Gabrielle's Journey to Four Chambers

11/19/2025

Gabrielle is continuing to progress in her recovery! There have been a few ups and downs, but overall it sounds like things are moving forward.

Everything went well with last week’s cardiac biopsy, which they do to check for rejection. The procedure itself was very quick and simple, and the results continue to show very low rejection levels. Her next biopsy will be in a few weeks, at the beginning of December. If they continue to show good results, hopefully the frequency will continue to go down.

Gabrielle has been making slow but steady progress with her movement. As you might have seen on her page, she was able to stand for up to a minute with assistance! Every day, PT is coming in and helping her sit on the edge of the bed, take a few steps to a chair, and sit in the recliner for a while. I think that getting out of bed and moving around is definitely going to help with the rest of her health issues.

Unfortunately, Gabrielle has been dealing with pneumonia again. There has been a continuing pattern since the transplant where she is on antibiotics for a few weeks, does well, and then starts to get sick again when they take her off. This time they noticed that she was having difficulty off of the vent, and respiratory cultures showed more bacterial growth. It isn’t clear if this is a new infection or if the last one didn’t get completely cleared up. Part of the danger of being in the hospital for a while is an increased chance of developing an antibiotic-resistant infection like this one. Fortunately, the cultures allow them to select antibiotics that will be effective. Gabrielle has been back on antibiotics for a week and seems to be doing better.

There has also been more back-and-forth battle with dialysis. Gabrielle was on intermittent dialysis (PIRRT) for a while but was put back on the continuous dialysis (CRRT) due to concerns about her breathing and fluid levels. After a week on CRRT, they tried just doing it at night, which was successful. I believe that they are resuming PIRRT today and will continue to monitor her kidneys and fluid levels.
Gabrielle is still in the ICU and will be until at least she is able to be off the ventilator for long periods of time and she is off the CRRT for good. It’s a slow process, but we are glad that they aren’t rushing anything! Gabrielle got to enjoy a visit from a friend last weekend, and will be having some family coming down for Thanksgiving week.

Thanks for all of the support! As always, please send cards to our house and we will make sure that they get to Gabrielle.

11/18/2025

11/11/2025

Catherine and I had a nice visit with Gabrielle over the weekend. I haven’t posted as many updates recently since there haven’t been many big changes, which is probably a good thing. We had a nice time seeing Gabrielle, saw the Cleveland History Center, and made it back to MI safely despite the weather.

Gabrielle is continuing to make progress with her PT and OT. She has more control over her arms and right leg, and with PT’s help has been sitting on the edge of the bed, standing (even taking a few steps while supported) and sitting in the recliner. There has been some discussion about her going to more of a rehab facility when she is more stable since she should be getting more exercise than they can offer in ICU, but for now they are doing what they can while they heal the rest of her body.

Gabrielle has been trying to do more trach collaring (breathing high flow oxygen instead of being on the ventilator), but it has been an up and down journey. Some days she can do several hours, and other days only a little bit. She finished her course of antibiotics late last month and has been doing pretty good since, but her blood cultures have since come back for some additional bacteria. Infectious Disease has been holding off on starting more antibiotics to see how she does on her own. She hasn’t had much of a fever this week, but her lungs have been gunky, so they might restart antibiotics and do more respiratory cultures.

Gabrielle has otherwise been in good spirits. She appreciates all of the thoughts and well wishes. She can use her phone for video calls, and even though she can’t talk she does appreciate hearing people’s voices. The best part of our visit this weekend was when they tried her with the speaking valve, and she was able to say a few words to us! Catherine smiled so much when she heard Mama call her ‘little monkey’.

Gabrielle has another heart biopsy scheduled for tomorrow morning. It has gotten pretty routine at this point, but please keep her in your prayers. If we get good results, hopefully we can move to less frequent testing soon.

11/01/2025

Happy Halloween! Gabrielle was bummed out that she couldn’t spend it with Catherine this year. We were able to send her a lot of pictures of Catherine in her K-pop Demon Hunters costume, and video called her while we were out trick or treating though. Gabrielle was having art therapy at the time and was painting a nice Fall picture.

This has been a decent week for Gabrielle. She has been receiving more physical therapy while the team tries to figure out what is going on with her lungs and fluid balance. She was moved twice to different beds as the unit was being cleaned but is in a nice room now where hopefully she will be able to stay for a while.
Gabrielle finished her courses of antibiotics at the start of the week. I had been concerned since previously when they finished antibiotics, she would spike a fever and develop an infection. Since the surgery that she had at the end of last month was supposed to clear out the source of the infection, they were optimistic this time. Unfortunately, Gabrielle did develop a bit of a fever and some low blood pressure + tachycardia, so they put her back on antibiotics for now until they can figure out what is going on. If the most recent cultures come back negative and she improves, they might be able to stop antibiotics sooner.

