July 26th

From Ron:
Apologies to everyone for the lack of information over the last few days.

In the form of an update we were finally able to move Elena to JMH Thursday night at 11:30pm. It ended up being a marathon day for all of us as we started at the hospital at 7:00am and didn't return home until 3:00am on Friday. While we were able to get a bed assigned we were unable to get a Doctor with admitting privileges that would agree to have Elena admitted. Mary made some calls and arranged for the transfer.

At the time of the transfer the ambulance was supposed to be equipped with all of the equipment needed to keep Elena stable. Once Elena was transfered to the ambulance they found that the ventilator couldn't handle her needs and they had to manually ventilate her for the 30 minutes it took to get her to JMH.

I'd like to comment on one of Elena's Doctors from Kendal Regional Hospital. His name is Jorge Yadskan and he is the Chief Intensivest. In the very early days we called him Doctor Doom. This was for two reasons, the first was because he was brutally honest at how low Elena's chances were, the other reason was because we couldn't pronounce his name. It became a term of endearment as we came to respect his medical skills and the respect he showed for us and Elena. No matter what happens I will always have a special place in my heart. Doctor Doom came in on his own time to supervise and accompany Elena during the transfer and he was the one who did most of the manual ventilation. This is about the most committed and dedicated healer I have ever seen or heard of.

When Elena arrived at JMH her numbers were actually better than when she left Kendal so we left for home.

On Friday we returned to JMH for the first visitation of the day at 11:30am. When we called the desk they asked if we could wait 20 minutes. That turned into 90 minutes when the nurse came out and escorted us in. Elena was in the worst condition she had been in since June 21st when she almost died. Her Doctors took the family aside and told us that she had very little time to live and that we should say our goodbye's. I don't think I need to explain how devastated we were but we made our calls and over 20 people showed up at the hospital.

In the early afternoon I started to see that Elena was improving all of her important numbers and by the end of the evening she was nearing her norm. By Saturday morning Elena was back at pre-move strength. Her sister Melissa arrived yesterday and I can tell you as a father what a comfort it is to have her here. It's now Sunday and she is holding her own. Melissa is spending the day with her and giving Laura and I a day to rest and get ready for tomorrow where we plan on meeting with her doctors to see if there is anything that can be done. She is still in extremely grave condition but if she can gain any strength there is still a chance that she may be able to get strong enough to go through one or another of the treatments that are available at JMH.

I'm sure that you will all understand how hard this is on all of us, and all of you that are following her progress. Regardless of what the Doc's say Elena is showing that she is not ready to leave us. Please keep praying.

The Walters