Another late night but I wanted to write to update you with Jamie's new information.
It's been a little crazy trying to get Jamie to eat and keep it down. The antibiotic that
she is on causes alot of nausea. So we try to counteract with nausea medicine. The
last time I posted I mentioned "Protein". Well that ugly word just seems to raise it's
ugly head constantly. Jamie's nausea/vomiting keeps any nutrients from absorbing into
her body - causing her protein/albumin level to lower almost to the malnutrition level
- causing her risk for infection to increase - which then puts the situation in a serious
state. A vicious cycle. I feed her slowly, an 8oz container of yogurt can take an hour
to eat just so that she can keep it down.
The good news is that her temp has been okay within the last few days. We decided to
d/c the time released morphine. While Jamie was only on it for a week it was not a good
week. She slept constantly and was barely awake enough to eat or exercise. Two very
important things Jamie needs to get healthy. I'm sure that one week didn't help her
protein situation - see that word keeps coming up. The message here is to remember
to eat your proteins - it's very important for your health
Well most importantly and very exciting is the visit we had today from ABC channel 13
HealthCheck reporter Christi Myers. Christi and cameraman Bob we're very pleasant
and it was very nice meeting them both. The report will air Tuesday night in Houston
at 6:pm. In fact we've already seem a commercial on the story. Christi has also sent her
story to the ABC affiliate in Austin. That report (for all our Austin friends) will air
Wednesday at 6 pm. If you can't tune in be sure to go to ABC13.com to follow link to
Jamie's story. Pass the word and let us know what you think. Thanks to Fritz Guthrie
VP Marketing at St. Joseph for helping us get Jamie's story out.
It's time to go - btw it's 12:30 am - and I'm going to try to feed Jamie some liquid Protein
- there it is again - ha!
As always and more importantly please remember Jamie in your thought & prayers. She
really needs them now. Love to all our family and friends.
SERVE for P.L.A.Y.
13 years ago
2 comments:
Maybe UT should consider making meningitis vaccinations MANDATORY for its students. My brother was a young, vibrant 20 year old who contracted bacterial meningitis while participating in a charity boxing match put on by UT fraternity Sigma Chi in 2004.
He died within a week.
How many students have to die or go through what your daughter is going through before meningitis gets the same sort of attention other diseases get? It cripples and kills, and does so FAST.
Your daughter is blessed to have what seems like a competent medical team. My brother was treated at Seton Hospital in Austin (the one by Central Market on 38th Street), went into septic shock, and died because for over 24 hours they "forgot" to put him on dialysis.
If I remember correctly, there was another Austin mother who had lost a son at the same hospital for the same reason and she'd managed to make and save a few hundred thousand dollars to sue the crap out of them because Texas doesn't allow you to sue for more than $25,000 (and no law firm would take a case against a major hospital for such a small payout).
Your daughter is incredibly lucky. I hope that her treatment continues to work and she doesn't require any amputations.
I'm so sorry about your brother. While vaccines are important, there is no vaccine against every strain of meningitis. Jamie was smart to have recognized the signs in time and extremely lucky to have had Roni there to get her help quickly when she needed it.
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