Happy Birthday to Jennifer!

Today is Jennifer's birthday! We are celebrating today with a big BBQ with friends, and I took her for a pedicure. Jennifer is progressing well. The skin grafts have taken and the healing process is looking well. Jennifer is struggling emotionally right now. She has had to be so strong an positive for her family, and now the emotions are starting to kick in. She is understandably having some emotionally bad days among good days. She still needs lots of support and love from all of us to get through this tough time. Keep her in your prayers.

Progressing well!

Jennifer is doing well since she has been at home. Her sister Lori came and stayed for a week and was a big help to Jennifer! Jennifer got her bandages changed on Monday and the wound vac taken off. She is getting around better and having less pain. Way to hang in there Jen!

Home at last!

Jennifer arrived home today and is doing pretty well. She was very glad to be sleeping in her own bed. The kids are glad to have her home. Jen still has quite a bit of pain from the skin graft site. Welcome Home Jennifer!

Jen, in the car leaving the hospital, we're outta here!

Jennifer will be able to come home tomorrow, April 20th. She will still have a wound drain on her arm and a nurse coming in twice a week to change the dressing and such. We will just be glad to have her at home, although she will still need plenty of rest and lots of help.

This is a picture of Jennifer's leg after the skin graft. The redness towards her knee is what the rest of her thigh looks like under the gauze. The skin graft has been the worst pain of this whole ordeal. They have had a hard time getting her pain under control. Hang in there Jennifer!

Jennifer had a rough night with pain. Her leg where they took the skin grafts is very painful. Jennifer described it as feeling like she is constantly pouring hot water on her leg. Let's pray that they get her pain under control with the medication today so that she can rest comfortably!

Jennifer had her surgery today. All went well. Jennifer is having quite a bit of pain today, and hopefully they will get that under control. We love you Jen!

Jennifer is scheduled for surgery this Thursday, April 15th to close the arm incision and skin grafts. Keep her in your thoughts and pray that all goes well. We love you Jen!

*Walsh Family Relief Fund*

I have set up a donation account at US Bank to help Tim and Jennifer financially. You can make donations a couple of ways. You can go to any US Bank and make a deposit into the account. The account name is the Walsh Family Relief Fund, account # 153354155118. If you do not live near a US Bank and would like to donate you can make out a check to the Walsh Family Relief Fund and mail it to me at 3924 N Longabaugh Ave, Meridian, ID 83646. Any amount you can donate would be very much appreciated! We can also set it up through paypal if you would prefer. Just contact me at 208-440-6833.

Good News!

Tim saw his physician today regarding his shoulder, and he will not need surgery! What a relief. He can go back to work, but must be careful not to re-injure his shoulder. The tear was small and should heal on it's own with some physical therapy. No more jumping through hula hoops Tim!

Bad News!!!

Tim was being Mr. Mom and playing with the kids. Unfortunately he has injured his right shoulder rolling through a hula hoop, proving to the kids he could do it too. :-) He has torn a ligament in his shoulder and will talk to an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow to see if it will require surgery. We're going to need a lot more help taking care of these guys!

Visiting

Visiting Jen in the hospital. Oh no, why is Tim in an arm sling???

ICU

Jennifer in the Intensive Care unit Day 2 of hospital stay

Tim and Jayden spending the night in the hospital with Jen.

National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation

See the link to the left for the NNFF official website for more information about Jennifer's condition. She has Necrotizing Fasciitis.

Many of you have been wondering what you can do to help Jennifer and Tim at this time. What Jennifer and Tim really need is financial support. Tim has had to take this time off of work to be with Jennifer without pay, and Jennifer of course has not been able to work. A trust/donation account is being set up at US Bank. It will be completed and ready on Monday, with information on how you can donate funds to help them out during this critical time. I will post more information on it by Monday evening.

Jen's arm

This photo is a little "graphic" but it's to show the full effect of what this Strep Infection was able to do in the short amount of time it was in Jen's body!

Jennifer got word today that surgery to close her incision with skin grafts will be next Thursday, April 15th. She will be in the hospital for seven days following surgery, and will most likely go home on April 22nd. Keep her in your prayers that all goes well!

Ok, to fill in what I left out. The infection is a strain of strep. The bacteria went systemic meaning Jennifer was septic. She is on a continuous drip of Penicillin.

Jennifer's infection

It all started on Friday, March 26th. Jennifer's RT arm started to ache and hurt. On Saturday, we took her to the ER and they found a blood clot in her rt brachial vein. That evening Jennifer started running a fever and the pain was getting worse. On Sunday, Teresa (Jennifer's Mom ) took her back to the ER, only to be sent home with a new pain medication. Tim flew home Sunday evening to be with Jennifer. On Monday, Teresa and Tim took Jennifer into her regular physician's office. The physician did not know what to make of Jennifer's symptoms, and after Teresa insisted that she be admitted to the hospital (yey Teresa!), the doctor discovered Jennifer's Oxygen level was below normal, and sent her by ambulance to St. Alphonsus hospital in Boise. Jennifer spent all day Monday in the Emergency Room going through tests. After an MRI of her arm, it was discovered that she had an infection in her arm and she was taken to Emergency surgery. Jennifer has an incision from her arm pit to her wrist. She was admitted to the intensive care unit after surgery. The days following were very rough ones for Jennifer. A second surgery was done on Tuesday afternoon to clean the incision and change the wound vac. Jennifer was placed on a ventilator following surgery. Thank goodness Jennifer doesn't remember a whole lot about this time. The nurses called her a tiger as she was combative, calling them names, and pinching them! Ha, this is not like our Jennifer :-). Jennifer was able to come off of the ventilator Wednesday afternoon. On Saturday, Jennifer finally was aware of her surroundings and began talking to us! On Sunday she was moved out of the ICU to the telemetry unit where she continued to progress well. The incision on her arm has been left open packed and dressed with a wound vac. She will have to return to surgery again to have it closed with skin grafts. On Wednesday, Jennifer was moved from telemetry into a regular patient room where she does not need to be monitored as closely. Jennifer is awaiting news from the doctor today as to when surgery will be to close her arm. After surgery she will need to remain in the hospital for one more week.