ups & downs

Dea has had a rough ride here at Mayo so far. things started out well enough. we were doing all her treatments as outpatient, making all of our meetings, walking around downtown a bit, eating out, just feeling good in general.

late Thursday night, however, she came down with a fever. they admitted her the next morning with a temp of over 104 degrees. her catheter was infected- again. we have battled infections with the catheter before, which has resulted in four last minute trips to Anchorage in the past year to have it replaced. the type of catheter that Dea has for dialysis isn't designed to be permanent, and is proving to be a real problem. we've put off having it replaces (at the direction of her doctors) because we have been so close to a transplant on separate occasions.

she is beginning to feel better, but this setback has everyone a little tense. she had an ultrasound today on her arm to look at the options of a different style catheter, and tomorrow a procedure to examine her heart to evaluate any further serious infection. she's still in the hospital and getting antibiotics via iv every six hours. the transplant team hopes to restart the treatment tomorrow.

as always, Dea is being strong. one of her brothers and his family came by on Saturday for a visit, and my parents, brother and his family, are in in town now. it's good to have them around.

i fly back to Fairbanks tomorrow afternoon, and Dea's mom will come in from Chicago tomorrow morning. we had expected to be over a significant hump, and into a positive routine treatment, by this time. it kills me to be getting on a plane tomorrow.