Still in the Hospital & in pain

(Joshua Reporting):

Brianne is not doing well - she's in a lot pain, very tired, and just plain not well. She's been having trouble breathing because of the pneumonia and is in a lot of pain. They took her to get x-rays yesterday for her lungs and chest. She's having a very sharp pain in her side that keeps her from sleeping and makes her very uncomfortable. The PA said the pain is probably in her lung and comes from a combination of the pneumonia and the lung biopsy they did on Monday (or Tuesday?).

They're going to up her pain medicine and try to get her feeling better, but in the meantime, she's very upset, hyperventilating, and just struggling. She also has a fever, and we don't know when they'll be letting her out. It's really hard seeing her like this - she's like a weak, drowsy, wheezing, zombie.

(Update)
They'll be putting a new tripled lumen IJ/EJ line line in for Brianne that'll feed right into the jugular. It's a relatively minor procedure that they'll do in her room this afternoon. The nurse said the old tunneled pick line could be causing the infection and quite often the pic lines cause infections for patients. The new line will also have three things (the old one had 2) - i don't know the official title for "things," but she has these lines that they've put into her chest so they can giver her blood and medicine and now she'll have 3 instead of 2 so they can give her more blood and medicines (this was a planned addition and is not b/c of the pneumonia). All of this can be a bit confusing - especially when you read about it instead of seeing it.

Also - the nurse said that she'll likely be in the hospital for 1-2 weeks, so she probably has another week, but could get out sooner - it all depends on how she reacts to the medicines and

The One with the Test Results

Good Evening,
This is Brenda reporting.

We just found out that Bri has strep in her blood and pneumonia. She will be getting a lung biopsy tomorrow to determine if it is fungal. They will not be doing the scheduled bone marrow biopsy as her blood work stills shows leukemic cells and therefore is not needed. They said although she did show some response to the chemotherapy it is not as much as is needed to proceed with transplant. She will need another round of chemo next week. She feels very sick today.

She is getting more scared as am I. I am praying and crying out to God. I know He is present and will never leave or forsake us but, it still hurts. Occasionally fear tries to plague us and blocks out the light/life we know lives within us. We pray and hold on to God. We feel, sense and know the prayers of all our friends/family is sustaining, strengthening and comforting us. thank You so very very much. It is His love that truly sustains us and we are thankful to be recipients of that expression through His body of you, our dearest of friends/family.

Thank You to all who have visited, sent cards, notes and calls as it is encouraging to her. If you are in or going through Atlanta please come by for a minute if you can. You can call me to see if she is up for a visit. Bless you all, we will update again in a few days.