Eme is dumping like crazy.  Her normal output is roughly 500-600 mls per day & today she had over 1,000 mls in the first 8 hours alone.  Stool tests returned positive yesterday for the Norwalk type II virus.  This is the same infection she’s been battling for months.  I asked Dr. M why her body can’t rid it.  He said he recently attended a conference with the nation’s leading expert on Norwalk.  She said there is evidence to suggest this virus can live forever in an immune compromised host.  Yep… forever… the rest of her life.  Unfortunately that is extremely distressing news for Emerson on account of her Addison ’s disease.  Dumping throws her into a crisis, every time.  It’s a very vicious cycle.

I was told this team has never had a transplant patient with Addison’s.  I’ll say it again – ** she needs an endocrinologist **!!!  They did, however, finally get word back from the one they consulted & he suggested increasing her IV cortisol from 3 times a day to 4 times a day.  As of last night that seemed to be helping, but today’s events change everything. 

Her peripheral IV infiltrated this morning & she required a series of shots around the site to prevent cell death under the skin.

All feeds have been stopped and she’s going down for central line placement.

Oh…. & her UTI is back with a vengeance. 

Another one of those days – she won’t be going anywhere anytime soonL.  And she did so well last week.  I’m thinking we need to move to Disney World… permanently!