Hi guys,
I’m in a little better moodthis evening so I thought I’d update you on today’s news. Yesterday was a very bad day and I took the news of the bacteria very hard. But I’m back to my old self today and I’m looking for the positive things to hang on to.

She is in very critical condition right now, but even with that there are a few positives. They have been able to ween her off of one of the Blood pressure meds and are begining to ween her off of the other. So her blood pressure is stabalizing. Her temp. is also doing better. They have to keep her on a warming mat to keep her temp up, but while she is on it her temp is normal. Also they did an MRI on her head last night and it showed nothing new from her older MRI. There is still a little swelling on her brain, but no significent damage.
They took a look into her lungs today with a scope and found that she didn’t have to much fluid in them. The little fluid they did find they suctioned out and will have the labs look at them.

Dr. Millius, who is the resident on the primary team that works with Tammy, has been very good to us and is great to talk to to get information in plain english. He was very hopefull this morning that this new antibiotic and the other things they are doing will work.

Tammy has a long tough road ahead of her. It has been a hard climb from the beginning, and with this setback just got steeper. But we are in it for the long haul. Thanks for all of the comments today guys. It really helps to pull me through.

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Hi all,
My news isn’t so good this evening. Tammy has had a major setback in her recovery and the odds of her making it have been greatly reduced. A very aggressive bacteria has developed in Tammy’s lungs. It is resistant to all of the antibiotics they have been giving her. They are going to try an older antbiotic that is rearly used anymore as a last resort. They are also going back in time and trying treatments from the 1920’s before there were antibiotics. Things aren’t looking to good.

These problem started to show themselves on Wed. as they tried to take her off of the antibiotics and her temp. began to rise right away. They knew then that something was going on. By Thurs. her respiratory had started to become a problem. By Fri. her respiratory rate had risen to the mid to high 30s. Normaly it was in the 18-20 range. By Sat. Night it had risen into the low 50s and they put her back under sedation and back on the ventilator. She also had a constant temp of 102 on Sat. By Sun. her temp had returned to normal, but on Sun. night it dropped to low, and she was on the verge of hypothermia. By this morning they had her temp back to normal.

We recieved the news of the bacteria today after the Infectious Disease Specialist reviewed her case. I also talked to her liver doctor and it appears that she may not be able to come completely out of her coma. After talking to his mentor, an 80 year old liver specialist who still works, Dr. Runyon believes that there is an underlying cause for her not coming out of the coma. And he believes that she may be in a cylcle that looks like she’s coming out of it, only to go back into it a few days later. Does that make sense? I can’t explain it very well. He said that when a patient gets into a cyle like this, they rarely come out of it.

So does anybody have a huge miracle we can use? We really need it now. We also need all of the prayers and positive vibes you guys can give us.
I will keep you guys updated. And once again, thank you for all of your support.

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Hi guys,
Tammy is about the same as she has been. She is awake about 3-4 hours while we are at the hospital and is getting more movements down. I’d say that she isn’t moving quite as much as she was about 4-5 days ago though. At that time she was moving her head a lot more than she is now and she was begining to move her arms and shoulders. It seems that she has slipped back in her movements, but it also seems that she is moving to our command more. So maybe it’s a trade off. Also, she is moving other things now too. She lifts her wrist and is moving her left foot and toes. It’s still slow going, but she’s getting there.

Didn’t get to see a doc today, so can’t really report anything from that front.

Tammy’s mom and I will be driving up to Bishop tomorrow so I can get my computer and a few other things from home. We also need a little break from the hospital. So I might not have any more updates for you until Thurs. or Fri.

Big storm on it’s way for the Sierra Wed. night through Friday. Up to 3 feet of snow forecast at the momment.

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Tammy is continuing to come back to us. It’s slow progress, but there is a little every day. Her liver doctor is concered that it is taking so long to come out of the coma. I guess it doesn’t normally take this long to come out of a Hepatic Coma. He is thinking that there is something else going on that’s keeping her down. They continue to run test to try to find the answer.
When you think about it, she has some of the top liver doctors in the country, if not the world, totaly stumped. I’m beginning to agree with them that something else has to be going on. Something out of the ordinary. Right now they are testing for Wilson’s Disease. With Wilson’s Disease your liver cannot process the copper in your body. So the copper builds up and can cause all kinds of problems. In half of the people with Wilson’s Disease it’s the liver that suffers the most damage. Dr. Runyon also said that this could be keeping her in the coma. We’ll see what the results from the test show.
They did some more blood cultures on her and they all came back negitive. So that means the original infection is now gone. But there is something going on that keeps giving her a slight fever. They’re searching for that too.

If you would like to send a card to Tammy you can send it to;

Tammy Bourelle
Loma Linda University Medical Center
11234 Anderson St
Loma Linda Ca 92354

They drop the cards off in her room for us.
Please don’t send flowers.
She can not have them while she is in ICU.

Once again, thanks to all of you that have commented and sent emails. It’s great to know that there are so many people out there pulling for us and thinking about us!!

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Tammy is still getting a little better each day. Today she had her eyes open for 1 hr 47 min. That’s a new record. She is also moving her fingers and hands. And from time to time her arms. Today she was also raising her eye brows a lot. Once when she coughed today her left foot moved. That’s the first a foot has moved.
She is still having some trouble with getting a temperature. This morning it was 101.8. They give her Tylenol and it goes back down to normal. The doctor is a little concerned with this and has ordered another anti biotic for her. She had been on three of them, they then went down to one, now she will be on two. He said today that for us a 101 temp isn’t much, but for her it is pretty high.

I have to tell you about yesterday. I was holding her right hand with my right hand on the bottom and my left hand on top. She looked down at my left hand. At first I thought she was looking at her stuffed bear i had gotten her, then I realized she was looking at my wedding ring. I lifted my hand and she followed the ring with her eyes. She then moved her head to the left and looked down at her left hand as if to ask where her ring was. I told her I couldn’t put her ring on because the nurses wouldn’t let me. I didn’t tell her that her ring is still in Bishop. It won’t be in Bishop to much longer though. It will be on the way here tomorrow. I can’t wait to show it to her when it gets here.

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