Care for Emily

Recently I received a letter from a life long friend, whom I hadn’t spoken with for several months. She was reaching out for support in a panic as she coped with the hospitalization of her (grown) little girl, who had just been admitted in an emergency, for severe complications from her life long battle with Type 1 Diabetes. Here is a piece of what Emily’s mom explained:

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I'm writing to let you know about Emily's current health situation… she is currently in the hospital because she was so weak from not being able to eat food for 3 straight weeks, due to nausea and still continued to vomit without food in her stomach… she has pneumonia, gastroperysis (which is a paralyzed muscle in her stomach that controls the movement of digesting through the system) her body cannot digest food without a massive amount of anti nausea medications…

Emily has refused a feeding tube due to her last experience of having one through the nose, which is the first step to see if her body would accept the nourishment. If it does, they move to the stomach feeding tube, which is an intense operation and healing process. Emily has researched it in great detail and found it has a high risk of infections. Any infection would kill her, as she is currently only 74 lbs.

… I have to honour, respect, and support her wishes, as she is a very smart, strong and beautiful young woman, who wants to maintain her dignity and integrity throughout her last bit of time left with us all.

When you don't eat for that length of time, the electrolytes start to plumet such as potassium magnesium phosphate and calcium which have all plummeted so far they have been intravenously giving them to her to get her levels back up to normal. However, she could at any moment go into cardiac arrest. They are doing everything they can to get it under control but as I said it will basically patch her up until it happens again due to not getting the feeding tube.

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After a month, Emily has returned home from the hospital, where her care largely falls on her loved ones. Although, Emily can’t work, she does all she can to earn money from her home, as she is able. I’m hoping to raise enough money to buy a suitable bed for her frail body and to help ease the strain of the extra cost and time it takes Emily and her mom to navigate this complicated life adjustment.