Kate Hunter Updates

Friends of Katie, It has been 8 days since our last post.   Kate was discharged from the UW Medical Center Friday afternoon on the 22nd of December.  After a couple of stops and approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes sitting in traffic, we arrived back home in Tacoma.   It has been great to be home and begin to establish a routine of what the next couple months could look like for Kate.  On Christmas Eve, we had a bit of a scare as Katie suffered a seizure and had to be taken to the ER at Tacoma General.  After approximately 7 hours she was released and came back home for a very low key Christmas Day.  Kate continues to get stronger and has committed to developing a schedule filled with good nutrition, drinking lots of water(with ice), taking daily walks and getting a lot of sleep.  She is making her mother very proud, who has always said sleep and drinking water is the key to most everything!  She will begin outpatient reha...

Friends of Kate, It looks like this leg of Katie's journey is coming to a close.  Tomorrow at some point Katie will be going home and leaving the UW Medical Center after 23days, which was preceded by 19 days at Harborview Hospital for a total of 42 days. The picture above is with Katie in room #814 on the 8th-floor Rehab Unit.   The rehabilitation staff team that served Kate is certainly a remarkable group.  They patiently augment the process of turning one's deficits back into assets.    Katie saw countless staff throughout her two separate stays on the 8th floor, and each one of them demonstrated professionalism, but more importantly,  patience, compassion, and grace to name a few of the attributes we witnessed.  Words can't express the gratitude we have all felt, but a humble and heartfelt thank-you will have to suffice. You also may have noticed that Katie is "rockin" a new helmet which was just approved and endorsed by her ...

Team Kate, It is official, Kate will be discharged from the hospital this Friday.  Kate's medical team just had a meeting sharing about her current capacities and the support she will need once she arrives at home.  Overall she is doing well and is meeting the standards set for her departure.  One of the ongoing concerns is how tired Katie gets as the day winds down.  She is working very hard in her therapy session and then is seemingly getting overstimulated by her many visitors in the evening.  At this point, the doctors have asked that Katie not have any visitors throughout the remainder of her stay.  They want her to optimize her rest and be able to fully focus on her remaining therapy sessions and finish strong.  So, we are respectfully asking that you continue to support Katie by holding off on any visits until the new year.  We know each and every one of you wants the very best for Kate and right now this is what she needs to focus ...

Friends of Katie, Well, it looks like we have hit the home stretch in regards to leaving the hospital.   Today it became increasingly clear that Friday will be Katie's discharge date.   If that is, in fact, the case, it will have been exactly 42 days since Katie first arrived at the Harborview Trauma Center on the early morning of November 11th.  Of course, that means that Katie will be home for Christmas.  It most certainly will be a very memorable Christmas for us all and we are thrilled.   We are grateful beyond words for what has increasingly become our Christmas miracle.  Katie's in-patient rehab will wind down this week, signaling the beginning of her outpatient therapy as soon as we can identify the best opportunity for her.  At this point, the plan is to have her stay at the family home in Tacoma with Mom and Dad.  This, of course, will be the ultimate dream scenario for Katie and any other 28 year old for that ma...

Friends of Katie, Our hope was realized!   Kate was moved back up to the 8th floor North into the Rehab Unit.  She is back with her friendly therapists and super eager to get back to work.  Ok..... not super eager, in fact barely eager at all, but clearly, she recognizes that hard work over the next few weeks will only benefit her in the long run. At this point, the plan is to have her stay in the in-patient until for a week.  Once the team assesses where Katie is with her recovery they will give us a more definite discharge date.   We are certainly hoping she can come home to T-town for the Christmas holiday! In terms of visitors, the plan is to get back to the "rehab schedule".   She is in therapy sessions from 8 am - 4 pm and then dinner at 5pm.   During the week the best time to drop in for a visit is between 6-8 pm.  Weekends have much more flexibility with Sunday being the best.  If possible give, Ki...

Friends of Kate, Well, we don't have much to report out regarding the past two days.   Katie is continuing to improve at a fast rate.   The neuro team came in around 6 pm tonight and said her head and incision is looking very good and there isn't any obvious increase in fluid build up on the right side of her skull.  All this leads them to believe they will be releasing her to inpatient rehab on Friday or Monday. Members of the rehab team on the 8th floor have been coming down the last couple of days and accessing Katie.  They think she is doing well and they are leaning toward recommending her stay on the 8th-floor rehab unit be a week long.    This would mean that she could be discharged from the hospital prior to Christmas.  What a great present it would be to find Katie under the tree!  Earlier today, Katie was sharing about her future.  She shared that she is "hopeful for a complete recovery and the attitude t...

