Brief Medical Recap

Dear friends and family,
This is day 6 of sage's transfer to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. After a brief illness at Brattleboro Hospital involving gastrointestinal symptoms, Sage rapidly declined and required transport via helicopter to DHMC, where she continues to receive critical care in the ICU. Her course has been rocky since admission with small steps. Her diagnosis is ARDS. This is where we're at as of 4pm on Tuesday August 3:
1: Sage remains on the ventilator requiring significant respiratory support with some improvement in requirements since her admission.
2. The team continues to search for the infectious cause of her illness. Thus far there are no clues. Of great concern is an increase in her white blood cell count today. She continues to have elevated temperatures. An ultrasound was obtained today to reevaluate her abdomen; those results are pending. A CT scan would be invaluable in evaluating her condition, but she remains too unstable to transfer for a CT scan. Her chest xray remains essentially unchanged from yesterday. All her cultures have thus far been negative (not shown any source of infection). The infectious disease team continues to search for causes for such an overwhelming illness.
3. Sage remains heavily sedated, though her paralysis medication was stopped today.
4. Her heart and her kidneys remain strong.

It is a great support to Sophie and to all of us here with her to see your comments on this blog. Please continue to check in and send good wishes. Many thanks.