Judy

Mark's sister, Judy, has had major surgeries on one of her legs in the past - her knee replaced completely, the bone from her knee down to her foot supported, etc. etc.  She has Lupus and has had various types of cancer in the past, as well.  But now she has developed a huge infection in that knee that has spread through her body.  Mark's other sister Vickie, who lives in DC, drove straight through and arrived at 4 AM on Saturday and is now with her over at the hospital in Opelousas.  The family wants her transferred over here to Baton Rouge - they have NO confidence in the hospital over there. 

Here's what we found out originally:  

Judy was running a fever because of an infection in her leg where she had had cancer. Her leg had been bothering her for weeks but she hadn't gone to the hospital about it, so there is no telling how long she had been having the infection.

On Wednesday, their home health nurse called an ambulance. 

While in the emergency room they thought she had had a heart attack.

They began treating her with IV antibiotics for the leg, and medications for excess fluid accumulation (and for anxiety).

They wanted to transfer her to Baton Rouge General where there is an orthopedist who is an expert handling high risk patients.

On Saturday  they hooked her up to a heart monitor saying she was in congestive heart failure.

They were waiting for her to stabilize, and for a bed to become available in the critical care unit at BR General so they could transfer her.

Mark and Vickie and most of the family living over near Opelousas spent the day with her at the hospital Saturday and she seemed slightly better. 

Vickie went back over Sunday morning, and we got an e-mail from her last night saying she had just spoken with the cardiologist. He told her that Judy had NOT had a heart attack; rather, it was an arrhythmia caused from the fluid buildup, and from congestive heart failure. He said that the heart muscle is hardening, which is making things worse. They are playing a balancing act with fluids. Her kidneys are shutting down so they need to keep fluids going but not too much because of the fluid buildup around her heart. He said at the moment she is experiencing multiple system failures, which makes her too unstable to move at the moment.

After the doctor left last night, Judy had a bad bout with serious pain. The nurses said that it is the worst episode yet. They gave her morphine in a tablet form which took a lot of time to kick in. Judy kept repeating "now and at the hour of our death" which is the last line of the Hail Mary. The nurse said that she did not understand why the doctor had not ordered IV pain meds since they act so much faster.

Although we knew she was in the hospital, we had no idea that it was as serious as it is.

Vickie has camped out over there in her room until she has a chance to discuss what's going on with each of her doctors today. 

It's fortunate that Mark did NOT go back to work as scheduled.  He would be seriously disturbed if he was not able to stay with Judy if things get worse.

Please keep her in your thoughts.