"We Love Andrea" was created to update Andrea's friends as she went through a difficult journey. After her second heart transplant when her pulse began to speed up she was given a pacemaker, then a Heart Mate II or LVAD. She was in the Stollery Children's Hospital, then the Mazankowski heart unit in Edmonton, Alberta for 7 months. However, she peacefully died on May 11, 2011 when the rest of her heart and other organs could handle the strain no longer. If you come to this blog, pray for her family and friends, remember to tell your friends you love them, then sign your organ donor card.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Down a Little But No Liver Damage


Don't quite know what to report tonight, no big improvements really, the setback was that she has some pulmonary edema meaning that fluid is collecting in the tissues surrounding her lungs a bit, so they resumed dialysis late afternoon yesterday.  Otherwise it seems that her digestive system is going along fairly well, she seems to us that she is a bit stronger, her hands are not so shaky, when she sat up on the edge of her bed this morning she appeared stronger.  She still is having a lot of pain when they reposition her or make her situp.  Weaning her from the ventilator is somewhat delayed because of the fluid build up in her lungs, so today she was not on the speaker valve at all.  Hopefullly tomorrow she will have improved enough that the speaker valve can be used for a few hours at least.  All along the biggest concern of all besides the heart has been the liver, and they have been wondering about it because that is one organ they cannot do anything about, it will have to heal on it's own.  Today she had a liver ultrasound and they found nothing abnormal, no dilated blood vessels or plugged ones either, they could see that the gall bladder seems irritated and the duct from it still has sludge in it.  That could explain why her bilirubin is so slow to come down, the last few days it went up again, but it could be the TPN which they discontinued today.  Time alone will tell wht happens but it seems like a tentative indicator that her liver showed nothing too abnormal.  Well it is time for some sleep so goodnight.
 
Regards, Maynard
 

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