Post-surgical complications

This is Brian with another update on Wendi. I spoke too soon about her not needing to go into the ICU. She experienced a few post-surgical complications... nothing life-threatening, but she had to be moved into the ICU because of them. The first complication was from the mix of medications that were being pumped into her after surgery; I think I counted half a dozen tubes going into her at one point, each with a different medication. Late Tuesday evening, she lost her ability to communicate coherently. Right now she is so drugged out that she is not completely conscious; she does not recognize or acknowledge us when we are in the room and she cannot talk to us. It is truly frightening to watch, but several doctors have assured me that such a reaction is not uncommon for someone who had such radical surgery. She seems to be doing better each day, and it's our hope and expectation that she will be able to join the rest of us in the conscious realm by this weekend.

The second complication was that one of her kidneys suffered a small amount of damage during the surgery. (That is a very common occurrence during such surgeries.) To fix the damage, her doctor ordered a procedure known as percutaneous nephrostomy. The procedure went well; there were no problems observed.