WebWalker's Blog

More from Rickey Lynn: Dear Family and Friends, Lori has been admitted to the hospital. The good news is that her kidneys are fine. The bad news is that the liver produces an enzyme which causes the kidneys to remove excess fluid from the body. Lori's liver has stopped producing this enzyme which has caused the problem. On the good side of things, she was out of the waiting room and moved to the back of the ER in 20 minutes from coming in the front door. Also on the good side of things, she was seen by the chief of staff, who apparently is familiar with this type of case, and seemed to know exactly what to do. Jennifer is very pleased with how they treated Lori, and feels Lori is in good hands now. The hospital has made arrangements for the liver specialist (whom Lori was supposed to see on the 16th) to see her in the morning at the hospital. While going to the hospital is never a good thing, in this case, it may be good in that Lori is going to see him a lot sooner than she was su...

This word just in from Rickey Lynn: Dear Family and Friends, Lori is on her way to the emergency room at Good Samaritan Hospital right now. In addition to having passed blood in her urine, today she has not been able to make any urine at all, which is potentially a serious situation. In addition, she still has some bleeding from the intestinal area. On the positive side, the liver doctor's office is across the street from the hospital, and this is the primary hospital he works from. As more news becomes available I will let everyone know. As always, your prayers and good wishes are sincerely solicited. Rickey Lynn, Jennifer, June, David, and Kendell

Mary Borrelli is now at a rehab facility, a sort of half-way point before they release her completely to home care. Here's the contact info: Brentwood Rehab 5400 W 87th Street Room 105, Bed 1 Burbank IL 60459 Direct telephone to Mary's room: 708-346-6531 Telephone for the rehab facility: 708-523-1200 I have the feeling they are not giving her the levels of pain medication that she was receiving in the hospital, because she was not feeling very chipper this morning. (When Aunt Mary does not want to talk, you KNOW she's in pain!) Plus, I am sure these first days of physical therapy are pretty painful, to say the least. Lupe, Don, and their children are all rallying around her with love. All prayers, good wishes, and happiness vibes will be greatly appreciated by her I am sure.

Good news - Mary Borrelli had her hip replacement surgery around noon today, and is no resting comfortably in her hospital room. We are all grateful to the doctors and staff at Advocate Christ Hospital, and to all the family and friends who have been so supportive. Mary is happy it's over, and in typical good spirits. More later - I was on jury duty again today and just got home, gotta go get a bite to eat and call Aunt Mary again to celebrate!

Received this update from Rickey Lynn last evening, about Lori: Dear Family and Friends, We had Lori at the doctor today, and so far, things could be a lot worse. The doctor thinks that the last time Lori was in the hospital, they damaged her bladder with the catheter, creating a massive infection in the area, which is causing bleeding in the bladder. They have put her on large doses of Cipro to take care of this part of the problem. The other source of bleeding seems to be somewhere in the intestines. Lori has an appointment with a gastroenterologist on Tuesday to have the other bleeding analyzed and hopefully stopped. We will keep you all updated as we have more information. As always, your prayers and good wishes are sincerely solicited. Rickey Lynn, Jennifer, June, David, and Kendell

Dear Family and Friends, It was found yesterday that Lori is having a problem with internal bleeding. She has a meeting this afternoon with the doctor to see what can be done about it. She is also having a problem holding any food down, so we will be discussing that as well. We will keep all of you posted as soon as we know anything. As always, your prayers and good wishes are sincerely solicited. Rickey Lynn, Jennifer, June, David, and Kendell

Found this pic of Mary Borrelli, flanked by her two cousins Louise and Mary, taken at the recent Family Reunion. Cousins rule!

Still waiting for Mary's blood clotting levels to come in line to do the hip replacement surgery. Now they are giving her plasma, and are hopeful that by late tonight they will be able to take her to the operating room.

Hi folks, some sad news today - Mary Borrelli fell yesterday and is now in Christ Hospital (Room 660W) awaiting hip replacement surgery. They can't do the surgery just yet because her INR levels (blood clotting factor) are way out of line, probably from Coumadin medication for her heart. They are giving her morphine now for the pain, and Vitamin K to try and get her INR levels in line so they can do the surgery. They will check the levels at 2pm today (Chicago time) to see if they can do surgery today or if they have to wait till tomorrow. Of course, being 93, the biggest risk of doing surgery is the anesthesia; other than that it is a "simple procedue" in the doc's estimation. Mary will of course not be able to return to her second-floor walk-up condo, so the plan right now is that after a week in the hospital she will stay with Don and Maria ("Lupe") Borrelli. They have a two story home so Mary will be in the downstairs living room. Lupe will take two week...

