April 17, 3:30pm

From Christine: Today has been a rough day. 

Even though yesterday was looking up for Christine, today has been a tough day and its hard to see the progress that we saw yesterday. She woke up and the IV nurse put an IV in her wrist, which caused her excruciating pain and really limited her already limited mobility. There has been discussion all day about putting in a PICC line so that she doesn't have to keep getting stuck when they draw blood and so that she doesn't need new IVs all of the time. The PICC line has its own risks, such as potential irritation to her blistered skin and infection. It is undecided yet if the PICC line will be inserted, but she did just recently have the wrist IV taken out and one on her other arm is being used instead.

On top of this morning's IV issues, her Vaseline gauze dried out overnight. The attending Dermatologist had thought they may survive the night, but that did not turn out to be the case. When she woke up they were all sticking to her skin and causing unbearable pain. The Derm resident came in to help with the bandage change and they tried sterile water to release the stuck gauze and she almost passed out from the pain of the water. She has has a superb nurse today though and she talked soothingly to Christine while the bandages were being changed and got her to concentrate on her breathing so that she regained some strength. They finally were able to release the old bandages and put on new ones, and get her back into bed.

After the bandage change Grammy Jane and Chip stopped by to say hello, and Christine asked to hold Grammy Jane's hand for a minute. Grammy sat in the room for quite some time, while Chip napped in the hallway (or so he says). I had lunch with them while she rested, and then they came back to say a quick goodbye. Things have been a bit better since then, and Christine ate a small portion of mac and cheese for lunch, and has since had part of a milkshake blended with some protein powder.

The doctors are starting to talk about nutrition now, as protein and vitamins/minerals are really important in the healing process and Christine is having a hard time eating because of the pain in her mouth. They don't want to give her anything through a feeding tube or through her IV though as that has its own risks - they say that its best for her to eat on her own so we are doing our best to think of nutritious and healthy foods that she can easily eat.

She slept through the night last night, but was anxious about not being able to see if she needed to call for the nurse. Her great night nurse put a tab on the nurse call button on her bed so that she could feel for the right button should she need anything, and that made Christine feel better. Her O2 levels are looking great, reading 100 as I type. Her blood pressure has been up, but it hasn't concerned anyone and they said its likely a result of her high pain levels. Some areas of her skin are looking better - instead of looking bright read with puffy blisters they are more brown in color and the blisters have deflated. At the same time, the skin on her face is still quite red and is starting to peel, and she has areas on her body that are still covered in large blisters.

That's all for right now... Christine is currently resting, and generally feeling very uncomfortable. She says to let you know that while she can't really text or respond to messages, she is hearing them all and loving the support.