Posted on 07/25/2014 12:40:21 PM PDT by ZinGirl
Hi - I come to you humbly asking for your thoughts and prayers for our daughter. She just went abroad as she starts her Junior year from Gettysburg College and is in Melbourne, Australia. She has been there just over 2 weeks.
Things were going great until she called this morning to say she was in the ER because she hasn't felt well, has had a headache for 2 days, and feels like she has been hit by a truck.
Long story short, she is being treated for a bacterial infection and the hospital is bringing in infectious disease doctors. Her temp was 104. She is on antibiotics and feeling better...but we are so worried.
We live in Baltimore and I feel helpless. She is a great student and has made friends, two of which have stayed with her almost the whole time. The logistics are being handled thru an organization called Arcadia, and they have been tremendous, both in Australia and the US office.
We have a wonderful support system (family and friends) praying for her and have felt their prayers as my husband and I feel so helpless....but I would truly covet and be evergrateful if you feel led to pray for us and our daughter, Christina.
I apologize ahead of time if I can't respond personally....please know I will try. God bless you.
Thank you! No real news yet today.
Prayers for God’s blessing on all.
thanks, ex. I haven’t heard anything since that 1am phone call. :( Been a looooooong day.
Praise God she sounds good!
We talked for about 30 min....it's just after 9:00am and she wants to get back to her home in St. Kilda!
She has had quite an experience...most of which we will hear details about when she is really well and back at her housing, but she really sounded well and we are so thankful and grateful.
While SHE is hoping to be discharged, she has heard musings that she might need to stay another night. However, she has not had a fever nor antibiotics for "hours". I have assured her that they will be happy to release her if they are confident that she is well enough to go (it sounds like they need the bed space!). She understands and agrees to do what the hospital recommends...but, boy, does she want to leave! She says all she wants is "pizza and ice cream". :)
The infectious disease doctor had lots of questions like, "where were you...how long where you there....which airports were you in...", etc.
As far as she knows, NO positive diagnosis of anything at this point.
I'm trying to think of anything else.....but beyond thanking everyone for their prayers, I can't remember specifics from our conversation.
Lyndon (student liason)- she says you are "the bomb" (btw....don't know about Aussie terms...but HERE, it means you are AWESOME. :) we completely and totally agree!) If I think of anything else, I will post. In the meantime - THANK YOU ALL AGAIN for your support through these difficult times!
Love, Kare
Good to hear this news! God is good!
thank you! we are certainly blessed.
Praise Him!! Such great news....as I know you’ve been worried sick.
Thanks for the update. I have kids close in age to Christina - I know this would be so tough...being so far away.
She’ll have lots to post on her blog....after some pizza and ice cream ;)
yup....I haven't gotten past my laptop nor phones allllll day. Oy...this whole parenting thing, right? :P thank you, Jane!
Amen for a great resolution!
BTW...love your tagline. I can TOTALLY relate ;-)
Prayers up.
Prayers up.
WoooHooo Kare :)
Amen and thank you!
bless you, Fatima. :)
Praying that all turns out well. Keep us posted.
We just had a nice hour or so on Skype with her and she really looks great, especially considering her ordeal! we got a lot of stories from her about her experience.
Some of it seems like a dream, she says, because she was in and out of either consciousness or sleep often in the beginning.
The best part was they were all over her disorder in terms of what it was and what to do. All over it. So relieved!
She tells a great story....so she had us laughing often about her thoughts of the doctors, nurses, methods of doing things, difference in culture...even though it is so similar to the US, it is SO different. :) Overall, she deemed her actual medical care as top-notch.
Classes start tomorrow and she is excited for that....but promises that she will be taking it easy.
She has no idea what any diagnosis was...but she was prevented from leaving until they got her an Rx for the antibiotics they said she needed because, "your last bloodwork shows you still need the antibiotics". She has no idea what that meant. In all fairness to staff...she also didn't ask any questions. Partly, in the beginning, because she was so sick. She was aware that they were concerned about her blood pressure...but doesn't really remember any numbers. Except 61. She said, "is 61 a bad number?" We said, well, no...not if it's the bottom number. She said, "yeah...well...it was the top number...is that bad?" so, THAT is pretty low. Man, I hope that was one of her pseudo-alertness times...but I don't think she would remember them being so concerned if it was diastolic. *sigh*
SO glad I didn't know all these things until I can see her pretty, happy face. :)
She is so thankful for everyone's prayers and thoughts...truly. She said she was oddly OK with being so far away because she kept thinking of all the people who were taking such good care of her. I told her about this thread and all she could say was, "awwwwwww.....that is so sweet". She was so touched. I sent her the thread. :)
She hated being in the ER until they got her in a room...but once she was there, it was quiet, she had a window..and she remembers thinking, "I'm going to be fine....it's not horrible anymore".
This was the worst, weirdest sickness she has ever felt. Her head hurt so badly she was seeing double. She kept phasing out, mentally. She was uncontrollably shaking and chilled (fever), but then also started vomiting in the ER. (glad I didn't know THAT either. :) This was also the first time she had both arms hooked up to several bags between fluids, normal meds, and antibiotics.
Whatever it was, she says she feels great now...still a bit nauseous but that is prob from the antibiotics.
This will be my last update. I want to thank everyone again for staying with us and standing in prayer. Please know what a difference it made to Christina and to us...and to my being able to handle this without becoming unglued entirely (was getting close yesterday afternoon when I hadn't heard anything!). Much love and thanks to all FReepers, Kare
Thank you for the update. God is good and He is with us wherever we go. I’m so glad that your dear daughter is out of danger and at home having some chicken soup. And you got to see her as well — how wonderful is our modern technology! Take care and have a beautiful rest of the weekend.
I don’t know if she has access to probiotics there in Australia. I’m guessing she should.
She should find some good strong ones with lots of different flora and take them a couple times a day for a few weeks during and after finishing her course of treatment.
Once the antibiotics kill off all the bacteria in her system, what gets there first will become established. Better that it’s the good stuff, the probiotics, than another infection of some kind.
I had MRSA almost 2 years ago and was on some incredibly strong antibiotics and did lots of the probiotics afterwards and never had any other problems with secondary infections later.
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