A bit of an update on my Aussie friend :)

Thank you all for your wonderful prayers and support.

It's been a long month but I am pleased to be able to make some happy announcements.

Deb has regained consciousness and is responding well to current treatments. She's not out of the woods yet and there is still alot unknown but each day there is positive progress.

As I last posted, she had suffered from a stroke after severely high fevers while battling a horrendous viral infection while being treated for her 4th bout of leukemia. Because of the stroke, dialysis was discontinued. Dialysis had been needed to help her kidneys filter out toxins. She has been on dialysis since her 3rd round of leukemia though it wasn't an every day thing nor was a kidney transplant imminently needed. Anyway, this last round of leukemia also caused some liver damage. Several ducts in her liver had gotten clogged and thus, her liver was also backing toxins up in her body. The stroke left her too unstable to continue the dialysis as dialysis can often cause lower blood pressures which could lead to more strokes.

Since the stroke, she'd pretty much been in an unconscious state and not really responding at all during her daily medical assessments. The time came when the medical team felt that they really had done everything they could without getting some authorization from someone for more treatment or to discontinue treatment. They finally had to call in her estranged husband for an evaluation meeting/treatment planning session.

This apparently caused him to finally understand what a jerk he has been since the pregnancy with their son. He went to visit with the children and poured his heart out to Deb's friend that he was a class a jerk and didn't deserve Deb and he didn't want her to die. He still wasn't sure if he wanted his affair to be over but he didn't want to lose Deb to death without working to figure that one out. Deb's friend advised him to go and tell Deb that. Well, he chickened out of the meeting with the doctors and assessment team on the 1st day he was to go in and meet with them but he did turn up at Deb's hospital bedside and cried and poured his heart out to her for more than 3 hours. I guess he then went home and thought (and possibly prayed) about what decisions he would need to be making concerning Deb.

Mind you, at this time, she had been in a vegetative state for most of a month without really responding that she knew who she was or that she had children etc. She couldn't receive chemo because her condition was too unstable, she was not able to have dialysis for the same reason. She was however, fever free for the last week and at times seemed agitated. She's also allergic to morphine and other high power pain relief meds and therefore, not able to get relief from some of her basic pains. Her stroke had left damage to her motor controls especially on the left side of her body.

Her hubby finally found the courage to meet with the medical team on the 2nd day after they initially requested the meeting. At that time, he was basically told that they weren't sure if there was lasting damage from the stroke or not since she hadn't become conscious but that they couldn't treat the liver or kidney issues because of the risk of further strokes etc. They didn't feel that there was anything left they could medically do other than either continue trying to offer her comfort and keep her alive on life support machines or discontinue the life support machines and feeding tubes and let her eventually pass on. Her husband wasn't ready to make that kind of a decision. He instead asked for a second opinion.

Experts were called in the next day to do an assessment and they too couldn't be sure if Deb was still with us or not. They offered 2 additional options. 1, do surgery on the liver to remove the blockages from the ducts and see what happens; and 2, do the liver surgery AND restart the dialysis and see if removing toxic buildup from her system from both would bring Deb out of her coma state.

He fretted and prayed about it. He spoke to Deb about it. He spoke to Deb's childhood friend about it and asked for her help in making the decision. Both wavered. They really weren't ready to say goodbye to Deb especially with the children to think of but they didn't want to put her thru surgery and thus prolong her life if she would only continue to live in a vegetative state for her remaining years. And both options ran the risk of more strokes or other complications like bleeding and even possible death. After much deliberation, they decided to okay the liver only surgery and see what happens.

Surgery went off with little complications. A blessing in itself. There were a few tricky moments but they had been prepared for ahead by the medical teams and overcome during the surgery. 2 shunts were put in the liver to redirect the blocked ducts to outside the body to eliminate the toxins. Surgery was completed Thursday afternoon. Deb remained stable thru out the surgery and into the night. Toward morning, one of the ICU nurses noticed movement from Deb. She opened her eyes and really focused on where she was. She became agitated and appeared to be trying to talk. Doctors were called in and an assessment was done. She was asked some simple yes and no questions and she answered each question correctly with 1 blink for yes and 2 for no.

The childhood friend was called in to come to the hospital as it was apparent that Deb was trying to say something but getting agitated at not being understood. However, Deb was sleeping when her friend arrived. She did however awaken several more times and continue to communicate to both the medical staff and her friend that she knew who she was, where she was etc. She seems to have full motor funtion on her right side. Doctors believe that the surgery on the liver helped remove dangerous toxins from her brain that was causing her to be tired, sleepy, lethargic, and confused all the time. They decided that with the improved stability Deb was exhibiting from the removal of the liver toxins, that it might would be better to continue with the dialysis after all and see if removing MOST of the toxins backed up in her body would help her to continue to rally round.

Again, the dialysis carries risk of stroke. It's not 100%. Deb had her first 2 hour dialysis treatment yesterday afternoon. She remained stable thruout and medical staff was watching extra close for any blood pressure drops etc and were prepared to stop the treatment immediately. She is still very weakened and tires easily. The current plan is to continue the dialysis every other day or so gradually increasing it to a full 5 hour run to remove the toxins built up in her system.

She still isnt' able to communicate on her own and can still only answer yes and no type questions but she is remaining conscious and awake for longer periods of time each day since her liver surgery. There is renewed hope that she will not yet pass away from this cancer she is battling or it's many complications.

The only sad news has been that her daughter caught chicken pox about 5 days before her son's 1st birthday. The children had been brought in to visit their mum the day before the pox broke out in the daughter. They are sure the little boy will develop the infection too since he was exposed during the incubation period. They are also worried that Deb too will develop it as she has no immunity from anything at this time and her immune system is so badly compromised. We continue to pray that she doesn't catch it or any other viral infections for the time being until her body can be more stable to help her fight things off.

Her friend is also having to leave her and the children at this time to go and offer support to her own sister who has been diagnosed with breast cancer and is starting radiation and chemotherapy this week. Their mom died from breast cancer when the girls were children - about 11 to 13 yrs of age. Her sister has 2 children as well though they are several years older than Deb's children. And while her sister's husband is there to offer support etc, he too will need the support while his wife battles cancer.

The plan is for now that her friend will spend 1/2 a week with her sister then fly back to Deb's side and nurse her and care for her children then return to her sister once more and continue this for at least the next few weeks.

Please continue to keep them all in your prayers and thoughts.

I expressed to Deb's friend and to my dear husband that my belief is that Heavenly Father isn't ready to call Deb home or there would have been many complications during the operation to repair her liver. I feel that her recovery thus far is His way of saying "Well done My faithful servant. Your time is not now." I just feel that if He felt that we were doing too much playing gods in our efforts to help her recover that He would have taken her home into His loving embrace. I feel that He has her firmly wrapped in His arms and is guiding the medical team as they continue to treat her illness.

Thank Thee Oh Heavenly Father for Thy rich and bountious blessings.