July 31 PM

Since Yahoo email was giving me guff for sending out so many email updates on Denise, I just started up a blog for her instead. Computer geek that I am, I can't believe I didn't think of this first. Make use of the comment feature to contribute your knowledge and encouragement.

She's still in critical condition, but steps in the right direction came later in the afternoon.

Denise's blood pressure was high enough that they stopped the blood pressure medication. They have to watch her, but we hope that she can maintain adequate blood pressure.
They turned her oxygen concentration from 80% this morning down to 65% by the time I left. Hopefully, her body will tolerate that. My understanding is that too rich an oxygen mixture can be bad.

On the down side, her platelet count was 18 so they couldn't do the lumbar puncture to see if there are some nasty bugs in the spinal fluid (hope there's no menengitis). They also couldn't do the D&C to clean her up from the labor. Both procedures run the risk of bleeding.
Also, she has a lot of swelling. They have been giving her a drug that helps her kidneys get rid of fluid in the bloodstream. But today they started her on Albumin, which I think is supposed to help get fluid out of cells so the swelling can go down. And her blood sugar was lower than what they wanted to see.

One of our friends told me that Denise is treating this healing process like a dance (she LOVES to dance). There are pauses here & there, back's to the audience sometimes, bursts of movement all of a sudden... That was a nice way to think of things today. Also, Denise's dad read day 25 of the Purpose Driven Life book. That chapter was about trouble, and it was perfect for today. I read it to Denise. Then when done, I put the iPod on her so she could listen to some Ella Fitzgerald music for a while. One of the nurses came in from another part of the hospital to say that everyone's thoughts & prayers are with Denise... very encouraging to hear that so many people care.

Thanks for the visits today! Our friend Kristen bought a journal for Denise and left it in her room. If you swing by the hospital, be sure to jot your name down there, and anything else you like!

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