20Feb08 - Portimao Update

Lucy has now been stuck in Portimao hospital, Portugal for a week. She has not responded well enough to the antibiotics and continues to struggle to maintain her saturation levels when she is taken off the oxygen. Her temperature is mostly under control but has occassionally gone back up again. Lucy has not yet been able to shift all the fluid on her lungs and continues to be treated for this. Yesterday she had another chest x-ray which showed some small white spots on her lungs. The doctor said they were not large enough to indicate pneumonia but he did say there must be some resistance to the antibiotics. Last night they started a new course of stronger antibiotics but unfortunately they will also take a while to start working. This means that it is very unlikely that Lucy will be well enough to fly on Saturday. Dawn has already had to rearrange their flights and this is a real blow. On the postive side the doctor is not over concerned about the long term prospects, Lucy just takes a long time to recover from anything. The care at the hospital has been very good but Lucy is in a general ward with lots of other sick children. The chance of her picking up something else while she is there is a real worry and we just want to get Lucy home. The best outcome would be if by some small miracle Lucy is able to fly on Saturday but I think there is still a long way to go.