Dear Friends:
We hope this email finds you well. We wanted to give you all an update on Gwendolyn's condition.
In short, it has been a very difficult, trying month for all of us. The team of specialists at Stanford provided us a lot of knowledge, a plan, and some empowerment with that plan, but our stay at Stanford was not without a few very stressful, scary bumps along the way. Gwendolyn's g-tube/nissen surgery went well but it definitely has taken a lot out of her and she has come home in a much different place than we had originally anticipated. We arrived home from Stanford early last week via ambulance and she is now on a non-invasive breathing machine called a bi-pap almost full time and her secretions require almost constant suctioning. We had a relatively good week with her last week and she was gaining strength every day and spending a little more time off of her bi-pap — which was great to see.
Victoria's sister and her family came to stay with us the middle of last week and our nephew Henry and Gwendolyn were baptized together on Sunday at the church in Santa Barbara where we were married. We had a really, really great day with our family — Gwendolyn smiling through it all as usual.
Unfortunately, late on Monday night Gwendolyn went into respiratory distress again. From Stanford and prior episodes we knew what to do and began her breathing treatments to try to clear her airway, but it was not working. We called an ambulance and we are now at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara in the ICU because Gwendolyn's right lung has collapsed. She is fighting so very hard and although we feared the very worst a few days ago, today the x-ray showed that a small portion of her right lung has started to clear. Tonight she is much brighter and more alert than the previous three and we are hopeful that she will once again fight her way through this. Her strength, courage, and spirit through everything is unbelievable and we are so very proud of our little girl.
Love,
Bill and Victoria