Day 13, noon update

Hello friends,
Thank you for staying with us as we close out the second week here at DHMC. Your support is giving us all strength.
Sage had a good night last night: her urine output is very good, her abdomen is less firm than it has been (probably because some of the fluid has drained out from where she was "tapped" the other day), and—best of all—her WBC shows a significant drop. We are very, very happy about those things.
The chest x-ray taken this morning showed a new or residual pneumothorax on her left side, which is vexing. The doctors were hoping that the tube (a "pigtail") they had placed yesterday in her chest could be opened and cleared to relieve this pneumothorax, but after doing that they took a second x-ray and decided that the "pigtail" was placed probably too high in her chest to get at this one. So... the good people from IR (interventional radiology) are going to come up and place a second chest tube, slightly larger, that will fix this pneumothorax and hopefully act as a prophylactic to any future occurrences of this pesky little beast. After that is placed they will remove yesterday's pigtail.
This is a bump in the road, but it is to be expected when one is on the oscillator—and all the more reason to get over it and get weaned off of it. So we're going to do this thing today, quite soon, and we ask you to send some good love and prayer our way for it; and then we're going to get back to the good business of weaning Sagie off of that oscillator. Patience. Positive energy. Keep calm and carry on.

Mary arrived last night, a boon to all of us here. She was Sage's respite nurse in California, 19 years ago, and contributed more than a few dashes of spice and strength to that feisty, peppery, willful personality of Sage's that we all love. It is great to have Mary back here, to know that the person who nursed her through so much all those years ago is here now—it brings a sense that yes, we know this place, we recognize it, and we are stronger and larger than it. Spirits up! Deep breaths! Good lungs! We'll let you know after the tube is placed where we're at. So many thanks to you all...