12/15 Update - Today was a good day (and her thumb isn't going to just fall off...)

Anyway, Jamie's thumb isn't going to just off... but it will be cut off, eventually. Apparently, that clarification was needed. I was wrong when I thought it would fall off like a scab. There's still a bone in there, but it will need to be amputated.

Now that we're already talking about that, the plastic surgeon consult at St. Joe's came today and said that we may be able to save some parts of all of her fingers. That's quite an improvement from what the plastic surgeon at Seton said (if you remember, it was "no hands, no feet"). So, we're pretty optimistic about this guy. Dr. Lin also recommended a treatment called a Lumbar Sympathechtomy. The point of the surgery is that a portion of Jamie's sympathetic nerve will be cut for each leg. It grows back in about 8 to 12 months. The main reason we're doing this is to increase vascular dilation to her feet. It will also stop the shooting bursts of pain that Jamie has in her legs. Its a procedure that will take 1.5 hours. We would be doing this on Christmas Eve. The reason we're doing that is because we'd only be missing one day of hyperbaric treatment while she recovers (the Friday after Christmas, since we wouldn't be able to go on Christmas anyway). We're not doing this on her hands because she has a strong pulse in her hands.

Jamie's second day in the hyperbaric chamber was good. Her friend Cris was there and talked her through it. She made it for a full 120 minutes this time. She said it was hot again. She also had physical therapy, wound care and occupational therapy today. She is getting into a regular schedule and I'll include that in the next post or two.

Finally, KC came to town and she'll be here until Thursday morning. Which is extra good because I may have to leave for work sometime this week. Her friends Sarah, Andy and Julie drove to town today. That really brightened her day. Her mood was really good today as well. She and I watched Arrested Development on her massive projection screen until 1 am last night, that was fun... even though I wanted to go to bed. She hasn't been as lethargic as she was last week either. She's been eating some. Hopefully, she'll stop throwing up soon. Dr. Lin thinks she is going to start throwing up less on this new tube-fed food (remember, she still has the food-through-the-nose tube and gets some tube-food at night to keep her calories up) and her intensivist, Dr. Thai, says that she may not even need the tube feeding at night anymore.

OK, that's about it. Send laptops and high calorie delicious food to us in Houston. If you know what Jamie likes, then find a way to bring it to her (Myra, I'm looking at you... through Stuart). I'll get another update out later. Keep thinking good thoughts for Jamie and thank you for keeping her in your prayers.

[Laptop update - I got a temporary laptop from work, but can't get my Verizon internet pass to work on the work-laptop on it because (a) there's a newer version of the Verizon internet thing on the work-laptop, (b) I need to uninstall it from the work-laptop in order to load the version I bought this week, which is apparently older than the version on my work-laptop, and (c) I can't because I don't have admin privileges on the work-laptop. I'm at Nia's, using her computer while KC and she watch The Hills.... Just terrible... It looks like a new computer is in my near future.
Actually, if someone out there is wondering how they can help us... a new laptop would be nice... http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/gateway-p-7811fx/4505-3121_7-33201021.html ... just saying... ]