Kim

Well, we had quite a scare for the past 24 hours! Kim was diagnosed with Mercer. It is a blood disease that is quite contagious and is passed between patients, usually by health care workers. It can quickly cause death if not treated in a timely fashion. There are only about 5 antibiotics that can be used effectively against Mercer because it is very resistant to ordinary treatments. Kim was allergic to the antibiotic that she was given (do we really expect anything less or for things to go smoothly?). She was quickly put into the ICU, in isolation. They removed her pic line and started regular IV lines for her fluids and insulin and other treatments. Removing the pic line is very traumatic for Kim because she needs it in order to receive her IV fluids every night and without the fluids she ends up being hospitalize 3 out of seven days! Fast forward to around 9:00 a.m. today. They were mistaken; she doesn't have Mercer, she has a staff infection. Staff infections can be very bad but they are infinitely more treatable than Mercer. They are now able to treat the infection with an antibiotic that doesn't cause an allergic reaction. Their reason for the misdiagnosis is that Kim's inability to have stable, non-fluctuating, blood pressure and debilitating weakness are a major side effect for Mercer. Now they need to find out what's causing the low blood pressure and weakness. These guessing games as to how to treat her are getting old.

Thanks for listening,
Liv