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.