Aaaaah, cooler weather in Arizona, finally. We've had TWO whole days of "below-100-degree" weather, and are all looking forward to a cooler autumn. *sigh* There's a cornfield maze a few miles from here, off Loop 101, anyone want to join me to go through the maze? The last maze I visited was on the Dole Plantation in Hawaii; it was fantastic, the maze was in a huge pineapple shape. I think this local one is designed around Halloween; it's called the "Fear Maze" but should still be lots of fun to go through.

This just in from Rickey Lynn: Dear Family and Friends, Lori will be meeting on October 16th with the transplant surgeon. He is telling us that the transplant takes a fair amount of time to arrange, but he seems willing to start moving on it. The doctor tells us that in general, they discourage live liver transplants, because they must ethically check into why a person would be willing to donate their liver to another person, and they must look for any underlying reasons including paying the person, guilt complexes, etc. In the mean time, at least we are starting to see a little bit of progress in the right direction. We will keep you all posted as things happen. As always, your prayers and good wishes are sincerely solicited. Rickey Lynn, Jennifer, June, David, and Kendell

Rickey Lynn has been keeping us posted with emails as to Lori's condition, which had seemed to be deteriorating at an alarming rate over the past few weeks... to the point they had given her as little as 6 months to live. But now we have some encouraging news! Here's the latest from Rickey Lynn: Dear Family and Friends, This is totally nuts! Yesterday, the doctors were having us meet with Hospice of the Valley, and this morning they met again and reversed the decision. Their recommendation now is that we pursue "agressive" therapy, and they have recommended placing Lori on the transplant list! If we can find a living donor, she could have the surgery in as little as 2 months. We've been given information now on who to call on Monday morning to get her on the list. This is the best news we've had in a long, long time. As always, your prayers and good wishes are sincerely solicited. Lori can use all the help she can get now, and the power of prayer can always he...

Happy to share our joy with all! We are trying to get back into the swing of things and it's been tough getting out more info. Marleigh is doing well and her eating schedule has just changed from every 2 1/2 hours to every hour, hour and a half! Not much rest for the weary around here. But she is awesome, she is dreaming in my arms right now and she makes the cutest faces! Zac has been back to work since last Thursday and he is doing a great job. Our love and thanks to all for your support and blessings, Love, Tonya [and Zac] Zachary C. Coletti Concrete Canvas, LLC 772-418-0777 www.concretecanvasfl.com (Hey folks, check out Zac's website!!)

This just in from Cousin Dianne Moore: Hi everyone!!! I am a grandma now! Please read my son's email below for all the details and see the pictures of my new Granddaughter! I was in the labor/delivery room for the final 7 hours (!) and saw her being born...what an awesome experience!!! Love to all, Dianne [Below the pics is the letter from Zac and Tonya. The pics are all clickable to see a larger image.] Hello! Here are some pics of our new little girl, Marleigh Grace Sonya Coletti. She weighed in at a lean and mean 6lbs15oz., was 19.5" long and showed up at 2:01pm on Saturday September 1st! Tonya was in active labor for approximately 21 hours (8 at home and 13.5 at the hospital) and gave birth naturally without an epidural! She is an amazing woman. Although we did not name her for the meaning, the name Marleigh is derivative of Marlene which is Greek for "High Tower", We thought the name Grace was perfect and added Sonya because it was Tonya's Grandmother's ...

Bethany, aka Mommy Rohde (pictured to the left, holding Baby Jack a few months ago), sent us the two fabulous photos below, taken during Dave's recent visit to their home (near Seattle). The quasi-Michelangelo pic is of Dave and Baby Jack; the other is of Baby Jack and Mark playing on the floor... As Bethany wrote, "I sure love watching Dave and Mark jump right into being Uncles! They are so good with Jack and he loves them so much too! " Uncle Dave Whetstone and Baby Jack Uncle Mark Thomas and Baby Jack Rohde