My daughter is critically ill

[Toni]

More & more & more prayers going your way. Please keep us up to date as you are able. God works miracles in His own time. Isaiah 40:31
Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles...

Thank you for that. Pslm 23 has helped me too.

[Pradeep]

Toni,
As is always the case with the Walakes family, when one of us is in need of good wishes, thoughts and prayers, we all work together to send those vibes to you and your daughter. Stay strong in your faith and my thoughts and prayers are with you, your daughter and family during this challenge.

Take care.

[gpc]

Sorry about your situation Toni, hang in there sweetie. My prayers are with you and yours.

[racfish]

Hey Toni .I just got back and read this. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. May God grant her a speedy recovery.

[fear_no_fish]

Im sorry to hear that, i wish the best of luck to you! Hope everything works out for the best.

[fishnislife]

Thinking about you and your daughter Toni. My prayer is that she will recover completely and you will have comfort and strength through this process.






fishnislife

[Toni]

Well she is doing a little bit better. Yesterday her heart rate was up 117 now it went to 94. The heart number if it is 200 is high, 117 was OK for the doctors in her condition but 94 is better and they cut her blood pressure meds a little. O2 went to 94 but is holding at 88 now.
Now my son-in-law and grandson are here so it a lot busier.

[rjn cajun]

Haven`t been on in awhile but wanted to send my family`s thoughts and prayers Toni.

[Marc Martyn]

Hope that she continues to improve, Toni. We're all here pulling for you.

[Matt]

Sounds like things are starting to turn around. Hopefully this positive trend continues. I will keep my fingers crossed for you Toni, thanks for the updates.

[Dave]

Hi Toni,

It's 1:40 am on Thursday morning. I just got home from work, and I wanted to check in and see how things are going. Sounds like your daughter is stable and slowly improving thank the good Lord. We are all pulling for you and your family, so hang in there my dear and let your daughter know we are all thinking about her. I truly hope that when you and your family are all back home that maybe we can all get together for at the annual WALakes BBQ to meet you and your family and spend some time. I look forward to your next update.

Dave

[Toni]

This evening the nurse said she was going in the right direction. She is doing well with the O2 levels-96-her heart rate was 77. She is on 2 blood pressure medications (it is low 88\46) and one of the side effects of blood pressure med. is, for what ever reason, feet turning black. That is happening now. There is the end result of them not being there.

Thank you for your hopes and prayers.

[Toni]

New up date
Someone asked if my daughter was still sedated and why. Yes, she is sedated. No they haven't told me why they sedated her. I assumed it was precaution to keep her still. She has a tube the size of a small garden hose in her groin that goes to the ECMO then exits toward her and is taped to her cheek then into her heart. There is a fluid drain from by her stomach to drain out bile. There is another tube for some sort drain that comes from somewhere. I am not sure what for. Then there are all sorts of drips and the ventilator. I think she has a catheter but not much urine comes out. My thoughts were if a person were awake, how could they not move?

Today her hand started to turn purple blue as well as her toes. At 1pm eastern time they took her off the medication that caused the blood vessels to constrict. They have tried to do it for a few days on and off but her blood pressure would drop. Any way at 10pm she was still off of it and her blood pressure was good. She is still on one blood pressure medication. They tired letting her breath on her own which she did for a short time. Her O2 was 92. Her heart rate was around 100. Not good but not bad. I read that a person with sepsis might have a 50% chance of survival. They might die up to 30 days after they get it. They may have lingering problems and most Americans don't know what it is. I sure didn't. I didn’t know what an ECMO was either.

[Gringo Pescador]

ECMO has only been around for about 20 years - that is what my daughter was on, so I learned a lot about it. Blood goes out the garden hose, into the ECMO machine, the ECMO machine oxygenates the blood, then it goes back into the body via a 2nd garden hose. That way the lungs don't have to work so hard and are able to rest and heal. They keep her sedated to keep her as comfortable as possible. Taking from my daughter's experience, she is probably on paralytic drugs too which keep her from moving and accidentally pulling tubes out.

We're all still here for you Toni!

