+ An Update on Rachelle

Hello everyone. This is Kelly and sorry that I’m not as blog-savvy as Rachelle, but I wanted to give everybody an update on how she is doing. It is day 3 of her being in the hospital (without food) with what was supposed to be a routine gallstone problem, but she had some more severe abdominal pain and elevated liver enzyme levels (maybe from a clogged bile-duct), causing her to reprocess her bile back thru her liver, and her skin & eyes turned yellow on Thursday, so we brought her back to the emergency room. After some tests, they discovered that she also has a severe case of pancreatitis, probably being caused from the trauma to her bile duct & liver. Because of her pancreas being so inflammed, they are now unable to perform the gall-bladder removal surgery until Monday morning, when the pancreas will hopefully “cool down,” allowing her to be operable. She has to remain in the hospital until then so they can monitor her and keep her on fluids.

…So, if you can all please keep Rachelle in your prayers that would be awesome. This morning the doctor said her liver seems to be improving, and he feels good about her progress in the last 36 hrs. Since Rachelle can’t nurse right now, Daphne had to make a quick adjustment from breastmilk to formula, and she seems to be doing okay with it. Hopefully Daphne doesn’t hate me after this episode – I’m not as good at taking care of her as Rachelle is, but we are having fun together visiting Rachelle in the hospital and trying to keep her diaper clean (Daphne’s diaper, not Rachelle’s).

If you’d like to visit Rachelle in the hospital, feel free! Right now she just has to wait until she can go in for surgury, so she's laying in her hospital bed kind of lonely and with not much to do. She is staying at the Saddleback San Clemente Hospital on De Los Mares. I can give you her room number if you’d like, or you can call her to see if she is asleep or not. Thanks to everyone for your phone calls & everything. We're optimistic that everything will turn out okay, and Rachelle will be healthy again soon. Daphne & I can’t wait until she comes home!