Monday PM

Evidently Aunt Mary had a fever from an infection (they are not sure where it came from) but her fever has gone down and they are giving her broad spectrum antibiotics to cover everything. Today she put on her shirt by herself and her pants (with assistance with the buttons)! She even lifted her foot a little. She is making great progress and it is all due to your prayers and intervention from God!

Monday

I heard that the benefit was amazing! Thank you all for your support, we hope you enjoyed your meal! I don't have much news regarding Aunt Mary other than she has more movement in her wrist. She has told me that she is trying very hard and trying to regain her strength. Since she was in a bed for over 3 weeks without any movement, she lost stregnth on both sides of her body. Therapy is doing wonders, but it does tire her. We are very appreciative of your prayers!

Wednesday

Well, Aunt Mary should be in rehab right now. They were supposed to move her today! I talked to her last night and she said that she stood up three times with the help of PT. She said that she is able to sit up in a wheelchair too. She still has no movement of her legs or arms, just her wrist, hand, and fingers. She said that her head hurt and she is still has lots of nausea. Don't forget about the benefit this weekend in Van Vleck!

Monday PM

Sorry it has been so long since an update, but there really has been nothing to say. Today I have great news to share! She is hoping to be moved to DeTar rehab at the end of this week, but there are no rooms available. They may have to move her to a nursing home in Bay City. As of yesterday, she probably will not need dialysis anymore! Praise God! She can touch her fingers to her thumb and can rotate her wrist slightly. She is still having some nausea and dizziness and her neck hurts. She also sat up in a wheelchair today. God really has answered our prayers. Thank you for all your prayers!

Friday AM

The CT scan showed great progress. The neurologist didnt' expect her to be doing so well so quickly. This is an awesome thing and we thank you and all your prayers and God's intervention for this!

Thursday AM

Well, yesterday morning PT helped Aunt Mary get into the shower. She was exhausted, but felt good because she was clean! She had dialysis yesterday so her levels went down, so she will not have dialysis today or tomorrow, and they will re-evaluate again saturday.

She did get a little sleep last night and is more awake and aware today. She had a headache yesterday so they are going to do a preventative CAT scan today. The neurologist doesn't think it is anything, but just wants to make sure. She wants to sit in the chair today, so hopefully she is doing that right now!

They hope to get her ready to move back to Bay City by the end of next week.

God is so good!

Monday PM/ Tuesday AM

I heard from Aunt Melinda that Aunt Mary squeezed the doctors hand even harder tonight! Hooray for progress! She will have dialysis tomorrow because her levels were a little high today. The nephrologist and neurologist are pretty confident that she will continue to improve and will be moved back to Bay City in the next two to three weeks for rehab. She is being given steroids and other medications so her blood sugar is increasing. They have been checking her blood sugar twice a day and she had to receive a little bit of insulin last night. No doctor has said anything about being diabetic, so my guess is just that the steroids are causing the higher than normal sugar (at least that is what I am hoping).

Monday AM

Sorry that I haven't posted the good news in a while, I had a wedding shower yesterday and then had to drive back to College Station.

Good things are happening! Aunt Mary was talking with the nephrologist and she squeezed his had with her left hand! What a shock to us the progress that she is making. The doctor also said that instead of a 5% chance that her kidneys will work, he gave her a 20% chance! God is truly working in her. We have been so thankful for everything all of you guys have been doing for us, including the benefit and all your prayers!

I will keep you updated as I receive news.

Saturday Evening

Sorry for not posting.  My mom and I have been spending the day with my future mother-in-law!  No news is good news though!  Aunt Mary has been doing so great that she has moved out of the acute care facility and to a regular room!  Her blood pressure has been so great that they are only giving her medication by mouth.  She was is having tremors on her left side.  My cousins tell me that she has been tired and slept a lot today.  She even called us last night to talk to my mom and Ryan, so she must be doing good!

Thanks for all of your continued prayers and thoughts.  We really appreciate it.

Friday AM

The moaning lady got moved!! Yay. Aunt Mary woke up sore and tired this morning. She has had more trembling on the left side. Her blood levels went up so she will have dialysis today. She is scared to do therapy. Let us pray for her to change her thoughts and not be afraid to succeed!

Thursday PM

Aunt Mary is now out of ICU and on the third floor which is a rehab facility. She's still at DeTar Navarro in Victoria. Unfortunately she is in a room with a lady that moans. :( There are no set visiting hours. Thank God for this progress! All the doctors will still check in on her to monitor her kidneys and see if she still needs dialysis.

