Hi Everyone,

Today brought waiting, waiting, and more waiting. Hence, why you've gotten not 1, but 2 blog posts from me today. Well, we saw all of her docs first thing this morning. Pulmonology said they wanted to drain more fluid again. They are adamant about getting all the fluid out of there and trying to avoid doing a chest tube thing. The majority of the rest of the day was spent waiting for her to go get another thoracentesis (chest drain). The Queen was extremely uncomfortable most of the morning. She was the most uncomfortable I've ever had to see her. She was very short of breath and was coughing a lot. We were told by multiple people that a productive, phlegm producing cough is a good thing...as horrible and nasty as it may sound when she is coughing. So, the coughing is a good sign. The Infectious Disease Doctor came down and he said he is going to keep her on antibiotics just to be safe. These antibiotics will help get out any of the pneumonia that may still be lingering. All of the doctor's together seem to agree that this is all just the ending phases of the pneumonia working it's way out of her lungs. As we are all learning, this is just a long and arduous process.

So...fast forward to 4PM. I get a call from Oconee Co. Schools telling me all after school activities are cancelled due to the threat of severe weather. Shoot, I thought to myself....I have to get back to Athens. So, I abruptly (and very reluctantly) left the hospital to head towards Athens pre-storm. Good decision, I must say. We had intense rain and wind all over GA and I made it back just in time. Pretty crazy stuff. So, I made it home and got Queen Jean updates from Jan and my dad. Turns out, they drained a ridiculous amount of fluid off of my mom's lungs. 600 cc's on the right side and 1200 cc's on the left side. This is INSANE. They drained 1200 cc's TOTAL the last time they did this. So, moral of the story....the good news is that it explains why she was so uncomfortable. The scary news is that we don't know why the fluid KEEPS coming back. It should be done coming back by now, yet here we are again. So, tomorrow they are going to do a bronchoscopy which will involve putting an itty bitty camera into her lungs (via going down her throat) to see what's going on. They think there may be some intense mucus plugs (areas of concentrated mucus...gross) which they would be able to suction out. This still doesn't completely explain why the fluid keeps coming back. So...they will do a chest X-Ray on Wednesday to see what's going on with the fluid and then we will go from there. There may be a need for a chest tube, but we're taking this one day at a time and not worrying about that until we get to Wednesday.

Please, please, please....we need mega magical prayers and good vibrations for NO MORE fluid in and/or around her lungs. Let's just focus on that one for right now.

Love and hugs to each of you,

The Queen's Royal Court