I am going to be using this to keep everyone up to date on Tricia and Natalie instead of trying to send out multiple emails. This is going to be easier on me instead of trying to do the multiple email lists as I am having some issues with emails getting bounced back.

Thanks for your understanding!

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May 11, 7:30 am

Well, we have been home a little over a week now.  Natalie is doing really well, and started back to school on Wednesday.  She is really enjoying it and comes home laughing, smiling, and wiped out.  She is so tired at night that she can hardly hold her head up!

Tricia is doing ok.  She is still getting up some at night in pain, and we went to the emergency room on Wednesday due to the pain.  The original abscess is gone, but they found a new one around her incision site that they were able to drain in her Doctors office.  It’s driving her crazy being down, but I think she understands that over time she will be getting her strength back and feeling more energy during the day.

She is an amazing woman, just to see how she has dealt with all of this is truly a blessing and an encouragement to me to keep going.  I’m not sure how she is doing it, other than through the support of all of the prayers and strength of God.

May 6, 2:45 pm

Tricia is doing a little better today. It seems that she is still having some pain with moving around, and especially when she gets into a coughing fit. She is resting better, and able to eat a little more each day.

Natalie is almost back to good health. Her cough is gone, for the most part, and she is really looking forward to getting back to school. We can tell when she gets bored with us and watching Phoebe running around, and I think she has hit that mark!

Thanks for all the prayers and support, and we still have a way to go (5 weeks at least) before things really return to the normal, hectic life that we lead.

May 2, 10:00 pm

Well, Tricia finally got to come home this afternoon. She is resting comfortably now, and has several medications, and a few long roads ahead. She can’t lift anything over 15 pounds for the next 6 weeks, and will have several follow-up doctors appointments. She is happy to be home.

Natalie is doing better, and still coughing some from the pneumonia, so we are still working on that. I think she is definately ready to get back to school!

Thank you all for the prayers and support for her and Natalie both during this tough time. We couldn’t have made it without them, and each of you!

May 1, 9:00 pm

Natalie is doing pretty good at home so far. There was a couple of episodes of some vomiting, but I think she just wasn’t up to her normal amount of feeds yet. She still has the cruddy cough from the pneumonia, so trying to keep her coughing it up is rough. She also has needed a couple of breathing treatments to help clear her lungs and breathing.

Tricia is doing better, with her drain tube from her surgery now removed. She also is off of her pain pump. She has had a rough day today, however, and has needed some heavier than normal pain medicine. Her CAT scan that she had done this morning is showing something unusual, but we aren’t for certain yet what it means, so say some prayers. We will hopefully find out some more in the morning when her G.I. doctor comes in and checks on her.

We are hoping she can come home on Wednesday, but aren’t sure yet. I’ll try to updated in the morning when I know more.

April 29, 6:00 pm

Tricia is doing much better, and has had the tube to her stomach removed. She is also on a clear liquid diet now, which consists of jello and chicken broth. Her pain levels are somewhat regulated, and she says it is more tender than pain at this point when she is moving around and walking some.

Natalie is doing pretty good at home. She has had a couple of vomiting episodes today, so not sure what is going on there. She is still really chest congested, so it might be related.

April 28, 9:00 am

Natalie is going to be going home this morning! We are waiting on the doctors to make their rounds, and they are sending us home! She will be on antibiotics for a few more days at home, and getting some more rest, but she has been all smiles and laughs since 4 am this morning.

Tricia had a restful night, and is going to be attempting to get up and move around some today. We will see how her pain levels are today, and hopefully she will be coming home on Tuesday or Wednesday.

April 27, 6:00 pm
Great news! Natalie will more than likely be going home tomorrow! She will be on an antibiotic for several days, and out of school to recover while we watch her at home. She is smiling, laughing and I think ready to to get home.

Tricia is having some problems at this time with the pain. They had to call the Doctors in, the anesthesiologist back up and are trying to get her comfortable now. I’m not too sure what else is going on there, but pray for her please.

April 27, 12:30 pm

Natalie is doing much better this morning. Her levels are almost down to normal for the pancreatitis, she is off of her I.V. fluids, but still has a cough. We are hoping that they will send her home on Saturday with antibiotics to continue to fight the pneumonia.

