Emma has been in the coma for 52 hours so far and unfortunately it has not been going as smoothly as we’d like. The first 24 hours went very well. It is quite usual for the ketamine coma to be a light coma at first and so she would grow restless every hour or so and would be given a slight boost of extra ketamine to deepen the sleep. The second day was when a few problems arose. The problem in Emma’s case was that instead of the bowel clearing in the first couple of days as expected it has remained blocked and distended her abdomen. This has caused a slight infection and lowered effectiveness of liver and kidneys. Because of this Emma has been put on antibiotics and taken off ketamine but is still in a coma using other medication. The aim is to clear the infection and wait for the bowels to clear before reintroducing ketamine. This situation has only happened to one other ketamine coma patient and so there has been a team of doctors in the ICU examining Emma so we feel that she is being very well cared for. X-rays and blood samples are frequent to monitor her status. The problem with the bowel has meant that Emma has been fasting for the last 24 hours and they have just now begun feeding her direct into the blood stream. Her temperature is not too high at present (37.4degC) and the antibiotics should soon do their work.
Emma is calm and peaceful and the doctors have told us her condition is stable and so we wait for the blood results to improve before expecting any change.
Thanks to all of the people involved with the concert for Emma last night in Hamilton. We hope that it went well. We see that there was quite a storm in NZ last night so we hope that everyone still got out and had some fun!
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My love to you. I am praying for you all. Be strong, stay strong. Feel the strength and courage, love and hope we are sending you. Hold it, use it, let it grow in you.
ReplyDeleteI had the honour of meeting this awesome bunch of students last night who organised the concert. What an awesome bunch of people they are! They touched my heart and soul and touched so many other kids hearts and souls as a result. There are now a whole bunch of other kids, who were there, enthusiastically inspirated to organise other fundraising for Emma, starting with muffy days at different schools. Their energy and caring hearts have lifted me so much today it's hard to describe the feeling. I'm sending it on to you both so that you can feel it, too. A special thanks to all those who donated their time for free or at a discount, you touched my heart as well. Everyone who helped make it happen, you are all awesome!
xx
We are thinking of you all. This is another bump in the journey to being healthy again. Emma is strong. Sending lots of hugs
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