Kateland update

Dear Family and Friends,

As many of you know my baby sister, Kateland, has a rare genetic disease Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) that has a wide array of characteristics.  One major characteristic of her disease is the inability to heal a quickly as "normal" people do.  Unfortunately, when you throw into the mix that the poor girl is a picker it just turns into a deadly combination.  Mosquito bites, scratches and scrapes take months to heal. 

She's had this spot on her leg for some time, but its never really bothered her until Monday morning.  When she woke up her leg was really swollen and it was actually hurting her.  My Mama took her to the doctor and they immediately started her on an antibiotic drip.  She was at the doctor for hours, they did three drips on Monday.  They also prescribe her some additional antibiotic medication and she was to come back Tuesday afternoon to check the progress.  When she went back Tuesday they hit her with several more rounds of antibiotics.

On Thursday, she was at the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters (CHKD) in Norfolk for a routine check up with her pulmonologist (sp?).  While waiting she was having problems breathing and almost passed out.  My Mama explained all the recent treatments she was receiving on her leg and of course their initial thought is that a blood clot had formed in her leg and because of the treatments it moved and made it way to her lungs.  They immediately admitted her to their ER because her oxygen levels had dropped so low and began prepping her for a CT Scan.

Kateland, Noah and I all unfortunately share the same small, deep veins that cause everyone such a problem when it comes to IVs.  Kateland has a very low threshold to pain, so busting blood vessels in an attempt to put in an IV is even worse than for your average person.  Add to that mix that its lunch time and she cannot eat before the ct scan = DIRE STRAIGHTS. Then to put some icing on that cake, she would not allow her to take any of her medication that was assisting with the pain in her leg nor her insulin for her diabetes. 

Fast forward, they finally get the IV in her hand and wheel her down for the CT scan and they FLIP OUT.  For the CT Scan the IV cannot be in her hand AND no one notified them that she was diabetic.  Apparently, there are special procedures and doctor sign offs are needed.  Awesome.  Kateland does not do well with changes of this time especially when she is already under severe emotional stress. 

They final complete the CT scan late in the day, but were waiting for the results before deciding to admit her to a room.  In the meantime Kateland has missed lunch and is on the verge of missing supper...super meltdown.  Plus she is panicking about her sugar levels.  Thank the sweet baby j that the scan results were negative and that there was no clot in her lungs.  Unfortunately, the scan showed some fluid around her heart.  So Kate was admitted last night and they moved her into a room on the cardiovascular/pulmonary ward at CHKD.  She'll be having an EKG later this morning, essentially its an ultrasound for her heart. 

Please keep my sweet baby sister (and my Mommy) in your thoughts and prayers!