Thursday AM

Last night Aunt Mary got a good nights sleep, so she was doing well this morning. The neurologist said that she is about the same as she has been. The nephrologist is not going send her to dialysis today to see if her kidneys will work on their own. Her kidney levels were down today due to dialysis yesterday. She's still on steroids to treat the inflammation in her kidneys. The doctor is hopeful that the kidneys will start working, though the chance is small. She will be moved to triumph later this afternoon to start rehab.

Thanks for your continued support and prayers!

Wednesday AM

Aunt Melinda says that Aunt Mary is tired today. Evidently she didn't get much sleep last night. She is having dialysis right now. Later today she will have a procedure to have another dialysis catheter placed in her subclavian vein (1/2 way between you neck and shoulder on your chest). They will take out the other femoral vein dialysis catheter that they were using. The neurologist was encouraged because she has regained a little more vision in her left eye! Soon she will move to the third floor of the DeTar hospital to an acute care rehab facility for about 4 weeks, then they will re-evaluate. She's very scared about moving out of ICU. God really is working in her and all of us. Thank you for all of your prayers!

Side note:
Many people have asked us about sending cards. If you want to send a card you can send it to:
2020 Hillcrest
Bay City, Tx 77414
or
2005 Baywood
Bay City, Tx 77414

Ryan's baseball team smashed their opponents in monday's game!

Tuesday PM

Well, I actually got to talk to Aunt Mary today. She sounded much better than she has been! She said that the prognosis of possibly making a full recovery made her scared because she didn't know if she would make it on her own. She has been very frightened a time or two since she has been in the ICU when no one is there with her. Of course, her sisters and I have reassured her that they are not going to let her go home without knowing for sure that she is going to make it on her own! She did seem reassured by that, but still nervous. She was grateful and appreciative when I told her how many people were already on this blog! Our family cannot thank you all enough for adding all of us to your prayers. We are truly grateful.

The Benefit:
When: June 27 11AM-3PM.
Where: Van Vleck high school cafe
What: Chicken, brisket, potatoes, beans, bread
Tickets: $8/plate- obtain from Meredith Keelen or the high school office between now and next Wednesday (June17).
Also: cake auction at 12:30

Donations can be made by check to "Leopards for Mary Ottis Benefit" and mail it to Box 906, Van Vleck 77482 OR to the school at VVISD, 142 S. 4th Street, Van Vleck, TX 77482 (or you can go to prosperity bank in BC).

Tuesday

The message I recieved this morning from Aunt Melinda is that both the neurologist and nephrologist seem to think she will regain everything. It will take several months though. They hope the brain will absorb the blood in the next two weeks. She will have dialysis two more times then make a decision whether she can go to rehab or go to another floor. Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy are working with her daily. The biopsy showed interstitial nephritis induced by ibuprofen.

Monday PM

Well, Aunt Mary has been doing lots of physical therapy in the past 24 hours! She has been sitting up on the side of the bed and doing arm and legs exercises. They do make her exhausted. She still has no ability to move her left side. Did I mention that the stroke did not affect her face or speech? That is a great thing! I found out that this morning a 'code blue' occurred in ICU and people were rushing around and everything and Aunt Mary asked the dialysis nurse, "is that me?" She was so scared and paniced that it was her that was doing bad. The dialysis nurse reassured her that it wasn't her. This is something that we haven't addressed yet-bad memories of 'stroke alert, stroke alert, room 482.' I'm sure it will take a while for her to move passed that. Other than these things, I hear she is doing well.

We want to thank you for your prayers and continued support. We are very appreciate and grateful!

PS-i heard that the van vleck school is having some sort of BBQ benefit for Aunt Mary. It is going to be the last weekend in June. I do not know any details about anything yet, but when I do I will pass them along!

Monday AM update

PT has rounded and have been doing exercises on her left side to prevent contractures of her arms and legs. She has a wrist splint on to prevent contractures and a boot on her foot to prevent foot drop and ulcers. She is in dialysis now. We still have no results from the kidney biopsy. My Aunt Melinda said that she is more alert also. The nephrologist said that he hoped to transfer Aunt Mary straight to rehab in a few days. Also, they hoped that her brain would reabsorb the clot.

I realized that I forgot to tell you all that she is in DeTar Navarro in Victoria. Visiting hours are at 6am, 9am, 12noon, 2pm, 6pm, and 8pm. One of our family members is there 24/7 (my bet is that it will be Aunt Melinda most of the time).

Recap

Beginning note-When I asked Aunt Mary if it was okay for me to start this blog, she said "as long as you don't put any ugly pictures of me up because I might want to go on e-harmony one day!"

