We are often asked, “How is Carmen doing?” We never know quite how to answer that question. If she has a respiratory infection then we say that she is sick. Or if she has an eye infection we might mention that. But, most of the time, we just say, “Carmen is doing well for Carmen.”

Carmen has days when her oxygen is low, 90% or so, but she usually bounces back without extra medication. She has days when she is congested and needs Robitussin to help thin her secretions and extra nebulizer treatments and suctioning.

We put her on a “diet” a week ago and she has lost one pound. We reduced her daily calories to a little over 300 and her total fluid volume to about 800ml. Already, she looks less swollen and puffy. We think she could lose about 5 lbs. and be at a healthier weight. All that extra weight can’t be easy on breathing, something Carmen has struggled with for two years.

Carmen still has loose stools but not every day. In fact, she sometimes goes 2-3 days without pooping. This is quite different from her C-diff days of constant diarrhea! (We do not miss those days.) We’re not quite sure whatever happened to the C-diff. We stopped treating it after multiple antibiotic treatments failed. Somewhere along the way, the constant diarrhea stopped.

Carmen also has bouts of very low temperatures, as low as 92 degrees. On the other hand, she often has low-grade fevers, 99 degrees or so.

Despite all of this, Carmen IS doing well for Carmen.

Strangely, Carmen seems to do better in the fall/winter/spring and then gets hit hard with pneumonia in the summer. I might expect that if she was from Antarctica but the Guatemalan girl really should be able to tolerate a Maryland summer!

Here is the “new” Carmen, one pound down!