Sven/Kurt's update on Kolfinna/Kitty

To all of Kolfinna's friends. I know that there are many stories and rumors floating around about Kitty's condition so I thought that I would let everybody know what is going on.

Kitty was hospitalized early Sunday morning and is now in the Intensive Care unit at the Antelope Valley Hospital. She was not feeling well on Sunday at Highland war so after her pelican ceremony we (me actually) packed everything up and came home. On Monday I took her to urgent care where she was diagnosed with a fever. She was given an IV of saline to help her dehydration and was sent home to rest. She stayed home from work last week and on Thursday her cough was getting worse so we went back to urgent care to get some prescription cough medicine. At urgent care she was re-examined and given a chest x-ray and was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was given prescriptions for antibiotics and a codeine based cough medicine. She took her prescriptions but her cough kept getting worse. She also did not react well with the codeine medicine so her condition worsened. On Saturday night her pulse rate increased dramatically and her cough was getting even worse, so we went to urgent care for the 3rd time.

When they checked her in, her vitals were not good. Her pulse was 130 bpm and her blood pressure was low. They also measured her blood oxygen saturation level and it was around 60% (95% is considered normal). The nurse put her on oxygen and her level got a bit better, but after 3 hours they had her breathing pure oxygen and her level was only reaching 85%. She was given steroids, more IVs and quite a few antibiotics. She also had another chest x-ray that showed that the pneumonia had gotten worse. At ten PM it was decided that she needed to be transported to the hospital.

In the emergency room she was put on positive pressure oxygen mask that actually pushes oxygen into your lungs. This raised her oxygen percentage but caused her a lot of pain. At 3 AM the emergency room doctor decided to put Kitty on a Ventilator, a tube that is pushed down your throat and pumps oxygen directly into your lungs. Since this is a painful, invasive procedure, Kitty was sedated and is now sleeping constantly and will be until they remove the tube. Over the last 2 days Kitty has been seen by many doctors but currently it is not known exactly what infection she has. The doctors are treating her with many antibiotics and trying to keep her oxygen level as high as possible. Last night she suffered from a collapsed lung and they put a tube in to help fight that. Since then her oxygen percentage has gone up and is now ranging between 89 and 92%. This is not as high as the doctors would like but it is much better then her numbers on Monday.

Currently her vital signs are pretty good and she is sedated and holding her own. She is effectively unconscious and the hospital is discouraging her from having too many visitors. I will keep everyone posted and will let you know of any changes. Please cross post this to any list that you think that it should be on. -- Sven.

Update!

Good news. I went back to the hospital tonight and talked to the pulmonary specialist about Kitty's oxygen saturation percentage. It is currently at 90% and he was able to drop the oxygen pressure down a bit. He would like it to be higher but to make it higher they have to increase the oxygen pressure which is hard on the lungs. He says brain damage is permanent but lungs can be repaired so they will do whatever it takes to keep her at 90%+, but now they have some leeway and they can lower the pressure to help her start to heal. I will see her again tomorrow morning and give everyone an update. (Edited Note from Cat: She hasn't suffered any brain damage. This was a comparativen remark that if there were any lung damage, lungs can recover and be repaired.)

Please forward this post to any group that you think that it should be on.

Sven/Kurt