Consider it done. Prayers headed her way.

It happens all too often, we soldier on through pain, not wanting to complain. The wiser choice is to listen to your body, it could be trying to tell you something!

Thank you for sharing her story. I just said a prayer for her full recovery.

Sending good energy her way... she sounds like a wonderful person.

Sending good energy J's way.

Fly, your friend is in my prayers. Please let us know how she does.

tina

Lots of powerful energy coming her way. And what a wonderful testament to her is your appeal. She is lucky to have you as a friend. c

Done.

Dee

Adding my good thoughts for her!

J. will be in my prayers too, Flyleft! ( She is so fortunate to have a good friend like you!)

Of course - sending healing thoughts and prayers.

Absolutely flyleft. Sending positive thoughts and energy out to your dear friend! Keep us posted.

Keeping your friend in my thoughts and prayers. May she have a good recovery.

Thank you all so much. J. and her DH can use all the positive energy they can get. I'll update as I can. I'm the lucky one to have an assistant/friend as special as she is, and I am constantly envisioning her back with us in the classroom at some point later this fall. I know that any students who return will want to contribute their energies and prayers as well, if J. isn't there when we start up again.

Now on a much less threatening level (but one that's quite mortifying to her), I have to go tend to my poor daughter, who finally got a bad stomach bug that was going around at a camp we attended over the weekend, and threw up in the hallway on her first day of high school. Yep, really. It never rains but it pours. Luckily, it was just freshman orientation day, but still.

I'm a big believer in positive energy and have more than enough to send to you, your daughter and your friend.

Is she at OHSU or Legacy? Sending positive energies!

You and your friend are in my prayers.

Thank you, blfenton and paintergirl--and thanks for asking, pesky - if she's where she was for the original procedure, she's at Kaiser Sunnyside. That's all I know -- she's back in the hospital.

Interesting -- I just googled them and found this article. I'd gone to St. V's back in 2008, partly because it was an emergency and they're closest, and partly because our insurance was linked with Providence. Looks like J's at a state of the art facility. I'm so thankful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kaiser Sunnyside cardiac unit brand new in 2009

She's in my prayers.

I had my brow lift done at Sunnyside and was super impressed with the facility. I'm sure she's in good hands. My late FIL was at the new cardiac unit in Eugene & it was top notch. Continued best wishes.

*somewhat tentatively relieved sigh* I just got off the phone with her DH. I don't want to go into details, but I'm just thankful that 1) her DH made her take the return of pain seriously again and 2) that her medical team is on top of the (rather serious) problem. Please keep the good energies coming, that she resolve it complication-free, and get back on the fast track to recovery.

When you're in a health crisis, please don't ever think that you should just tough out a suddenly increasing pain. Bother someone. Let them know what you're feeling. Be an imposition. Pain is not just 'weakness leaving the body', as I see some football t-shirts say. That motto makes me sick, actually. But that's another story.

Thank you all again so very much. I'll let you know when she's home and back on solid ground. High-tech medicine *does* have its place, for sure.

Prayers going out for your friend..

Beth P.

From me too.
And tell your DD that now nothing bad can happen to her in high school!

Thank you all, and cooper, I'll pass that on. We actually had to spend the evening in the ER getting my little dear rehydrated and her nausea stopped...she got this worse than other other kids did, possibly because she was already dehydrated a bit from the hiking (they didn't do as much as she did) and also because there's just not a lot of slack on that body to start with. She looked literally *gray*, and had a temperature so low it didn't register on the thermometers for a couple of hours. It was a bit scary, how fast it came on. But then after 2 liters of fluids, she was back to her beautiful, joking, pink-lipped self. I imagine in an earlier time, she would have had a different outcome, as would have my friend. Life is so precious and so capricious.

