holiday, I bring you tidings of an epic tale, worthy to be counted with those of heroes of old: that of Kimberly Nelson. From a potential heart surgery, to a vicious war against cancer and infection, Kimberly has been fighting. She has been required to exhibit tremendous strength, courage and faith. Again and again she has returned to the field to battle her foe, and again and again she has triumphed. However, as with any epic tale, just as the last, glorious victory was near, her foe lashed out with one final, infectious blow, nearly tipping the scales that Kim has been struggling for so long to keep in her favor. Kim has found that she and her brothers (and sisters) in arms, those who have been fighting along side her- supporting her, helping her to carry on- were not strong enough for this final campaign. We have had to call in the reinforcements. Aided by hosts of doctors, nurses and specialists, and strengthened by redoubled efforts of all those who have come to know her, Kimberly is literally battling for her life. And our cherished heroine will be victorious. Here follows the continued events of this, her story:

(Don't ask- the mood just struck me.) Here I am, again with Kim. I've missed being with her so much. Though she's been kept unconscious these past couple of days, it's very difficult to be away from her. However, today was a special day to see her again. Though her status hasn't changed much, the doctors decided they could try taking her out of the paralysis, and just keep her on the pain killers and sedatives. Fortunately, she's handled it well. She's helping the respirator a bit with her own breathing, so they've backed off a bit on the pressure (it will still be quite a while before she loses the breathing tube) but the main thing is that she is slightly more aware today. By that I mean, yesterday she was out cold, and today she blinks, moves her hands a bit and wiggles her feet. And I can tell she understands us to some extent, and can tell that dad, mom and I are here. Remember though, it's not like we are Trying to wake her up. The point is to allow her to rest and recover. She's still got a very high fever- up to 104 today. Her lungs are getting better, but slowly. That is where her infection ended up settling. She has a kind of strep there (not necessarily the same one that they found in her initial blood infection, but it was caused by it: a chain reaction sort of thing.)
They were finally able to get a feeding tube into her. We learned that Kim has a very strangely shaped stomach, apparently. Instead of being sort of horizontally positioned and folded gently in the middle, like most, hers is long and tall, with a curve towards one end. It just made feeding the tube through into her small intestine a little more difficult. Funny girl.
She's still draining lots of fluid from the space around her lungs. I am looking at the collecting tray they have, and she's all the way up to 1300 CCs now- not including a lot that is still making its way through the tube. That's over 40 ounces. They are also sucking fluid out of her lungs when she starts to work it up, and sucking junk out of her stomach (remember, her feeding tube bypasses it, so they mostly try to keep it clear to avoid her throwing up- very unpleasant with all of these tubes down her throat.) So, there are a number of clear containers stitting around her bed holding all sorts of weird Kimmy-juices. :)
At this time, I am just so glad that Kim is healing, and that she is semi-awake. The sedatives they have her on, as I've said, tend to have a pretty strong amnesia-affect, so it's not likely that she'll remember any of this. But it's nice to be able to feel her awareness of our presence. It's going to make Christmas morning a lot more fun :) I hope all of you enjoy your Christmases as well!