Keeping up with Haager's

Well, I have been following Emily's hospital care blog, religiously, and was worried for a bit, when I didn't see anything. Low and Behold, when I checked it this evening, there she was. The blog I had been waiting for. I guess that's what happens when you are in different time zones, things take longer to be posted. But that's cool.

Here's the latest on Emily and her journey:

A Day of Healing

Sorry for taking so long to send out an update. I hope you weren't worried. It has been a busy day. Everyone on Team Emily has returned to work at least part time, so it is sometimes hard to post when we are splitting time between work and hospital. All is well with Emily. We can all breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Emily had a lot of pain today from her large abdominal incision, but she is really doing well. You may recall that they did not close the wound in order to let the swelling go down. If they had closed the incision, the swelling would have pushed against the lungs and reduced her capacity to breathe. Leaving it open allows the lungs to expand. She has had a wound-vac bandage covering the incision. This is a special bandage with drains coming from it. It keeps the site sterile and pulled together, while draining fluid from inside.

Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning (Tuesday). In the OR, they will determine whether the swelling has diminished enough to close the wound. If so, they will clean it out and then close the incision. If not, they will clean it out and put another wound-vac on it. We are hoping and praying that they are able to close it. That would mean that Emily can return to the business of healing and getting up and around.

While Emily is in the OR, the trach surgery team will replace her makeshift trach, a tube used in surgery, with a custom-fitted new trach. This will give her more ability to return to sitting up and getting stronger because the surgical tube requires her to be very still.

The good news of today is that her lungs are doing much better. The doctors reported that a current x-ray shows much less infection and the white blood count is much lower than a week ago. We are delighted with this news.

Today has also been a day of talking with Emily. The sedation from last week has finally worn off and she is much more cognizant of what is happening. She asked us to tell her everything that she could not remember, so we have filled in the blanks for her. She learned of the Code Blues, the stomach surgery and the plans for transplant. We unfolded the story for her slowly and tried to help her digest it. It is still a bit frustrating for her to mouth words and depend on our lip-reading.

Once she can sit up, she will be able to write or keyboard. She is overwhelmed with this knowledge. As I read the Care Pages to her, she became fully aware of how many of you are checking in on her, encouraging her and praying. This also caused her to tear up.

She is blessed beyond measure by the love and support she has received.

Thanks to you all for your continued encouragement.

Em, we are all here for you.

for more information on Cystic Fibrosis, please visit the following web sites...

www.ccff.ca

www.cysticfibrosis.net

www.cysticfibrosis.com

To read more about Emily's story, or follow her blog you can see it at the addresses listed below:

www.journeywithem.blogspot.com
www.carepages.com/carepages/emilyhaager

Thanks!
Ali