BMT Day 8

At 8:00 a.m. I was informed that blood cultures came back showing bacteria in Ashtyn’s blood stream. She has a life threatening blood infection. On top of that, medication levels have been high for a couple days indicating that her kidneys are not working properly. There are so many problems that come from injured kidneys but one is, medications build up and build up in her system instead of being excreted in urine causing a lot of confusion and irritability. I’ve never seen Ashtyn so confused and agitated. It seems like her body is tolerating the blood infection as she is being treated with antibiotics. Every 24 hours blood cultures will be checked hoping they will be negative for bacteria soon. Delirium has been such a struggle. It’s not certain what’s causing it but for now the best guess is multiple medication toxicity. By 1:00 p.m. it was decided she needed to be in the ICU mainly because of her mental status and kidney function. As of right now, not only does she have a nurse who is often doing medical interventions in the room but she also has a nurses aid 24/7 at the bedside because several times an hour Ash sits up and tries to climb out of bed to leave. Some may wonder why I don’t lose faith. A couple Facebook comments I received today explains why: “Maybe the ICU is going to be a tender mercy - somehow!” And “Praying that you look back on this and see it was just another step.”

ICU

Ashtyn was moved into the intensive care unit with bacterial blood sepsis, struggling kidneys, and significant confusion and delirium. Please trust God. Please trust Ashtyn’s strength. Please trust your own prayers in helping her gain health quickly. She is in the best medical hands, got a priesthood blessing, and now will continue benefiting from all your prayers. Please pray for her. Pray 1. for negative blood cultures. 2. that her kidneys will quickly recover not requiring dialysis. 3. her brain will recover quickly bringing back our alert Ashtyn. I believe.