Thursday, June 09, 2011

Update from Tabitha

Some of you may already know from reading my blog or following along on Facebook:

Karl O'Melay is hospitalized with a septic blood infection. It is not contagious, but has infected his heart valves and he will need valve replacement surgery. The surgery can't be done until the infection is completely eradicated. He is very, very ill. The good news is that the antibiotics are working well and Karl is already looking so much better. He has great doctors. He's at Summit in Oakland which is a great heart health hospital.

Our family physician feels that probable Carbon Monoxide exposure on Wednesday of last week, which alone would not have debilitated Karl for more than a couple of days, suppressed Karl's system and at home a common bacteria that rarely is dangerous bloomed in his system and took over. The bacteria proliferated in his heart valves and damaged them. The infection thus was circulated through his body with every beat of his heart. The functionality of Karl's heart valves is greatly impaired and he will require valve replacement. In the past two days we have learned that the mitral and Aortic valves must be replaced through open heart surgery, which will be done after 4 weeks of IV antibiotics to completely clear the sepsis.

We appreciate your prayers, thoughts, and offers of help. As you can imagine this has not been easy on our four young children or myself. We are not able to be by Karl's side very much, and I can't leave the kids for too long to visit alone. Karl, naturally, is the worst off and he needs to not be worrying too much about the future or us right now.

To that end our close friends the Scotts have set up an online care calendar for people who wish to sign up for meals, groceries, housework, rides to and from the hospital, errands or child care. You can bring personal meals or offer take out, etc. Any offer of help is welcome. If the calendar doesn't have a spot for what you'd like to offer please call Patricia Scott (the coordinator) to offer it. She can be reached at 510 913 3151. Below is the calendar information:

Patricia McMahon Scott has set up a helpful calendar for people who wish to help us by donating time or meals. Some things can be donated long distance. Contact Patricia if you have questions. Thank you so much.

Enter the following info for our calendar:

CALENDAR ID : 77273
SECURITY CODE : 5087

CareCalendar - Filling the needs
www.carecalendar.org
Web based system to organize meals and other help for families during a time of illness or life changing event, such as the birth of a baby or death of a family member

4 comments:

Rixa said...

Oh, I'm terribly sorry to hear the news about Karl. I wish I could help out some way, but I'm about as far as you can get from California (temporarily in New Brunswick, Canada).

Ron said...

That sucks... I discovered the feeling of being utterly dependent on the competence of doctors when my appendix broke this spring. In spite of the downsides, the drugs and surgery gave me another shot at life. I wish the same for Karl, and peace of mind for the rest of you.

Ed said...

Heal well and heal fast my friend. My thoughts are with you and your family.

Robin said...

That is horrible. Get better soon. :(

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