Wednesday, June 3rd- Aunt Mary gained 10lbs overnight so she called the Dr and had blood work completed. The Dr thought the blood sample was contaminated because the BUN and creatinine were so high so she sent Aunt Mary to the ER to have more blood work completed. When she got there, a nephrologist (kidney doc) was waiting for her. Once they re-drew blood and realized that she was in kidney failure they sent her to Victoria at about 9pm.

Thursday, June 4th- Has Hemosplit placed (dialysis cathether) and has dialysis for about 4 hours in the morning. Has kidney biopsy in afternoon.

-we found out that she has been having lots of nausea and vomiting and horrible headaches (which are signs of kidney failure) which is why she was taking so much motrin (which made the kidney failure worse). When your kidneys fail, you get high blood pressure because of all the extra fluids and that can cause bleeding in your brain/clots in your brain(aka-stroke).

Friday, June 5th-At 4 am she wanted to use the bathroom so Aunt Melinda called the nurse in to make sure it was okay for her to get up and when they tried to get her up they realized she couldn't move/feel her left side. They immediately called a stroke alert and took her to get a CT scan. Immediately afterwards she went to ICU for careful monitoring. They found a hematoma on her brain and a blood clot on the right occipital lobe. She also had an MRI later that morning. Now it was a time to just let her rest and make sure that her brain didn't swell and cause a seizure. Her blood pressure was also really high, so they put her on continuous IV medication to keep it down (to prevent any more strokes). She also is having blurred vision, even with her glasses (probably due to the stroke).

Saturday, June 6th- Stable. She has regained feeling in her left side, but still cannot move anything on the left side. Aunt Mary is very concerned about Ryan. They attempted to give her medicine by mouth, but she was so scared that she was going to get nauseas and vomit, so she wouldn't swallow it. Blood pressure is doing well with the help of IV meds.

Today, Sunday, June 7th-Yeah! Lots of progress! She ate some vanilla pudding for breakfast and drank some water. For lunch she had 1/3 cup stuffing (like thanksgiving) and 1/3 cup macaroni and cheese and some tea. She asked me if I could find her some chocolate pudding earlier that day, so I bought some and left it in her room at lunch. When I came back at 2pm one of the puddings was gone! I asked her about it and she said that her call light didn't work and so she opened it by herself and ate it! We figured out the call light situation quickly though! She looked the best I've seen her at the 2pm visit. PT had just come and sat her up on the side of the bed and exercised her arms and legs. She sad she was exhausted and had difficulty balancing when they sat her up. She does understand that it is going to be a long road to recovery, and doesn't think she will be able to do it, but we've told her over and over that specialist are going to teach her how to do the things she used to be able to do. She seemed satisfied with that answer.

She gets teary-eyed when we tell her about all the prayers and phone calls we've been getting. When she found out that one of the churches prayed a rosary for her she started crying. She is very thankful for all the prayers. The only time she has broken down and really cried was today when Aunt Melinda and I were in at the 2pm visit and she said something like 'I can't believe this, but I have to say this because it is reality- I have had a stroke, I had a stroke. I will never forget when I heard Stroke Alert, Stroke Alert, Room 482-that was me.' We comforted her and talked her through it and she is doing better now.

Aunt Mary's Concerns-making sure Ryan is okay, making sure that she's not there by herself, making sure that she doesn't have any more bleeding in the brain, and making sure that she gets to see her parents and family.

Doctors concerns- make sure that there is no more bleeding in the brain, rehabilitation for her arms and legs (to make sure she doesn't lose muscle), and her kidney function. The doctors still do not know why this is happening. They said that this is not the normal pattern for a stroke victim. They are looking at auto-immune disorders and have already started her on steroids, just in case it is auto-immune.

She's had dialysis 3 times (not sunday) and the Dr will decide daily if she needs it based on her lab work. Her BUN and creatinine have gone down about 60% so that is great news. She is still making urine, which is awesome too (you never realize how important that is)!

Ryan is adjusting to staying with different aunt, uncles and cousins. He stayed the weekend with Aunt Sharon and her family and went swimming and had some 'kid time'. He has a baseball game monday night (we think) so he is staying with my parents (yvonne and sam) for a few days. The good thing is that Aunt Mary hasn't lost any memory so she is able to tell us his schedule and where to find things like bills and other important documents.

Will Post Tonight

Now that I know how this thing functions, I will recap on the events of the past week and post the first real blog tonight. Please pass this website on to anyone who knows Mary. We are very grateful and appreciative of all your prayers!

Here we go!!

This is just a test of the Mary Broadcasting System...Checking to see how this thing works!