Virtual wedding guest

It's been a busy last few days, but thankfully, things have settled down a bit for Karl. Today he was moved from ICU into a regular room at University Hospital. If anyone's interested in visiting, he's in unit 6B, room 435. Doctors still have not specifically pinpointed the cause of his infection. First they said it was a screw. Then they said it was another infection in the kidneys. Then they said it was his lungs. Now they're saying it may be an issue with steroids given to him in Maui. Regardless, they say they'll get to the bottom of it.

In the meantime, Karl was able to see his niece's wedding and part of the reception via a live-feed on his computer on Saturday. We told him we weren't going to have the volume on during the wedding in case they had to provide some sort of care for him at the hospital. Of course he protested (jokingly) because he said he planned to starting yelling when the pastor asked if there was anyone who had any reason that the couple shouldn't get married.

We also took the computer to the reception where people were able to send him instant messages. Unfortunately Karl was undergoing some pretty nasty procedures at that point. They believed his arms were giving inaccurate blood pressure readings and so they began sticking needles deep into the arteries in his arms. They poked him at least 20 times. Fortunately, they were right...his blood pressure was much better than what the cuff was telling. In the meantime, in order to raise what they thought was low blood pressure, they gave him a large amount of fluid intravenously. He puffed up like marshmallow and was pretty uncomfortable.

Tonight he was still a little puffy, but feeling better. His creatinine count is still high and staying steady at 4.9, but they feel it will drop. They believe once the steroids leave his system, his own adrenal glands will start making the proper amount and then his kidneys will get back to normal. All of his cultures came back negative which is leading the doctors in this direction.

While he feels he got very good care in Maui, he is very confident in his care at U-M. Dr. Schuetze stops in almost daily and seeing his familiar face gives Karl a huge boost of confidence. They have told him they hope to be sending him home sometime this week, but Karl doesn't want to come home unless he's "fixed." I'm sure he'd like to avoid unnecessary pokes and repeated questions.

I can't begin to tell you all how much we appreciate your prayers, thoughts and kind words. They mean so very much to all of us. And while last week was pretty stressful for all of us, I'm pretty sure this one will be much calmer...mostly because Karl's feeling better and there's not a wedding in the works!!

For those of you wondering, here's a photo of the bride and groom.

Nikki & Darrell Eaton