Return to the Huntsman

During the past week, Jessica has had two hospital stays, three visits to the E.R. and two ambulance rides. Currently she is in room 4513 on the fourth floor of the Huntsman Cancer Hospital. The doctors, this time around were able to get her nausea under control, enabling her to have pain control. The last time Jessica was admitted here to have her pain control re-evaluated, was in March. Over the past two weeks, her pain has increased to the point it was unbearable. The pain would be so excruciating that she wasn't able to keep her meds down to help with the pain. This added to the complexity of the problem. Jessica has a high tolerance for pain, so when she says she is hurting, she is really hurting.

It has been at least two weeks since she has smiled, laughed or been herself at all. On Tuesday the 24th, she and Sandy went to University of Utah's E.R. Thirteen hours later, she was finally admitted to room 4509 at the Huntsman. Due to the mistake of an incompetent intern, she was release pre-maturely on Thursday. During this day, she underwent CT scans of her pelvis, abdomen and chest. All showed no further cancer progression. We are very happy about that. But she is unable to maintain her oxygen saturation at room air, dropping down into the mid-80s. The cause of her not being able to maintain her oxygen satuation levels has still not been completely determined. At this point, her doctor has ordered for her to always be on oxygen.

Thursday, right after she was released, she was very ill again. Uncle Kevin Morris came and gave her a blessing. She slept for an hour before awaking very ill. We tried to manage it at home, but it was impossible. We ended up calling 911 at 1:30 in morning on Friday. She was taken to Timpanogos Hospital and given fluids and pain meds via IV. She was release at 8:00 that same morning. Her mom, sister and Jessica were very tired that morning. Two and half hours later, she was violently ill again. We were finally able to get a hold of her real doctor, who told us we needed to get her back up to Salt Lake. However, she was too sick to move and another ambulance was called to bring her the 40 miles to the Huntsman Hospital.

She has now been here a little over 24 hours. They are working getting her stable. Sandy and Alisa have been staying with her. Robert has been taking care of Charlie. He took Friday off to help out so everyone could rest.

We want to thank Dave and Kelly for tending Charlie on Thursday so Alisa could be with Jessie at the hospital because Sandy had to work; Grandma Knowles for sitting with Jessie and bringing in food; Kevin and Dave for giving Jessica blessings; Molly for bringing snacks and flowers up to the hospital; Jen for coming by the hospital to say goodbye before her flight and Lynn, Kevin and family for coming by to visit and bringing goodies.

We will keep everyone up-to-date via this blog. Jessica would like to thank everyone for their love, support and prayers.