Day +38, De-Sats

As much as you try not to think it, some days feels like you're in a Party of Five season when the producers are scrambling for ratings and demanding the writers stir things up. Other times things seem  manageable, like they're going to get better.

Reality: Every day there's a pit in your stomach; every day you fool people.

Here's the update:

Gabrielle's little lungs are having a tough time with things right now. This past December a typical (and rather innocuous) cold ran through our house. Amy, Jimmy, Mickey, and I kicked it in less than a week's time. For Gabrielle it took a month. Then there was the February respiratory scare.

Recently we learned that a portion of her right lung collapsed when she had her line put in.  So, when she got the corona virus on Day +15, not only does her I-Cell predisposition make healing from respiratory ills difficult, especially when she doesn't have an immune system (i.e. chemotherapy/transplant), but the semi-collapsed lung is adding to the problems.

So today the team is quite concerned with her breathing. She's really struggling and working her whole body to get the air she needs. There's a lot of fluid in her lungs and airways. At last word they're treating her like a patient with an asthma attack (i.e. just can't get the oxygen into the blood no matter how hard the lungs work). Things will get better, then worse, then better ... but her lungs are quite full and weasy.

To help you understand what the videos below, we're talking about her oxygen saturation levels. Almost all of us have our oxygen levels at 100%, and they'll dip as low as 94-95% when we sleep (desaturation, or "de-sat").  While the dipping is normal (and the machines make it seem 10-times worse than it really is), the concern is there and real.