Mom was transferred to Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) at Boston Medical Center (BMC) on Monday, June 19th. She was transferred for what we thought would be an immediate surgery to remove a vegetation growing on the heart valve due to her Staph infection. When we got her here, they did not find the vegetation, rather it was a thickening of the heart valve. Without emergency surgery immediately necessary, the doctors took a very proactive approach and gave us tremendous hope for her recovery.

Within 48 hours, she made huge improvements, limited fevers, blood pressure stabilizing and best of all, she was breathing more and more on her own (down to 45% assisted). They removed nearly all of her sedation and you could tell that the same old “Tara” was still there. She tried talking (mouthing words), writing a few things down, and pointing to things she wanted us to look at. She would point to her feet to let us know she didn’t want them covered, shake her head yes and no if she was in pain and answer questions, smile and laugh when we joked with her or teased her (I told her that just because she is in here doesn’t mean that we won’t tease her).
Last Friday, June 23rd Mom started clenching her left side and was in extreme pain, almost as if something burst. She also spiked a fever of 104.7. They immediately took a contrast CAT scan and found that her feeding tube dislodged into the fat and muscle tissue causing an immediate infection. Early Saturday morning, they performed an emergency surgery to repair the stomach and remove as much of the infected tissue as possible. The wound has remained open and will likely have a vacuum put in like the first surgery. On Monday, they did a surgical debrievement, meaning that they removed some of the unhealthy devitalized tissue, skin, muscle and everything has remained clean and the incisions are slowly healing. During this time they have kept mom in a parapalytic state and heavily sedated as to not rupture her incision further with moving around or coughing.

She was making a slow recovery but with “positive improvements” when the blood clot in her left leg spread into her lung and other leg. Additionally, she lost oxygen after mucus got stuck. They performed CPR for approximately 1 minute to bring her back. She resting very comfortably now and did open her eyes briefly when I went to see her this afternoon. They are putting in a filter to keep the blood clots from spreading and she is of course on blood thinners to prevent any further clots. Despite everything she has gone through, her doctor feels she still has a shot and is in better shape than she was before the emergency surgery. He is being “cautiously optimistic” but he told us not to give up hope just yet.

Needless to say it has been quite a day (and week for that matter). Please keep your prayers coming because my Mom has not given up yet and God obviously hasn’t either. It’s still going to be a struggle, but we are all keeping a positive attitude and letting Mom's body do the fighting. She definitely never takes the short route!

As most of you know it has been a rough couple of weeks for me and my family with the loss of my beloved Aunt Verne and my mom being in the hospital.

Four weeks ago today, my mom went into the hospital to have 2 hernias removed laproscopically - instead, they found 4 more and removed 6 total. Over the next couple of days, she started spiking a fever, so they did emergency surgery to investigate the problem. During the removal of the hernais, they perferated her bowel causing a massive leakage into her body. They were able to get this cleaned up, but this left my mom with a massive incision and had to be put onto a ventilator.

She made minor improvements in her oxygen levels but they haven't been able to get it much past 60% assisted (she has to be at 40%) to be taken off the ventilator. To mitigate any further damage to her espophagus, they did a tracheotomy a week and half ago. It is definitely easier to look at her now without all of the tubes on her face.

In the meantime she developed a Staph infection in the lungs and has pneumonia. With still no improvement in her oxygen levels, they did a CAT scan and found fluid near her lungs. They removed 1/2 liter Friday, June 2nd. She has had a really rough weekend and has been having fevers at 102+.

Last week she started going back into A-fib (irregular heartbeat) so they did an echocardiogram and found that she has a vegetation on one of her heart valves. It is not hurting her at this point, but once she is well enough to handle the antibiotics for it, she will have antibiotics for 6-8 weeks (or have surgery to remove the vegetation).

Yesterday, we got more bad news. She tested gram positive for Streptococcus and we were informed that she does infact have MRSA (a blood borne Staph infection that is antibiotic resistant). Additionally, they have upped her blood thinner medicine because she has a huge blood clot in her leg and likely in her hand.

The doctors are pretty discouraged at this point with her progress, but they have not given up hope. Her vital organs are doing fine. They just feel this is going to be a very long healing process.

For the most part, they have been keeping mom very comfortable and in a medically induced coma to prevent her from moving around too much and struggling with her treatment. During the few good days that she has had, she has opened her eyes and smiled. That was so amazing.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, and please keep them coming. We need them now more than ever. I will try to blog every couple of days to keep you all updated. Thank you.

On May 31st, my Auntie Verne passed away after a 5 month battle fighting infections due to a knee replacement surgery.

I have posted her official obituary below, but wanted share why she was so special to me.

1) Taught me the value of money
When I was about 8 or 9 years old, she took me down to the local Siwooganock bank and introduced me to the bank president who gave me a tour of the bank. She then gave me 5 dollars to open up my first savings account. I kept that account through college.

2) Scrabble
I have been playing Scrabble with my Aunt Verne since before I can remember. She never once let me win and I remember the day I finally was able to beat her. She was so proud. Even when we played over the past few years, she would usually beat me 3 out of 5 games. In addition to Scrabble, she also taught me cribbage and numerous version of solitaire.

3) How to open Ketchup packets.
One day my aunt treated me to McDonald's and when we got back to the house, I was struggling to open the little ketchup packet. She responded with: "here I'll show you how". She put it on the table, made a fist and slam, out came the ketchup.... all over my mother's freshly washed and starched white curtains!

4) How to stop traffic.
After a long day of shopping in North Conway, my mom who was driving couldn't seem to back out onto main street, so Aunt Verne hopped out of the car, walks in front of a huge van, and says, "Come on Tara, he's gonna let you go"... like he had a choice!

5) Mud Puddles
Stemming from my mom liking her laundry incredibly clean and white... when my aunt verne would babysit, she would let me go play in the mud puddles... with no clothes on. I can distinctly remember having the time of my life at about 3 years old in her driveway splashing in the mud puddles. I didn't get my clothes dirty either!

The rest of my memories of my Aunt Verne, I will keep to myself, but she was a special lady and I wanted to share that with you.

Her official obituary:
Verne H. Eastman, 78, of Railroad Street, Lancaster, N.H., died Wednesday afternoon, May 31, 2006, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon.

Mrs. Eastman was born in Wyandotte, Mich., on Aug. 4, 1927, the daughter of Wilbur and Flossie (Corrigan) Hartford, and has resided most of her lifetime in Lancaster.

On Jan. 24, 1953, she married Aloysius Eastman Jr. of Jefferson. For 22 years they resided at various bases during his military career until returning to Lancaster.

Verne was a graduate of Lancaster Academy and went on to graduate from the St. Louis School of Nursing in Berlin. Her nursing career includes employment at the VA Hospital in White River Jct. and Week Memorial Hospital, Lancaster. She was best known for her years as a school nurse in Lancaster and Jefferson. She retired from in 1988.

She was a very active member of the Christ United Methodist Church, Lancaster, and the United Methodist Women of Lancaster. She was also an active member of the Olive Branch Chapter #1 O.E.S. Verne served many years as a Girl Scout leader and was an accomplished quilter and member of the Coos Quilters Guild. She was also a good cook and famous for her chicken pie.

Family members include her husband, Aloysius of Lancaster; a daughter, Tracy E. Lang and her husband Elmer of Milan; two sons, Richard A. Eastman and his wife Sharon of West Palm, Fla., and Craig Eastman of Lancaster; a brother, Wilbur Hartford of Wolfeboro; two grandchildren, Nicole Eastman and Nathan Eastman; and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.