Some of you may remember me. I have posted stories of some of the children I take care of at our local Hospital and I have run across another one that touches the heart.
I tried to post this earlier but was unable to post her story online due to the restrictions placed. Once I get the number of posts needed to post the links to Chelseys story and her guest book so others can leave their prayers and words of encouragement I will just copy her story here. Note her story is outdated because the rest is on her journal which I can't post the links to.
Chelsey entered the hospital on Feb 14, and was placed in ICU on March 7th. She moved out of the ICU to the Acute ward on April 9th. She is still very ill but is beginning to make daily progress. We have begun the process of locating a suitable rehab hospital and look forward to getting out of UNMH sometime in the near future.
Her current diagnosis (March 26): Chelsey contracted the influenza "B" virus and developed a very severe case of rhabdomyosis, a rapid degeneration of skeletal muscle tissue. This is monitored by taking a blood test for CPK levels (a muscle protein). The normal range for a persons CPK level is in the hundreds. Chelsey's level at the onset of her condition was 30,000. This basically caused a near 100% paralysis of her skeletal muscles. The main concern in the beginning was saving her kidneys and liver, the two organs most overworked when all these extra proteins get dumped into the bloodstream and need to be removed. To help this they pumped her full of fluids, she began to look like the Michelin tire man. They were also treating her with steroids. This had an immediate affect and we thought we were on the right track. However, after a week of treatment her numbers stabilized between 12 and 15 thousand. Then on the night of March the 7th she stopped breathing and her heart stopped. She was gone for about two minutes. The doctors (a lot of doctors and other people) were able to bring her back to us. It was a very traumatic and scary moment for dad, who was with her when it happened and was the one sounded the alarm. It was also hard on her brother Adam who was coming to relieve dad and walked in on the middle of the "code blue." Because of the muscle trauma to her throat and neck, they could not intibate her through her mouth. Once they had her stable, she was taken down to the O.R. where she underwent a tracheotomy. She was moved up to the ICU and we all had a long two-day wait before they could determine that her brain was not damaged due to the loss of oxygen during her episode. They say that there is a silver lining to every dark cloud, and ours was the fact that the doctors went back to the drawing board to see what else might be happening. That is when they discovered that she has Dermatomyositis, which is an autoimmune disease, which causes your immune system to attack your own body. She has already received chemo, continues to receive steroids, and has an IVIG treatment. They also sent some of her blood to Oklahoma to a special lab that will help tell us how her disease and recovery will progress, something of a timeline apparently. Finally, she has also had to have fluid drained from around her heart twice. This has absolutely nothing to do with either of her other two conditions, so the doctors are once again looking for another possible problem. Chelsey is improving every day; her latest CPK count was around 2400 (March 24th). She is currently not able to move around because of the catheter in her heart sac that is draining the latest fluid. On Monday they will remove that and she can start trying to go for rides in her special chair again.
I tried to post this earlier but was unable to post her story online due to the restrictions placed. Once I get the number of posts needed to post the links to Chelseys story and her guest book so others can leave their prayers and words of encouragement I will just copy her story here. Note her story is outdated because the rest is on her journal which I can't post the links to.
Chelsey entered the hospital on Feb 14, and was placed in ICU on March 7th. She moved out of the ICU to the Acute ward on April 9th. She is still very ill but is beginning to make daily progress. We have begun the process of locating a suitable rehab hospital and look forward to getting out of UNMH sometime in the near future.
Her current diagnosis (March 26): Chelsey contracted the influenza "B" virus and developed a very severe case of rhabdomyosis, a rapid degeneration of skeletal muscle tissue. This is monitored by taking a blood test for CPK levels (a muscle protein). The normal range for a persons CPK level is in the hundreds. Chelsey's level at the onset of her condition was 30,000. This basically caused a near 100% paralysis of her skeletal muscles. The main concern in the beginning was saving her kidneys and liver, the two organs most overworked when all these extra proteins get dumped into the bloodstream and need to be removed. To help this they pumped her full of fluids, she began to look like the Michelin tire man. They were also treating her with steroids. This had an immediate affect and we thought we were on the right track. However, after a week of treatment her numbers stabilized between 12 and 15 thousand. Then on the night of March the 7th she stopped breathing and her heart stopped. She was gone for about two minutes. The doctors (a lot of doctors and other people) were able to bring her back to us. It was a very traumatic and scary moment for dad, who was with her when it happened and was the one sounded the alarm. It was also hard on her brother Adam who was coming to relieve dad and walked in on the middle of the "code blue." Because of the muscle trauma to her throat and neck, they could not intibate her through her mouth. Once they had her stable, she was taken down to the O.R. where she underwent a tracheotomy. She was moved up to the ICU and we all had a long two-day wait before they could determine that her brain was not damaged due to the loss of oxygen during her episode. They say that there is a silver lining to every dark cloud, and ours was the fact that the doctors went back to the drawing board to see what else might be happening. That is when they discovered that she has Dermatomyositis, which is an autoimmune disease, which causes your immune system to attack your own body. She has already received chemo, continues to receive steroids, and has an IVIG treatment. They also sent some of her blood to Oklahoma to a special lab that will help tell us how her disease and recovery will progress, something of a timeline apparently. Finally, she has also had to have fluid drained from around her heart twice. This has absolutely nothing to do with either of her other two conditions, so the doctors are once again looking for another possible problem. Chelsey is improving every day; her latest CPK count was around 2400 (March 24th). She is currently not able to move around because of the catheter in her heart sac that is draining the latest fluid. On Monday they will remove that and she can start trying to go for rides in her special chair again.
's & 
's