Oh my gosh Fly! I can imagine your concerns about DD. It really makes you think of how fragile life can be, over something we wouldn't consider being life threatening. My DD had a gastric incident and I was about an hour away so I had her call 9-1-1. They brought her to the ER and she, too, was close to peril, extremely dehydrated and weak. Some meds, fluids, antibiotics and she was sent home. In 3rd world countries, this is how many die. Best wishes to all involved.

Pesky, it sounds like our daughters might have had the same kind of thing hit them. It came on *so fast*--in 6 hours she was hollowed out...and I can just imagine the added torture it must have been for those campers to have to go through it in a public bathroom...ugh.

I think many of us would be dead several times over if it weren't for high-tech medicine (or even just IV rehydration). I think I'll send some $$ to Mercy Corps for the drought in Somalia today.

Sending out good vibes for your friend and her DH, and also your DD. We never appreciate good health, it seems, until these things happen and we understand how quickly it all can change.

les, that's so true. The county the camp is in is now evidently investigating the outbreak -- over half the campers and staff, and a significant number of senior-citizen experts in a particular field as well, came down with it. They're the people I'm worried about now but I have no way of getting in touch with them. Something went wrong somewhere.

Fly, just read this and sending every good thought and energy your friend's way.

Glad DD is back to normal. No fun and certainly not the way anyone wants to start HS.

And, yes, medicine these days is incredible, thank goodness.

Thank you, cyn, and thanks to everyone for your kind prayers and energies...

Here's an update: acc. to her DH, J. is moving in the right direction every day, evidently not hurting anywhere near as much, is back walking a bit, and if she keeps improving (it's a *long*, tricky process) over the next couple of days will get put on "the 5-day process" and then back home. Not sure what that last part means but I don't want to bother him. Basically, the direction of change is now positive.

Heparin is a really tricky drug...I remembered that when I had my MI, I got clots in the vein in my arm where the heparin drip had been. Luckily, it was a superficial rather than a deep vein, so for some reason it either just dried up as a vein and my body worked around it (my memory is foggy but I do remember the hand guy saying something like that) or the clots resolved themselves without any help. But I remember the discomfort from just having clots in that small size vessel.

And DD is pretty much back to normal -- the county and the camp have now decided to *close* the camp for now and investigate further, so no one else gets sick, because another group of campers who came in after us, *senior citizens* (for whom such a virus could be very serious--although any seniors who could go camping in central Oregon are probably tougher than I'll ever be : )), got sick too. Interesting to see public health at work. I'm just happy that DD wasn't nicknamed "barf girl" or anything when she went back on Friday : )

I know it's been a long time and you all have probably forgotten about my friend, but I just wanted to update anyone who might be interested: she's HOME! Her DH wrote me tonight. She got released a day before the earliest he'd told me she would, so it's extra-good news. I know that your energies helped her beat this potentially horrible complication, so I thank all of you who took a second and sent thoughts and prayers out here to the PNW. I'm so very thankful. I just now have to wait patiently until she feels up to seeing non family members. I can wait : )

That's great news. I knew a woman who died suddenly from a blood clot that started in her legs and moved rapidly to her heart. It was a shock to everyone, she wasn't even aware herself how much trouble she was in. So your friend is very lucky.

Thanks for sharing the good news, Flyleft! J. was not forgotten! I've been praying for her and thinking about her every day since you introduced her here. I'm sure others have as well. Keep us posted on how she does.

Wishing her a complete and smooth recovery process!

There is something to be said about the power of positive thinking! And, the strength one gains through friends like you. Good job, Flyleft!

flyingflower, stinky and paintergirl -- I completely agree! There is true power in positive thinking. I so appreciate your holding her in your thoughts all this time.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend, flying. The mom of a friend of mine when I was a kid just *dropped* one morning while she was making lunches for her kids. I've thought often that without the knowledge we now have re early identification, intervention, etc. there would be so many more folks dying around 40-60, and our life expectancies would be more in line with what used to be.

With the help of advanced medicine, J. has defended her life twice in the last three weeks...it just hits me sometimes.

I just saw this post; praying for your friend's speedy and uneventful recovery.