Friends of Katie, We are glad to report that Kate is back on a very positive track.   We trust this trajectory will prove to be a lasting trend. Monday and Tuesday have been filled with waiting for two specific things.  The first is the Infectious Disease team, who is continuing to monitor the cultures the growing cultures which will help them  determine what specific infection Katie has been battling.   Earlier this afternoon, they came and shared that they had identified it as in the staph family (bad news)  but that it wasn't that "bad ass mersa" or however you spell it.... (great news!)  They are now shifting her antibiotics and will be utilizing two specific ones that are laser focused on battling the specific bug Katie has.   They will continue to monitor the cultures for the next few days but they are pretty confident they have zero'd in on the bug and will now start a 6-8 week antibiotic regiment to insure the infection in c...

Friends of Kate, After a long and difficult past 3 days, Kate went into surgery this morning at approximately 10:30 am.  Her surgeon was the chief surgeon of the neurosurgery team that serves both Harborview and UW Medical Center.  By 11:50 he came to our waiting room and shared that the procedure went very well and they were able to clean out the infection and thoroughly flush the entire area around the brain.  By 1:00 pm she was in the recovery room and had begun waking up and was able to see her family.    It wasn't until approximately 4:00 pm that her care team had stabilized her pain which allowed her to be able to rest. After surgery, the doctors said that the fluid that was building up in her head, looked very clear which is good news.   They are running labs on the fluid and will now zero in on the infection and begin targeting it with specific antibiotics.    The medical team will also be monitoring to see if her flui...

Friends of Kate, Unfortunately, today's update is not positive.   Kate had a difficult night on Friday.  Her fever came back and the initial progress that we saw the antibiotics making seemed to stall. Over the course of the last couple days, the medical team is now seeing cultures growing in the fluids they pulled from Kate.  The medical staff now believe that the infection is in the area of her initial surgery and will begin the process of selecting the best cocktail of antibiotics to treat the infection.  Early Saturday morning the doctors decided to wait until midday and see if the infection and resulting fever would subside.   Seeing limited progress,  the decision was made this afternoon to have the neurosurgeons go back in and re-open Katie's incision.   The medical team feels this offers the best option to drain the excess fluid and flush the infected area.   The surgery is scheduled for 10:00 am Sunday morn...

Friends of Katie, Friday morning brought not just a beautiful clear day in Seattle, but also some relief for Katie.  Her temperature has continued to drop and as of noon today she was down to 99.6 from a high of over 103 degrees. The doctors believe they have identified the infection and that the regiment of antibiotics that were initiated on Thursday will, in fact, cover the infection.  Katie's swelling has continued to reside and the pain from headaches has significantly subsided as well.   She is just getting out of the shower and getting help for a overall shampoo and shine.  It is as close to a "spa day" as she can get right now.  Peaceful rest is on the menu for the balance of the day and the nurses are graciously standing guard by the door. Thanks for your continued prayers for Katie.  Over the last couple days she has had to reach down for some measure of courage.  She has a little sign in her room showing ...

Team Kate, As we approach the four-week mark, Katie experienced a difficult night on Tuesday which resulted in a very difficult Wednesday during her rehab sessions.   Katie was lethargic and wasn't able to attend the bulk of her scheduled therapy sessions.  She had been complaining of worsening headaches and just an overall weakened feeling.   Late Wednesday afternoon her headaches worsened and the area where her skull was removed seemed to be expanding and had a much tighter or taunt feel.  There was an emerging fear that she had an infection.  Her heart rate increased and she began to have an elevated temperature.   The staff drew blood and sure enough, her white blood cell count had risen.  The decision was made to move her out of the rehabilitation wing at UW and move her to the 5th floor, East Acute Care unit in order to be able to monitor her more closely.   The staff has begun a battery of various...

Team Kate, Sorry for the delay in getting an update out to you all!   If you know Katie well you know she loves unique and funky socks.   This photo shows a pair of "milk carton and cookies" socks that Kate recently received.  She loves them!   She has gotten Wonder Women socks, Captain America socks, donut slippers and lots of fun, soft, warm things.  She has continually expressed just how incredibly grateful she is for all the support she continues to feel.... She wanted to make sure I wrote a huge THANK YOU.  After three full days of week-day therapy routine, she got a bit of a lighter load on Saturday with only 4 hours of therapy sessions.  Katie graciously hosted her mom and dad's 34th anniversary in her room (with a little help from sister Callie)  It was a small crowd, but a meaningful time of celebrating with Kate.  Sunday was Kates first day off from all the sessions but she did do 10 laps around her...