[knotabassturd]

Thanx for the continuing updates Toni. Looks like her O2 sats are up considerably the last few days so that's helpful news. Sepsis certainly can be scary. I'm no doctor or anything but if she's improving from sepsis and the hard hard initial hit she took, my guess is they've found the right antibiotics to hit it hard? Did they ever ID the infection or just use heavy broad spectrum antibiotics if I may ask? Let us pray she is on the upswing here, the sepsis infection on the downswing, and can get back to getting her own lungs and body back up and running to a point of independence (off vent) and high O2 sats and avoid fluid buildup in the lungs.
I have seen people recover well from sepsis or eve nseptic shock but every case is obviously different.
Hope you are getting some sleep and rest for yourself too.

Let your daughter know there is a whole flock of fishing fools here wishing her well....

PS- I am guessing UNC Chapel Hill is a very good place for her to be in terms of staff know-how and treatment.

[Toni]

Thanx for the continuing updates Toni. Looks like her O2 sats are up considerably the last few days so that's helpful news. Sepsis certainly can be scary. I'm no doctor or anything but if she's improving from sepsis and the hard hard initial hit she took, my guess is they've found the right antibiotics to hit it hard? Did they ever ID the infection or just use heavy broad spectrum antibiotics if I may ask? Let us pray she is on the upswing here, the sepsis infection on the downswing, and can get back to getting her own lungs and body back up and running to a point of independence (off vent) and high O2 sats and avoid fluid buildup in the lungs.
I have seen people recover well from sepsis or eve nseptic shock but every case is obviously different.
Hope you are getting some sleep and rest for yourself too.

Let your daughter know there is a whole flock of fishing fools here wishing her well....

PS- I am guessing UNC Chapel Hill is a very good place for her to be in terms of staff know-how and treatment.

I don't know about antibiotics. They gave those to her at first. Then they said they had to get rid of the infection so they did the DNC and took out her gallbladder but now I think they are fighting what the sepsis did to the rest of her.

[Toni]

Today she has been stable. I found out that she was on the 2 blood pressure medicines both which constrict the blood vessels. They took 1 away yesterday around 1pm but gave it back to her in the morning but she was off of it by noon. Therefore, she is on one blood pressure med. today. They took her off of the sedation and pain medication. The puffiness wasn’t apparent to me. I talked to her but she didn’t bat an eye. The ECMO nurse said that those drugs will take a bit to get out of her system. Her toes and 2 fingers are black and the bluish color is going up her arm. Her color was good in her face. There is an issue with her chest drainage tube having the same coloring as the bile coming out of her stomach area (bile). I told the nurse that (as she was telling me this) that I picture our body as a cavity filled with organs and the fluids are pooling in the different areas that they siphon out. Of course my explanation is over simplified. I look at the stuff they do and know and my mind is boggled.
When I left around 5pm her
Heart was around 84
b/p 104/74
pulse 85
O2=92

[Toni]

Today she has been stable. I found out that she was on the 2 blood pressure medicines both which constrict the blood vessels. They took 1 away yesterday around 1pm but gave it back to her in the morning but she was off of it by noon. Therefore, she is on one blood pressure med. today. They took her off of the sedation and pain medication. The puffiness wasn’t apparent to me. I talked to her but she didn’t bat an eye. The ECMO nurse said that those drugs will take a bit to get out of her system. Her toes and 2 fingers are black and the bluish color is going up her arm. Her color was good in her face. There is an issue with her chest drainage tube having the same coloring as the bile coming out of her stomach area (bile). I told the nurse that (as she was telling me this) that I picture our body as a cavity filled with organs and the fluids are pooling in the different areas that they siphon out. Of course my explanation is over simplified. I look at the stuff they do and know and my mind is boggled.
When I left around 5pm her
Heart was around 84
b/p 104/74
pulse 85
O2=92

[skimpy]

Stay strong Toni. We are all pulling for you. More prayers sent .

[Deka]

(((Hugs to you and yours!))))

As well as positive thoughts for a good out come from the issues involved!

Deka