Lowman's All-in-One!

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To my Dear Friends on the Lowman I-Hub Message Board,

I have not been posting very much because my wife, Ellen has been in and out of the hospital four times in the past few months. A few of you are aware that she has been battling M/S for over twenty-five years.

On Aug. 1st Ellen was rushed to the hospital emergency and diagnosed with Sepsis. Last Sep. she had survived her first bout of Sepsis after spending two weeks in ICU. Sepsis is a bacterial infection that is spread throughout the body through blood and is about 50% fatal. For someone like Ellen with a compromised immune system that statistic is much higher.

After spending eleven days in the hospital and trying nearly every antibiotic, Ellen was moved last Sunday to a Hospice facility where the doctors expected her to pass in two to three days. Before going to Hospice, Ellen asked that no tube ever again be put down her throat and that all interventions antibiotics be stopped. The family than made the decision to stop using a feeding tube. Ellen's fate would now be determined between her and G-d.

During the next several days it was almost impossible to get her attention for more than a few seconds at a time. Whenever we could we would try to get her to drink water or a smoothie. She could not sip through a straw so we gave her what little we could using a feeding syringe. As late as yesterday afternoon I did not give Ellen much of a chance of surviving. But miracles do happen. To understand a bit more as to what has transpired over this period, let me share with you some of the email updates that I sent out to my friends and family list.

I do regret not sharing more with you sooner. I am especially grateful to so many on this board for all the support, concern and love I received when my dog Ginger died. As many of you predicted, my new dog Dixie is turning out to be just as great as Ginger. Some of the emails I sent out will follow:

Thursday, August 02, 2007 5:01 AM

Hello,

Ellen is back in the hospital with Sepsis. As you know the condition is very dangerous. She is on a ventilator and is stable at this time. The next 24 hours are critical. She is more stable now than she was when she went septic last fall. I expect they will treat her with the same treatment that was successful last time. I will fill you in with the details when I speak with you.

I just got back from the hospital and will try to get a few hours sleep. The were just moving her from the emergency room to ICU. She will be in Rm G712. The phone number at the nurses station is [phone].

With Love,

Allan

Tuesday, August 07, 2007 7:01 AM

Dear Friends and Family,

Ellen suffered a setback yesterday with her temperature and pulse rate moving up slightly. Her blood and urine cultures were negative. I got a call this morning from Ellen's nurse and she said that Ellen has developed pneumonia. I will be going to the hospital early this morning to talk with the doctors. Pray for Ellen.

Love,

Allan

Thursday, August 09, 2007 8:15 PM

Dear Friends and Family,

Ellen's situation is becoming much more difficult. Her infection(s) are not responding to the antibiotics and we are running out of options. I will know a lot more when I meet with the doctors tomorrow morning.

Ellen is still alert and in pretty good spirits. Blood pressure and temperature are normal though her pulse rate is still elevated at ~115 vs. 110 yesterday. Also, they have had to increase the oxygen level to keep her blood oxygen at 90%. Before today her blood oxygen was always 95 -100%

With Love,

Allan

Monday, August 13, 2007 10:05 PM

Dear Friends and Family,

Ellen was moved to Rm. 116 at the Hospice John F. Keever, Jr. Solace Center today, [phone]. All treatment was stopped on Sunday after she became non-responsive with 103 deg. F temperature. This morning, Ellen continued to be non-responsive though you could wake her up and get her attention for a few seconds. Ellen has only had a slight temperature today, her blood cultures were negative and one side of her chest showed some improvement. When she does wake up you always see a big smile on her face. If you ask her if she is in pain or uncomfortable she will say no.

This evening, Ellen woke up for a few minutes at a time and we were able to get her to swallow a few drops of water. We will continue try to get her to swallow as much water as possible and tomorrow may try broth and pudding. However we will not use breathing tubes, feeding tubes or IV tubes to sustain her life. If by a miracle, Ellen is able to drink and eat on her own, we will than add back her normal medications. If by the grace of G-d Ellen is able to beat the odds, the probability of a recurring infection remains very high but we will take anything that we can get.

