Good night & sleep tight!

Alison is just about ready to call it a night – the boot camp began as scheduled this afternoon as the UIHC staff got their lung transplant patient sitting up in a chair for more than an hour, and she enjoyed some Jell-O! They also had her walking twice.

When Mom Garvin remarked that she only seemed to be using 1 liter of oxygen, (it used to be about 6 minimum, and even 10 at times when she was hospitalized last November) they said, "we could probably take her off of it entirely." And so they did!

There was a huge smile on Alison's face when that cannula was removed and she can now rely solely on her new lungs to breathe!

Patient shown an image of her old lungs

Sorry so slow to post this morning folks! Have had several updates from Joleen about Alison's condition.

The patient didn't get her vent tube out until late morning, which did cause increased irritation in the patient as her parents - hard as they tried – couldn't read her writing on the clipboard. Hard for us to imagine. Your arms are in restraints to the side of your bed ... you're in a prone position so you can't very well see what you're writing ... Dad's holding the clipboard so Alison can try to write, but the clipboard must be moved to accommodate the length of her question and the letters start going on top of one another . . . the Garvins probably wouldn't win any prizes for charades either as they tried guessing what she wanted from her hand gestures. One message they did understand, "I love you," when the patient tried to put her hands together in the shape of a heart. It goes without saying the patient is THRILLED to have her voice to communicate again! The things we take for granted!

The docs showed Alison a picture of her old lungs. "It's no surprise she couldn't breathe," says her mom after viewing the image. Alison had been on oxygen 24/7 for a couple of months prior to the surgery and participating in pulmonary rehab at the local hospital up until being admitted to UIHC, Wednesday.

The patient also got the advisory, "Boot Camp starts soon!" Quite possibly, they'll remove enough IVs (she has many) so she can sit up this afternoon. Before that however, she was ready for a nap after all the exertion of getting the vent tube out and being given an epidural for pain.

The patient is asking questions on a clipboard

The transplant patient has come out of enough sedation to ask, "When do I get this (vent) tube out?"  The reply: possibly later tonight or maybe tomorrow. Questions are being asked via the lefthander writing on a clipboard. She has quite a lot of pain as her incision is horizontal across her chest, from side to side. The next two days continue to be critical for her.

The parental Garvins report Alison to have shown marked improvement just in the last couple of hours as she's also inquiring about when she can move to the 7th floor – what became her "home away from home" the last few yrs. during her frequent hospitalizations for cystic fibrosis at UIHC.

Your prayers are being heard and we kindly ask that you continue to think of our spunky Alison as she fights to meet the benchmarks being set for her.

Critical period has begun

Alison's parents finally got to see her for a few minutes. Although she is still very sedated & groggy, it was difficult for them to see their little girl in intensive care and still so critical. She has received a lot of donor blood. The surgeon reports the right lung was working at 68% capacity and the left lung, at 32%, which they were satisfied with, at this point.

The next 48 hours will be a critical time for Alison. Our entire family appreciates your emotional support and prayers.

Alison gets donor lungs!

Does my niece, Alison, ever know how to kick off the new year with a bang!! Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011 will be a day our family and friends will remember for years into the future because it will mark the day Alison got the call that donor lungs became available for transplant into her 23-year-old body.

Just before 4 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 6, Alison was wheeled into surgery to begin the process of receiving the donor lungs she hopes will provide her with a breath of life like she hasn't experienced in a number of years.

Shortly after 12 noon, Alison was brought out of surgery and into recovery. There was one complication during the procedure in that the blood vessels connected to her damaged left lung, had narrowed to the size of a pencil. When put in place, her new left lung struggled to pump blood through the too-small tissues. She was placed on a bypass machine until the surgeons were satisfied they could proceed with attaching her new donor lungs to her cardiovascular and pulmonary systems. We hope you'll join us in praying the donor lungs won't be rejected and the procedure will be successful.

We also pray for the donor family. We trust they will be comforted with the knowledge they have provided hope for several people in need of functioning organs like the lungs being transplanted into Alison, today.

The photo above was taken for the Garvin Christmas card, with Alison removing the cannula that provided her oxygen, just long enough for her Mom to snap three or four shots. The dog, Bella, is a new addition to the family, this summer.

Proud owner of a Kindle!

Lucky me, I was given a Kindle for Christmas, but sadly, I haven't yet been able to read an entire book on the reading device!!

The problem begins with having started the Steig Larsson trilogy at the urging of my oldest stepdaughter. While she was correct that I would enjoy the books, because I finished reading book one about a week before Christmas, I started reading the VERY LENGTHY "Cutting for Stone."

My Doctor Stepdaughter had just read books two and three and offered to bring the remaining trilogy back to Iowa while home for Christmas from North Carolina. That's why I began reading, "Cutting for Stone," in the interim. What I didn't realize is that the 657-page paper back would be such a SLOW read. (Which isn't to say it's boring – I'm just getting caught up in all the medical terms.) I might have put the book aside except that Dr. Stepdaughter said the author, Abraham Verghese, spoke to her and her peers at Duke .... Today, I have read through page 370 ...

So in the interim, I'm keeping a list of books I'm ready to order on my new Kindle. I'd love to hear any comments from readers of the blog, regarding your ideas for great reads, or let me know via the comment section if you've read any of the books on my wish list. They include: "Skippy Dies," because the setting is Dublin; and "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," by Rebecca Skloot, because it sounds like a fascinating report about the impact of one woman's cancer when some of her cells were preserved after her death, without her family's knowledge. A third on the list is, "A Scattered Life," because it's about family dynamics which is a theme I enjoy. I also received the hard cover versions of "The Red Thread," and Nicholas Sparks' latest work, and don't forget I also have "The Girl Who Played with Fire," and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," to read ....

Still, I have found the time to discover that a Kindle is more than a reading device. I can do 'Jumbles,' crossword puzzles and play Scrabble and Solitaire ... and I can have manuscripts or other documents emailed to my Kindle. And while most people probably don't get excited about the screensavers - I think they are the coolest thing!! Each time I put my Kindle to sleep, a beautiful black and white illustration of a famous author appears on the screen until I awaken the device for use.

Refracted light?

I am not sure of the scientific term that results in this imagery, but during the recent cold spell we experienced, and then a brief thaw, icicles nearly 3-feet in length formed from the string of LED lights that decorated our roof-line during the holidays.

It appeared as if every icicle took on the color of the light above it. It reminded me of the "sun dogs" that appear to either side of the sun when there is snow on the ground and the temperatures drop to around zero.