Meanwhile, they have continued to fuss with Gabrielle’s dialysis settings, which could also be part of the issues she has been having. She has been on continuous dialysis this past week, but they did pause it last night since they were concerned about removing too much fluid. Dialysis also messes with her sodium and potassium levels, so they need to do frequent labs to monitor those and provide replacements if she is out of balance. Gabrielle says that she has been feeling ok despite all of this.

Otherwise, Gabrielle has been getting out of bed more with the help of PT. She still requires assistance to get up, but they have been getting her into a recliner for a few hours on most days. She also was able to sit on the edge of the bed unaided, which will help with her core muscles. She is getting more strength in her arms and legs as well.

As always, thanks for all of the prayers and support! If you want to send cards, please send them to our house at:

3200 East Howe Rd.
DeWitt MI 48820

10/25/2025

Gabrielle's heart cath/biopsy went well today. Everything was very routine. The doctors said that her heart is not showing any signs of rejection! They are going to do a cardiac echo at some point to follow up on some things they found with the blood flow, but everything is looking good.

Since Gabrielle was recovering from the cath today she was not able to get out of bed for PT. She is making a lot of progress with her movement. She is getting more control moving her right arm and her right leg. She is starting to be able to move her left leg better too.

For the past week, Gabrielle has been getting intermittent dialaysis instead of continous, which is an important step for getting her out of the ICU. They did need to put her back on continous today in order to remove some fluid, which should help with her breathing. They should hopefully be able to get her back to intermittent soon. Her kidneys are starting to show some signs of recovery.

Gabrielle had a special visitor today - Larry the therapy dog. He is a 130 lb Leonberger who is able to go around to patients at the hospital. Gabrielle was able to pet him and give him some treats.

Thank you for the prayers and encouragement! Some cards being sent to Gabrielle at the hospital have been returned to sender. If you would like to send a card, it's probably best to send it to our home address. I promise it will get down to Gabrielle! Our address is:

3200 East Howe Rd.
DeWitt MI 48820

Thanks,
--Greg

10/24/2025

I havent had a chance to post an update this week, but all is going well. Gabrielle has another heart cath/biopsy this morning. Please keep her in yohr prayers!

10/19/2025

Catherine and I are down in Cleveland this weekend visiting Gabrielle. She is continuing to make good progress. With physical therapy's help, she has been able to sit in a recliner several times. She is also able to hold her own weight while standing with the lift team's help. She is going to need a lot of rehab to regain her independence, but everything is moving in the right direction. She has been doing more breathing off the ventilator and they have even tried a speaking valve. She has been having a difficult time saying things after all that she has been through, but her lungs are getting stronger. She is getting better at moving her arms and legs, although she is still having difficulty with the left leg.

Gabrielle's labs have been looking good. This is actually the first time I've seen her platelets fall within the normal range. They are trialing her on intermittent dialysis, which so far seems to be going well.
We are still hoping that her kidneys will recover. But in the meantime, being off of continuous dialysis will help get her out of the ICU.

Meanwhile Gabrielle is trying to stay mentally strong and keep herself occupied. Now that she is getting more strength in her hands, she should be able to use her phone and tablet soon. She did get moved up to the 6th floor, which is still an ICU, but her room has a little more light than before.
She is grateful for all of the support from family and friends. Please reach out if you want to get in touch with her!

10/12/2025

Gabrielle is continuing on her road to recovery, slowly but surely. It's difficult to say where she is sometime because it's not a linear path that she is on. Sometime one thing is getting better while something else is getting worse. This week has been pretty good though, and she got to visit with some family today!

She had her (routine) right heart cath and biopsy on Friday. All went well with the procedure, and from what we have heard, the results are looking good. The procedure was supposed to have been on Tuesday but got delayed due to scheduling issues. This was tough for Gabrielle since her Mom and I were both working on Friday and were not able to be there with her. The doctors were able to help with her anxiety and called us as soon as the procedure was done to let us know that everything was ok.

