T2E-D15

Hello Friends, Family, and Prayer Warriors,

I was unable to update last night as usual. The reason is because at that time I was with Trudy, along with Wendy, in the ICU. When we were able to return to her room at 8pm, we found that Trudy was struggling with her breathing and with pain.

After an infusion of Platelets, various meds, and some hours, she did stabilize to a degree that she was resting when we had to leave the ICU at 6am. I'm sure you can understand well, that coughing and hurting while on a ventilator, is a frightening time. She can only communicate with head nods, hand motions, and her eyes...so it was frustrating for her to try to get us to understand what she wanted.

As the doctors constantly talk to us about, her medical condition is quite complex and each solution may cause a new problem. We haven't spoken with her primary care doctor as of this update, but we can only guess as to what might have precipitated this event. It could be low platelets, an aggressive action from the WBC's, a virus, or a kind of system overload from all the many things she is being treated .

Please pray for her physicians, the ICU nurses and technicians, me and Wendy; and most of all pray for Trudy. May this Tuesday be a restful and healthful day for her.

Blessings,
Trudy and Robert

P.S.: At 9:30 am...Primary Care physician, Dr. DeLima, confirms that yesterday's crisis was a combination event where the virus (now confirmed as a flu virus), the fresh WBC's, low platelets, and weak kidney functioning; all contributed. The identification of the flu virus actually took a full week as the cultures were taken last Tuesday. So, now that virus can be targeted with specific meds. The WBC therapy will continue at every third day instead of every other day. Also, Dr. DeLima feels that the Dialysis is now a necessity...probably today.