Vasculitis

I just got a call from my mother. The kidney doctor called, and said that he was pretty certain that my grandmother has vasculitis. They wanted my mother’s permission to test some of the fluids from my grandmother’s lungs. The doctor also wanted permission to start treatment which he called plasmapheresis. My understanding is that the treatment is similar or is chemotherapy. According to Web MD the treatment that the doctor was referring to would to be to give her chemotherapeutic drugs (steroids) to suppress the abnormal immune response that that has led to the blood vessel damage. My mother told him to proceed with the test but do not start the treatment until we know for sure. The good news is that Web MD has a section on the, “Outlook for People with Vasculitis.” It says that with treatment and careful follow ups, that people can live a normal life span.

My Grandmother

The doctors do not know what is causing my grandmother to be so ill. They can’t run any test because she is not stable enough. Her kidneys are failing, and her lungs are filling with fluids. When we went to visit the other night, they had her on forced air. Her heart rate was up to 120 to 123. She was struggling so hard to breath. The doctors explained to everyone that it’s like trying to run a marathon for her. She looked terrified. She kept throwing her hands into the air, and then back down as if she had no energy at all. The horrifying scene affected the entire family. I think we all broke down that night. We just didn’t understand how or why this could be happing, and we felt completely helpless. The doctors gave my grandmother some sort of medication to sedate her, and another to paralyze her. They inserted a breathing tube. The next night I went to the hospital she looked more peaceful. She wasn’t struggling to breathe, however they did have to insert a swan ganz heart catheter. The doctors said that she may be able to hear us talking but of course, she would be able to respond or move. I found out later on Friday after my last post, that my grandmother had an episode where she coded for 2 minutes. They were able to bring her back with simple chest compressions.

I called the hospital this morning to check on my grandmother. Her nurse told me that they are trying to take her off of some of the oxygen to see if she can maintain her stats. She also said that they are lowering her blood pressure medication. So far she has been able to keep her blood pressure stable. The chest x-rays are still showing fluid on the lungs. They are going to continue her on the dialysis prism machine until they get her blood pressure back up. They were able to pull some of the fluids out of her body; so that reduced some of her swelling. At this time they had no other plans to run any more test to try to find out where or what is causing this illness

Update

It’s been some time since my last post and I,m going to do my best to get all caught up. I’m currently posting from my blackberry that Dax gave to me, since he purchased a new white pearl. I love this phone! I’m having trouble going back through the paragraphs to get to a particular word, but I’m sure there is away to do it.

Ok, enough of my rambling. Dax and I recently went to see Captured by Robots. Awesome show! J-bot is very energetic and extremely talented. The show is hard to explain, it’s something that you really have too see for yourself.

I sprained my ankle 2 weeks ago. Dax and I were riding our bikes and a big horse fly tried to get me. Instead of letting him just bite me, I tried to waive him away, and ended up falling over. We were pretty far from home too. I almost fainted from the pain and shock. My foot and ankle has turned at least 3 shades of black, blue, and purple.

My grandmother became ill sometime last week. She went to see her doctor. The Doctor made nothing of it, and sent her off with some meds. My mom called me on Saturday morning to let me know that grandma was really sick. She wanted me to come over so that she could go home and freshen up. When I got there my grandmother expressed to me how bad she really felt. Early Sunday morning my dad called me to let me know that she was in the hospital, and it was real bad. Her liver and kidneys were failing. On top of that her heart had also started to have problems, and her lungs kept filling up with fluids. The doctors have been able to stabilize her for the past 2 days, so that’s a good sign. As soon as she becomes more stable they should be able to run some test to see what is causing her illness.

That’s all for now.