Happy New Year

Emily has been in Logan for a few days, so I’m going to take a crack at this blog thing. I’m sure it won’t be as entertaining as Emily’s. On New Year’s Day, Kim met a wonderful objective by graduating from the PICU to the ICS. She was released from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit about noon on New Year’s Day and brought up to a more familiar environment and friends. We are so incredibly thrilled in what this all means, SHE’S BACK! As they were wheeling her bed down the hallway of the ICS, the nurses yelled out hooray for Kim and congratulations and welcome back. They were all glad to see her back. What a great welcome from her friends at the ICS. That is so cool. Kim’s circle of friends and admirers’ continue to grow, even in this great trial in her life. I admire Kim so much in how she is handling this with such courage and positive attitude. She was determined from day-1 to have a positive attitude about all this; to help her, her parents and those who care for her. One bad thing happened on New Year’s Day though, her fevers returned and that got us all concerned, as that is how her dreaded bacteria infection started. Her temperature has been between 100 and 105 deg F. In the 3 days since, they have been testing her blood for any signs of bacteria or fungi, and all tests have come up negative, she is clear of that thank goodness. However, she still has pneumonia, weakness, tiredness and nausea and quite a bit of pain. She is still a very sick girl and her body is still fighting something, hence the fevers. We had hoped her blood counts would start climbing by now, but not so, her total white blood count has been hovering between 0 and 200, but her ANC is zero. Darn. I wonder if she doesn’t actually have some germ fighting white blood cells in production and they are going right to her lungs rather than hanging around in her blood flow. She has been getting a platelet transfusion every day and red-blood cells every few days. Julie has been kept busy caring for Kim’s every need and entertaining her with reading. Today (Sunday) the PT got her out of bed and had her walking down the hallway here at the ICS. The picture shows her resting in a wheel chair between laps. She enjoyed that but after a few laps, she was glad to get back in bed. I got to go to Sacrament Meeting here and the Elders brought the Sacrament to Kim and Julie and the sisters taught her a great lesson. I certainly do love the spirit here at the hospital and the great people working and serving here. I’ve also loved the volunteers serving at the Ronald McDonald House; all this, along with your faith and prayers has helped make this experience for all of us much more bearable. David