The neurology team came by during the week to follow up on why Gabrielle is still having difficulty moving her legs and her right arm. It is possible that it could be related to some minor strokes that she suffered while on ECMO, although at the time the doctors didn't think that they would cause any noticeable effects. Here difficulties with movement are also probably related to her being in bed so long without any exercise. She is continuing to do PT and OT to build back her strength and keep her moving. She is also working with respiratory to strengthen her lungs so that she can get off the ventilator, which will be important for getting her out of the ICU.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

10/05/2025

I haven't posted in a while because there hasn't been a whole lot to report. Gabrielle is continuing on her path to recovery, slowly but surely.

There isn't much to report medically. The doctors believe that what they saw near her liver is a dilated duct that might be related to her gall bladder (removed as a routine step during the liver transplant), but since her liver numbers are looking good they decided not to do any intervention. If they did need to treat it, they would do so endoscopically with a stent, which doesn't sound like it would be a big deal. They did manage to get her off the insulin drip and onto subcutaneous insulin, which is a step up. They have been trying to get her changed over from continuous dialysis to intermittent, but haven't been able to so far. Aside from filtering her blood, dialysis is maintaining her fluid levels, and the team wants to keep those carefully controlled to support the rest of her body. They are working to strengthen her lungs to help get her off the vent. She is still getting slight fevers sometimes, but she is on a wide spectrum of antibiotics and is being closely monitored by the infectious disease team.

The transplanted heart and liver are still doing good. She will have another heart biopsy this week as part of post-transplant monitoring.

PT and OT have been coming by and helping her sit up on the edge of the bed and sometimes in a chair. She is still really only able to use her left arm, but is getting some strength in her right arm and right leg. She can't speak because of the vent tube but tries to anyway. Otherwise she is still using gestures and her letterboard to communicate.

Thanks as always for your support and prayers! It has been a long journey, and there is still a long way to go. Thank you for being there with us!

09/28/2025

After a few days at home, Catherine and I got to visit Gabrielle today! She is doing well and getting stronger. She is able to do more with her left arm and her other limbs are getting stronger as well. Physical therapy has been getting her up in a chair or sitting at the edge of the bed. This is painful for her, but is helping her get stronger and move around more.

Gabrielle is continuing to fight off some infections and pneumonia. This has been throwing off many of her labs, but antibiotics seem to be keeping everything controlled. They are also monitoring something that they saw on one of her scans near her liver that is probably a pocket of fluid. So far they are just monitoring it and did an MRI today. No results yet. Her liver function labs are looking okay. The most recent heart biopsy continues to show that her heart is doing well and that there is no evidence of rejection.

Gabrielle is doing better using a letterboard to spell out what she needs and is working hard to communicate with her nurses and doctors. She gets frustrated a lot because she is trying to say things but it is hard for others to understand. She still cannot talk due to the tube in her throat. She is also stressed out because she is somewhat allergic to many things that are commonly found in hospitals like bleach and some adhesives.
When she was in a step down unit, they were able to make more allowances for things like bringing in her own sheets, but in the ICU, they are not able to do that.
They have been giving her some medications to make her more comfortable.

09/24/2025

Update - the surgery went well! They were able to clean a lot of gunk out of her chest and wash it out, which should hopefully clear up the infections. It might also help her breath better. Gabrielle tolerated the procedure well and was smiling later in her room. The surgeon seemed pretty happy with how it all went. She has a few drain tubes in to keep the area clear.

Earlier in the day she had a birthday visit from her brother Tom and sister-in-law Amber. PT also came be (pre-surgery) and had her sitting on the edge of the bed for a few seconds. Gabrielle was pretty exhausted by the evening, but should be able to get back to recovering now.

09/23/2025

It's Gabrielle's birthday today, and she is turning 40! I'm hoping that we can plan something big to celebrate once she is out of the hospital. She has been in good spirits this week.

She had another planned heart cath and biopsy yesterday which went well. We won't know results for a few days. Gabrielle was able to remain awake during the procedure and was smiling afterwards.

Gabrielle will be having surgery today (happy birthday to her :( ) to deal with the infection in her chest. The surgery is called a washout*, which involves making a few cuts in her side and washing out the infected fluid and debris. The surgery will hopefully clear up the source of the infection so that it does not recur. There is some risk to the procedure since they are working close to the lung and her platelet levels (and other levels) are low. Please keep her in your prayers! Hopefully soon she will be recovering and able to enjoy birthday messages!

* Edit - it's not VATS, it's an open surgery. VATS (Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery) uses smaller incisions and cameras, but the surgeons aren't able to do that in this case. They do plan to go in through her side rather than reopening her sternum.