Hope Notes from Krista and Mike

Each day has been bringing us more and more progress. Krista was given a swallowing test and was set free to eat broth, jello, and italian ice on her own. Since she's doing so good, they are going to stop the nutrition drip after this bag runs out.

Reducing liquids is important at this point because they would like to take her off the continuous dialysis machine and "graduate" her to a single-pass dialysis machine. That would allow her to be disconnect most of the time, and possibly to begin physical therapy to strengthen her up for discharge.

Her white blood count is up to 0.4. They are pretty sure that grafting has taken place, but they can't make it official until they are able to count the neutrophils in the white blood. The lab machines aren't able to make a good count of those until the total white blood count gets to around 0.5. At this rate, we should get to that tomorrow.

She seems to be in a pretty constant platelet pattern: in the morning they're "low" (26,000 today), and in the evening they're "dangerous" (7,000 right now -- platelet transfusion should be coming soon). I saw Marilyn Siebert and Catherine Marton briefly after they donated platelets (and brought me cookie bars), and I understand that there's another caravan coming down tomorrow. Thank you all for keeping that emergency supply available!

Krista's still taking Lactulose because her ammonia level came up a little this morning. Lactulose is an oral syrup, and she doesn't like taking it because it irritates her mouth sores. They keep saying that her liver is doing much better, but it may take some time to get everything back to normal.

My mother came up for the day to bring some laundry and to give me a break while she stayed with Krista. I managed to get a much needed nap and a shower and go to the nearby Whole Foods to pick up a big pizza, thanks to an incredible gift card from the Constantine, Parson, Detwiler, Newhart, and Johnson families. Thanks so much for the very thoughtful gift (of which there is plenty more left on it)! Glen and Janelle (Krista's mother) also made it to Malibu (coming from Denver) in their 34-foot RV and jeep out. It sounded like a treacherous drive down Las Virgenes, but they made it safely and even had time left over to make a quick visit to the hospital. They're planning on being here for a couple of weeks at least, so it will be good to see them more frequently. We are so grateful to friends and family who have been pouring out their love to us.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
(1 John 4:11-12)