With Love,

Allan

Wednesday, August 15, 2007 6:40 PM

Dear Friends and Family,

As many already know, Ellen was taken to Hospice on Sunday afternoon after all artificial methods of sustaining her life were stopped. With her condition the doctors expected her to pass in 2 -3 days. After that period toxins start to build up and any chance of recovery diminish rapidly. Starting on Monday we were able to arouse Ellen for a few seconds at a time and were able to give her a few drops of water. Monday evening Ellen was up for 10 - 15 minutes and we were able to give her about 30 cc of water. Tuesday morning Ellen ran a fever and was pretty non-responsive for most of the day. However, about 3:00 pm Ellen woke up for a period of 15 minutes at which time we were able to give some water and she was able to drink an entire 10 ounce smoothie. Last night the fever returned and she was given Tylenol and some pain medication to help her sleep.

Today has been a great day for Ellen! She has been up most of the day and constantly asking for food and water. In addition she has had enough strength to cough up phlegm and speak to us in small sentences. If Ellen is able to hold on to this progress I will ask the doctor to start giving her blood thinning medication(s). I will also ask that some blood and urine cultures be taken so that we can maybe prevent the type of infection Ellen has had from doing so much damage before it is detected.

Only Ellen's strength and the hand of G-d could have brought her back to where she is now. Let us all pray for continued improvement.

With Love,

Allan

Thursday, August 16, 2007 11:52 PM

Dear Friends and Family,

The continued improvement that we had hoped for was not seen today. While Ellen did manage to eat and drink a decent amount of food and water, her ability to communicate was greatly diminished.

The love and well wishes for Ellen keep pouring in. When we tell this to Ellen we get a nice big smile.

With Love,

Allan

Saturday, August 18, 2007 9:17 AM

Dear Friends and Family,

There was not much of a change in Ellen's condition yesterday from the previous update. However, her desire for any food or water and the amount she is consuming has decreased these past few days.

Ellen is not in any pain or discomfort. For the past few nights her temperature has spiked to 102 - 104 deg. F but has managed to come down to near normal during the day.

With Love and Peace,

Allan

Sunday, August 19, 2007 5:35 PM

Dear Friends and Family,

I will make this short and sweet. Ellen is back!

We have seen the type of continued improvement that we all have been hoping and praying for. Ellen has been talking a great deal and is quite coherent. She has eaten some food but most importantly, has consumed about two quarts of water so far today. The doctors are attempting to wean her off the oxygen and have so far reduced it from 12 liters/min. to 6 liters/min. without any adverse effect. Ellen never had to use oxygen at home so maybe by this time tomorrow she will be off the bottle. The reason we are trying to get Ellen off the oxygen is because the tubing around her ears and in her nostrils has given Ellen the most discomfort since she has been in the Hopice center.

I plan on calling Ellen's regular doctor tomorrow to discuss getting Ellen back on her normal meds, what it would take to bring her home and what precautionary steps we could take to prevent the Sepsis from returning.

With Love and Peace,

Allan

Sunday, August 19, 2007 9:46 PM

Dear Friends and Family,

I may have been a bit premature on talking about Ellen going home just yet. We did have to return the oxygen to the higher level. We did try a mask but then she could not eat or drink and she did cough up some phlegm while wearing it so we returned to the method in which the oxygen is put directly into the nostrils.

Before I left for the evening Ellen drank an entire 10 ounce bottle of Ensure and two cups of water.

Ellen and I would like to especially thank all the people that have responded to these email updates. I wish that I had more time to address each email and phone message but can not at this time. Some of most heart felt emails have come from people that I have never met. These are my "cyber buddies" that I have met through investment message boards or company contacts. I hope that some day I will have the opportunity to meet each one of you.

We are taking things one step at a time.

With Love and Peace,

Allan