Yesterday Agnes took a turn for the worse. Her overall condition has been described to us as “critical stable.” And, “fragile.” And, “terminal.”
We have heard the words, “there is nothing more we can do except help her to be comfortable.”
Agnes is comfortable right now, and she is stable within her very fragile balance, but it is also clear that her body is failing.
After all this runaround about her shunt, it turned out not to be the deciding factor. Her ongoing trouble with pulmonary hypertension is what now her “terminal” condition.
In a nutshell what is happening is the pressure in the blood vessels going to her lungs is so high, that the right side of the heart has to work extra hard to move blood. The right side is enlarged, to the point where the left side is being compressed. Agnes’ heart isn’t able to keep up and so blood is backing up in her veins, unable to get to the heart to be re-oxygenated and sent through the arteries to her her body. Blood is backing up and with nowhere to go, fluid from her vascular system is seeping out into her tissues. The slowdown in circulation is affecting her organ functions. There is not enough blood flow to her liver, kidneys, and intestines. She is not absorbing nutrition from food, or her medicines. Her lungs are very stiff because of the inadequate blood flow so her ventilation needs a lot of support.
They could try to fix her shunt, but with organs in the process of failing what good would an operational shunt do for long term? The shunt is small potatoes. The biggest issue now is that the problems are affecting nearly every system in Agnes’ body.
She is dying.
There is always time for a miracle, and we haven’t given up hope for one. We are also talking with palliative care about Agnes’ end of life options and what we feel like we could or should do. We are always striving to make the best choices for Agnes. Right now she is behaving so we have some time to think and pray. There really is no telling how much longer Agnes will hang on. She is the boss lady. In any case it does not appear at this time that Agnes’ death is imminent–at least not in the next day or two. So that’s a relief.
Fr. Sal did allow her to receive Eucharist last night, in her own way. She got to lick the Body of Christ and I consumed the rest of it. I know she doesn’t need that sacrament because she is a baby and pure and sinless, but I wanted her to have it.
I do plan to write a beautiful post about what I’ve learned from Agnes, about the meaning of suffering and the power of prayer and all that stuff. When I feel like I can get through it! Hopefully I will be able to manage that soon.
Thank you all for your continued prayers.