I sent out this email two nights ago by MailChimp. If you didn't receive this already, and would like to do so, you can email me at steve.faivre@cru.org so I can put you on our mailing list. I'm not often on Caring Bridge.

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January 3, 2024

Last night I almost lost Lorrie…

Three years ago (two days into our honeymoon) Lorrie had an arterial tear on the top of her left forearm. I brought her to urgent care in the middle of the night. The doctor recommended that she be brought to a specialist who repaired the torn artery. After resuming our honeymoon, she met with a vascular surgeon who cleared her aem but also noted this instance is unusual and probably related to her myelofibrosis.

Last Saturday, Lorrie experienced pain on the bottom of her left forearm. That night, I brought her to our local urgent care facility. They did a complete workup given her history from three years ago. The doctor advised that she be taken by ambulance to a sister facility which handles these types of cases.

Since there was blood flowing through her forearm into her hand and fingers, the vascular surgeon said that there was nothing for him to do. However, a hand surgeon determined that blood clots were building up in her forearm, hand, and fingers. That night he performed a fasciotomy to remove several small clots and released her left wrist from carpel tunnel syndrome. We limped into the New Year from the hospital.

The next day Lorrie experienced excruciating pain and was treated with various opioids to manage it. However, when the surgeon removed the dressing that night, there was a huge hematoma which was causing the pain and pressure she was experiencing. He tried to break up and remove the hematoma, but Lorrie was in such pain she almost passed out. She said it was much worse than childbirth if you can imagine such a thing. He put her under general anesthesia so he could perform a second surgery to clear out the wound and bandage with a fresh dressing.

Yesterday Lorrie experienced a much more comfortable day. However, she continued to bleed through the new dressing. Last night, the surgeon cleaned the wound again and dressed it with a new bandage. Again, Lorrie nearly passed out from the procedure. Later, when I tried to get her up to use the bathroom, I noticed blood all over her bed. I called for a nurse to help me. That’s when Lorrie became unresponsive. The nurse called for a rapid response team. Within minutes Lorrie was surrounded by ten medical staff.

At first, my job was to keep her from falling asleep while the rapid response team worked on her. I looked into her eyes, I told her that I loved her, and that her family and friends loved her.  Both of us believed that we were saying goodbye to each other if she fell asleep and never woke up again. Since it happened so suddenly, that moment was quite surreal. I was asked to step aside so the team could get her ready for transport to the ICU to stabilize her and prepare her to survive a third surgery. I was too stunned to cry.

I spent the rest of the night in the surgery waiting room praying for God to spare my wife’s life and arm and hand and fingers. Amputation was always a distant possibility. The surgeon called me at 4:30 AM to say he thought that she was out of danger and well on her way to moving forward to a full recovery. A few hours later I joined her in the ICU and have been with her all day. The surgeon stopped by about an hour ago to see how she was doing and gave her permission to eat solid food. She hasn’t eaten in two days.

Many have asked about the status of Lorrie’s stem cell transplant. We were all set on letting you know at the beginning of the year about what’s happening on that issue. However, what’s transpired over the past four nights has been quite traumatic and justifies postponing the telling of that story to later this month.

Please pray for the following:

1. No infection in her forearm, hand or fingers which could lead to amputating any infected flesh.
2. Full restoration of functionality to her hand and fingers (she’s left-handed and plays the piano).
3. Full recovery in the next 2-3 weeks so we can travel to the East Coast the month of February.

Thanks for your continued prayers and expressions of encouragement.

Happy New Year!

Steve and Lorrie

Update: Lorrie was moved out of intensive care last night and back into a regular hospital room. She's doing well and is expected to be discharged tomorrow (Sat) or Sun. Then begins a slow road to complete recovery.