News from new room/new address

It's been awhile since I've posted & I'm overdue. Everyday seems to be something new for Jamie but not so exciting for her, nothing is exciting for her anymore. It's seems to be hard to get her out of her funk but who can blame her it's now been officially 8 weeks - 4 weeks in Austin and now 4 weeks in Houston. She has had one major surgery, 2 OR debredments, 22 chamber dives, daily wound care/ OTPT, constant poking, injections, meds - they removed pic line put in central line. Thought she had MRSA (came out negative) then she was cultured for "super bug" (came out negative). Her state of mind when she has to be put into isolation because of HOSPITAL bugs is sad & it sure pisses me off that hospitals can do this to their patients.

But it is day to day - moment to moment. We have moved to another room in another building away from ICU - Yeah!!!!! (new address to follow).and we are somewhat settled in(thank you KC) As I mentioned she did test negative to bug so she is out of isolation. Nurse/patient ratio is higher here so we don't get meds to us as fast as being in ICU but we have more privacy here, not as much interruption, Jamie does not have to be monitored nor has to have blood pressure cuff on poor sore arm. The nurses do check her vitals every 4 hours and everything is still within normal range. At least Jamies normal range. Today was also a big step in that she has been d/c (discontinued) from all her antibiotic. This is great since one of them made her nauseated so she had to take 2 different meds to keep from throwing up, which kept her from eating & made her sleepy which kept her in a funk. Just a constant whirlwind. She was also d/c from one of her injections -epogen which helps her red blood count. It was given to her 3xs a week but it was one that was painful and she truly dreaded. She cried before each injection. But Dr. Lin removed it today which means her blood counts are better- double yeah!!! So - drum roll please - we are down from 25 meds daily to 15 meds daily (of course some are still double doses) but hey we're moving along. Of course that not to say that she may have to get back on some of these meds but hey it's good for now. We just need to keep a constant watch on her blood count, temperature, etc., etc.

Jamie's wounds her healing with incredible speed. I'm sure she doesn't see it. The weekly debredments help speed up this recovery by removing slufff (yellowish dead tissue) and exposing live tissue. In fact her beautiful little armadillo tattoo that is on her butt is now officially out of the woods, no longer road kill. In combination with the hyperbaric chambers the wounds are recovering at a fast speed. The goal is to where we can comfortably get Jamie in a wheelchair so we can go exploring the hospital - Starbucks - and eventually get her favorite puppy "Sake" to come visit. Yes there is a Starucks in the hospital lobby and a beautiful park across from hospital that we may be able to go to.

It's 10pm and the nurses just started Jamie's tube feed, she took her final meds for the night and she is already snoozing. It was a busy week for her with the move and all and from visit from Andy & Sara and then from Claire & Molly. Thank you so much for being good friends. She is looking foward to tomorrow when her big brother comes in, her papa gene (he sure misses her/calls always) and her big sister Roni who comes in Saturday - yeah movie time.

Thanks again to all of you for all you do, whatever it is - calls, thoughts, visits, reading this & most importantly thanks for all your prayers. Please don't stop.
Till next time love to all - patsy/mom

NEW ADDRESS
Jamie Schanbaum
c/o St Joseph Hospital
George Strake Building, Room 565
1919 La Branch
Houston, Texas 77002