[Meshelle]

Please help my mom if you know what might be going on here. My mom is in the hospital right now in ICU on a ventilator and feeding tube in Orlando. Over the past two days she has become unresponsive even though they have stop giving her any medication for sedation. She had an MRI today which was healthy and has had a CAT scan which was also normal. Her history: She is Bipolar and has been in a manic state for a few months. The doctors were trying to regulate her with giving her more meds than normal which made her hands shake. She was also diagnosed with a soft ball sized malignant tumor on her thymus a month ago. She went in for 4 days of chemo treatments at the hospital which were administered through a port to try and shrink the tumor. She came home and got an infection in her bowels. She was admitted to the hospital where they put her on heavy antibotics. Her platelets and white blood cell count were extrememely low. Over the course of a week they gave her a lot of antibotics and raised her platelet and WBC counts some. Her hands were shaking so much that she couldn't feed herself. The bowel infection got under control, but she started to have trouble breathing with short, shallow breaths and they put her on a ventilator. She might have a case of amonia or some other type of infection in her lungs. The first day that she was put on the ventilator she was very traumatized to have a tube down her throat and they sedated her. The following day she was also sedated, but could see me and respond with her eyes. Over the past three days she has become less responsive and does not open her eyes or move at all. An MRI and CAT scan were performed and they were normal. The doctors do not know why she is not waking up. They looked at her lungs with a tube down her throat today and her blood pressure spiked and they gave her the first sedation that she has had in 36 hours. She is allergic to penicillin, but the nurse said that her antibiotics are not penicillin based. She has not being given any meds for her bipolar condition for 4 or 5 days and the only meds she has been on are lots of general antibiotics, lasix and blood pressure medicine. The doctors said they have no idea why she isn't waking up and they plan on doing a spinal tap in a couple of days if they can't figure it out.

Does anybody have any idea why she has gone into a comatose state and how to get her out of it?

[Leesa]

I'm a little concerned that they haven't given her the meds for her Bi-polar condition. Some of these meds required that you WEAN off them, and not "cold-turkey" like she has. I don't know if she is on one of those, but if she is, it can cause seizures when cold-turkeyed. Now, I know it doesn't appear she has seized, but many people have seizures and you don't even know they're having them.

I'm just picking at straws here, as that's the only thing I could think of. But i think I'd ask if her Bi-polar meds could have anything to do with it, and the fact that she was abruptly taken off of them.

Jeez, I wish you the best, and I'll keep her and you in my prayers. Please let us know how she does, will you? I'd like to know. Thanks. Hugs, Lee

[Meshelle]

Lee-Interesting that you mentioned that. She had a seizure tonight. Earlier this morning one of the doctor's thought that her lack of response might have something to do with her high sodium levels. They started to reduce her sodium and she opened one eye. I was so happy, but then hours later she she had the seizure. They also think that her electrolytes might have something to do with it. They are depleted because of a constant case of diarrhea that she has had. They also want to test her for meningitis, but I do not feel that she has that and hope that she does not. She has taken so many different bipolar meds in the past few months that I do not know which she may need to keep taking. Thank you for your help and your prayers.