Tuesday, April 16, 2013

April 16, 3pm

From Christine: Thank you for the visitors and for the flowers and gifts. I'm in a lot of pain, and feeling agitated. But having the amazing nurses and friends and family visitors is really helping. 

Christine might be feeling a touch better today than she was yesterday. She has had a little bit of cream of wheat, a sip of milkshake, and a bite of soft grilled cheese to eat. Two friends from work stopped by to visit, and Aunt Cindy spent quite awhile sitting with her. Christine received a beautiful flower and chocolate delivery from the "Allen cousins." She repeatedly says how much it means to her to have so much support.

Dermatology has taken over the direct care of her wounds - they are coming in twice a day to check and change all of her Vaseline bandages. This has given Christine some comfort because it means that dermatology is able to track her head to toe progress first hand, and it also means they can better help with her comfort. For example, they have been draining the largest of her blisters, which has made getting in and out of bed for the bathroom much easier for Christine.

Opthomology was here last night to check her eyes - the conjunctive eye is sloughing skin the way the rest of her body is. To prevent scarring they have put a Prokera lens in one eye (containing an amniotic membrane) and a very large bandage style contact in the other. Her O2 saturation is much better today, and she is able to get herself in and out of bed with just minimal assistance to get to and from the bathroom. The doctors are slowly reducing her steroid dosage as the inflammation stage of this condition passes.

Welcome to Christine's SJS Blog

Hi everyone,

This is our first post on Christine's blog. As you most likely know, Christine is in the hospital suffering from Stevens Johnson Syndrome. She has a slew of supporters, both friends and family, who either stop in or call for updates. I thought it might be nice for everyone if we kept a blog to track her progress and keep you all informed of how things are going. As Christine feels better, she can begin to post as well - I anticipate that both she and I will be the main authors for this blog.

I will be updating the blog pages and creating posts throughout the day, so stay tuned for more. Thank you for reading and keeping Christine in your thoughts.

Caroline