Sunday

Today has been quite busy and emotional. I will start with the medical updates and then let you in on some highlights from the day.

For those who visited and were curious about the numbers on all the machines; the number between 88 and 97 on the top machine is the percent of oxygen in Mom's blood at any given time and the number below it is her heart rate. She ideally needs to keep her oxygen at above 90 at all times. The lower machine controls the concentration of oxygen that is flowing into her breathing apparatus. This percent varies based on her lung's need. To give you perspective, the air we breathe is 20-21% oxygen. A couple days ago Mom's oxygen was concentrated at 80-85%. Over the last day she has been requiring 60-65%. We hope that this decrease in oxygen need continues. It's possible to get about 30-40% in oxygen tanks that are used in the home. The amount she requires now is only available in hospitals. Her need will have to get down to 30% with moving around before she can safely go home. We are attributing the significant drop in oxygen need to the steroids she has been on. Starting tomorrow they will begin to taper off and we will see if the oxygen levels will stay and ideally continue coming down.

Tomorrow is going to be a day filled with doctors, tests, moving rooms, checking levels and watching for results. Today Mom's kidneys showed some distress indicating that there could be some worsening hypertension in her heart. Mom will be given a catheter in her neck to closely monitor her heart and will be moved to the ICU. They are planning to attempt a treatment for the pulmonary hypertension (discussed in the first blog) with a short treatment to see how it reacts with her body and the IPF (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis). With the decrease in the steroids and the new heart treatment there are a lot of unknowns. The next few days will be critical in determining the long term prognosis for Mom. We do want to stress that it will go very drastically one way or the other and we are sitting in front of a heap of unknowns.

The medical can be quite daunting and leaves much room for depression and heartache. That said, I want you to know how strong and how vibrant Mom has been through this entire disease. It hasn't been easy, but she has not let down her faith, her relationships or her spirit. She continues to smile, laugh and embrace us with nothing but love and affection. There have been many tears in the last few days and none of us have ever been through anything so difficult. I look at the heartache and the pain that is so deeply manifested and know that it wouldn't be so if the impact she had on our lives wasn't equally as deep in love and joy. Mom continues to say, and has said since the diagnosis, that she is thankful for the chance to say everything she wants to say to those she loves. Mom and Papa say they have no regrets from their 28 years of marriage and have taken the last year to seize every moment, take the trips they'd dreamed of and spent valuable time with friends and family.

Mom turns 55 today (Monday). We had a celebration for her tonight with the family. I've attached a picture of her with the cake. We couldn't light the candles because it would explode the oxygen so Mom "blew out" the unlit candles with the spare oxygen mask. Charlie (Mom's older brother) flew in from Alaska last night and Auntie Sue (Mom's best friend) flew in this evening from San Francisco. Uncle Dwight (Mom's younger brother) and his family came over from Kirkland and provided a feast to include sushi and chocolate cake. Katie (Jeremy's girlfriend) also made a delicious dirt cake. We laughed, ate and told funny stories ranging from Mom planning her own surprise birthday party with Auntie Sue in 9th grade to Mom's contagious giggling on almost any roller coaster or Disneyland ride. Sue also brought a 45 of one of Mom's favorite Japanese Pop songs from the 60s. We listened to it on YouTube and Mom sang along. Here's the YouTube link in case you want to hear it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvuO0BsEEss It was a wonderful night.

Tomorrow Mom has requested no visitors. It's going to be a taxing day with all the medical work being done. We will keep the blog posted with medical updates and visiting hours for the following days. Thank you for your continued prayer and support.

On a final note for the night, Mom's kitchen is almost finished being remodeled and she says she needs to get home to use it.