Continue to Clean

Today, Larisa was put under again while they went in an cleaned out her leg again. The cleaning went well, but as of this afternoon, her leg is extremely swollen. Chantel says it is about 2x as big as the other leg. They are keeping a close watch on it. While she was in the operating room, they removed the pins out of her foot as well. The good signs are that her heart rate is down and her blood pressure is back up -- it had been really low for a few days. On Saturday they gave her several units of blood, which seems to have helped everything. Her temperature is stable. She is on low oxygen through her nose to help keep her stable.

Today they also went in and cleaned out her knee. It has not been looking that great and they are keeping a watchful eye on that as well. The nurse told Chantel that they have about a foot and a half of gauze packed in her knee to help avoid any bacteria from getting in. Changing the packing and bandages is quite painful. Larisa has said that she likes it much better when the nurses change it because they are much more gentle and will stop and take a break, unlike the doctor. The doctor is great at his job, but not so slow and gentle.

Her trach bandages were changed as well. There is still an opening, but it is healing well. Her arm is no longer in a soft cast, but in a brace. She is starting to do little things with it. She some how manages to feed herself when family and friends are not there to help. She doesn't have much of an appetite, but is eating a little bit at a time.

Larisa's pain level was pretty high today, since they did a lot of poking, and cleaning. They did increase her medication a little. However, tonight they brought her in some morphine and she told them to hold off until she really felt like she needed it. She is one tough cookie!

Tomorrow they are planning to do x-rays of her pelvis and femur. Chantel has also asked them to take one of her back to have a better idea if things are healing. The results of these x-rays will determine if they will need to do a bone graft on her femur and to see if the pelvis needs any other procedures done to it as well.

As of right now, the move to Winchester is postponed for awhile - probably abt 2 weeks or longer. They are really wanting the infection to be cleared up and possibly do the skin and bone grafts before she leaves. It would be in her best interest to have all those things completed prior to leaving the hospital. It would be hard to make the move and then have to turn around and head back. Plus, all the surgeries would require her to be transported back to Fairfax at some point. They just want to make sure that her body is ready to be transported and can adapt to an environment that is not as closely monitored as the hospital.

Thank you so much to all of you who came out to Chick-Fil-a for Larisa. It was a great event and Larisa and her family want you to know how very much they appreciate you kindness and support. Chantel said the other night, Larisa had tears in her eyes as she commented to her mother that she could not believe how many people were praying for her and supporting her. I know she feels that love and those prayers on a daily basis. It will be those things that will help her to continue to climb this mountain to the top. A mountain top that she will reach, and come out stronger and better because of this challenge she is facing head on.