Tricia is doing ok, with a long first night of recovery over with. There were multiple checks on her, blood work, and vital signs taken. She is in some pain, but not as much as she expected. But, she hasn’t been up moving around yet, either. They have discontinued the pain pump she was on, as the medication was causing her to itch really bad, and will be giving her another medication for pain. She is supposed to be getting up out of bed today, and begin to move around to really start the healing process.

Tricia will probably be in the hospital until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, depending on how the recovery goes.

Thank you for all the prayers and support during this most trying time! I personally don’t know how I have gotten through this with Tricia and Natalie in the hospital. I just know that there has been a calm about myself that everything will be all right. There is only one place that that calmness could have come from, God.

Please continue to pray for Tricia and Natalie to get stronger each day, and recover in timely fashion so that we can return to somewhat of a “normal” life.

April 26, 5:15 pm

Tricia is finally back in her room. The surgery was delayed by about 1 1/2 hours due to another case running over. The actual surgery only lasted about 1 hour. The doctor took out a tennis ball size abcess from her soax (not sure of the spelling) muscle, and about 8 inches of affected intestine, including her appendix. He said the rest looked to be in great shape, and took the appendix as it was attached to part of the Crohn’s affected intestine. They also put in a drain tube from the abcess area to allow for healing, and a tube into her stomach to keep intestinal pressure from building up.

Tricia is resting comfortably in the room now, pretty doped up and groggy, and looking pretty rough. I can tell she is still pretty groggy just by the number of times she asked the same questions, but I don’t mind answering her each time. She is going to be down in bed today, and begin the recovery venture tomorrow by sitting up some.

Natalie is doing much better today as well. She began to get small feeds of her formula, and is going to stay on I.V. antibiotics until at least Friday night. Then if her temperature and vitals are o.k., they will repeat an x-ray to check on her pneumonia and possibly send her home on Saturday!

I am on dial-up here at the hospital with Tricia, so I will attempt another update later tonight. God bless each of you for the thoughts, prayers, visits, and calls during this tough time. We will make it through this, and your support for us has made it possible. God’s love and grace has enabled us, through you, to get this far.

April 26, 7:00 am

Natalie had a long night, with several blood tests, and an ultrasound. The doctors have been kind of worried about what has kept her temperature lower than normal, and her heart rate and oxygen sats low. She has pneumonia (moderate) on her left side, and that was the reason for the ultrasound and chest x-ray during the night. They were wanting to check it and see if anything had changed from the one on Wednesday. The blood work also showed that her pancreas level was down to below 1,000, which is really good, but still a little more to go. She was also given Lasix to help pull some of the fluid off of her as she was getting a little puffy, and that is definately working overtime now with her.

Tricia’s surgery is scheduled for around 11:30 this morning, so please say some prayers for her as this will keep her down for awhile. We aren’t sure exactly what they will be doing as far as the extent of it, and won’t know until after the surgery.

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April 25, 6:00 pmNatalie has been sleeping all day. We were wondering if she was just liking the morphine for pain from the pancreatitis, or what. Well, she also had this little cough, so they ordered a chest x-ray for her. Little stinker has pneumonia too. Not sure what brought this on, but most of her left side is affected. Her breathing is good, and you couldn’t tell by looking at her, but here come the antibiotics now.

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April 25, 2:00 pmTricia’s surgery is scheduled for 11:30 on Thursday morning at St. Luke in Florence. They are going to take care of the abcess and remove the portion of bowel that is affected by the Crohn’s disease. This will take about 6 weeks of recovery time, so please pray for her quick healing and recovery.

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April 25, 9:50 amI just heard that from the results of Tricia’s colonoscopy this morning, they want to do a blood transfusion and then surgery. I don’t have many details as of yet, particularly when they want to do the surgery, so please check back and pray for her as she is really upset right now. Also, Natalie is still improving, with her levels from this morning being around 1300, which is down from the 7800 or so that they were yesterday. They want her to continue to rest today, and hopefully start on some light feeds tomorrow, pending her levels in the morning.

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