wednesday

After a long and heroic battle with melanoma, Aimee passed away peacefully this morning.

Funeral
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A Funeral Mass will be celebrated for Aimee Saturday, November 22nd at 10am in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, 17 Waterville St. in North Grafton. She will then be laid to rest in St. Phillips Cemetery on Millbury St. in Grafton. All are invited to calling hours in the The Roney Funeral Home North Chapel, 152 Worcester St. in North Grafton, Friday November 21st from 4 to 8pm. Memorial donations may be made to:

The Cowan Children's Education Fund
c/o The Alcarez family
5 Hilltop St.
N. Grafton, MA 01536.

update

Aimee's still in critical condition. It's difficult to pinpoint what the particular complication is. her heart rate is very high and she's very bloated too. still extremely fatigued and having difficulty staying alert. they have a lot of theories and are treating things as they can.

she was extremely dehrydated because her lymph had been leaking into her abdomen. the liver isn't working great at this point either.

they are currently draining all the fluid that has accumulated in her belly. hopefully this will bring her relief as she is in a good amount of pain.

emergency room

yesterday, aimee's health took a bad turn. she was extremely lethargic and confused. her blood pressure had dropped very low as well.

the doctors are unsure of the cause of the problem at this point. her kidney and liver are failing and they're not sure why. she also has an infection.

right now she's considered to be in critical condition. please pray for her.

Visit to Beth Israel Hospital

We went to Beth Israel on Tuesday, as Aimee was feeling extremely tired and bloated. They had a look at her and have scheduled a scan for later this week. They thought maybe her blood counts were low and were ready to give her a transfusion, but her counts ended up fine. Also it seems, at least from the blood analysis, that her kidneys are working well. We'll probably go back into Boston tomorrow and have an appointment set for Monday as well.

In the meantime, we're working on getting Aimee's weight back up. NIH gave us some additives called Benecalorie, which should add 300 calories to anything she eats. Hopefully this will help as putting weight back on has really been an uphill battle.

Back Home

I'm sorry for our silence. I've had a hard time trying to connect to blogger.

The week at NIH was a tough one. Although the surgery went well, there were other issues that developed with Aimee's bladder and her blood pressure. We ended up staying until Saturday.

We're home now, but there's still lingering problems. Aimee's been retaining a lot of fluid recently which makes things extremely uncomfortable for her. We'll probably check in at the hospital some time this week just to see if there's anything they can do to help.

Thanks for your prayers.

(still working on uploading pictures.)

surgery today

Aimee goes in this morning to get a stent put in her kidney. Scans showed that it was enlarged and not really working. Hopefully, this will fix her up. The doctors say that there is some chance that the kidney won't recover-- since they have no idea how long it hasn't been working-- so say some prayers for her.

11:15am-- The procedure went fine, and Aimee is back in her room doing well.

Off Again

NIH called and wants us back soon. Tomorrow soon. So we fly out again in the afternoon and hope to get Aimee's surgery at the beginning of the week. (Did I mention I really _hate_ flying? Oh well-- Aimee's fine with it and she keeps me calm.) I'll keep you updated. We also have some Halloween pictures, including one of Aimee as Avatar the Last Airbender-- I'll get those up soon too.