Titanya in the Hospital

March 15, 2009

Written by David Feinstein.

As many of you know, Titanya has been terribly ill.

She had been having fertility treatments. The massive hormone infusion that is part of this procedure made an ovarian cyst that was the size of a pea grow to the size of a cantaloupe in just a few short weeks. It is bleeding internally and has caused life-threatening bloodclots, two in her lungs, one on her heart, and one going up her leg. This is the most immediate and serious of numerous complications to the treatment. She is considered too weak for surgery to remove the cyst.

We have been with her for much of three weeks. Donna was able to go to the Hilton Head five-day only because Kim Wedman came to Big Bear to be with Tanya and work on her almost continually. Energy medicine could remove many of the symptoms (lower her fever, reduce her pain, et cetera), but it was clear that other problems were keeping the benefits from lasting. Kim was heroic. Jeff has been a prince, as tireless and devoted as one could imagine, and then some, and I've never seen anyone be a better sister than the expandingly pregnant Dondi has been.

But a couple of days into the HH class, with temperatures spiking high and low and a patellate count of more than a million, Kim, Tanya, Jeff, and Dondi asked Donna to return, and Donna caught the first flight back. This was the first time in 31 years that Donna has left or not shown up for a workshop she was scheduled to teach (of perhaps nearly a thousand of them). The group, however, had already bonded deeply with Donna and was enormously gracious in allowing her to go, and then the teaching staff, led by Vicki, galvanized itself so that the class was an incredible experience for all involved. Not one participant complained and much gratitude was expressed for how much Donna gave while she was there and for the incredible staff she had backing her.

Tanya's condition and treatment have been complex and are not easy to summarize. In brief, one of Donna's biggest grievances about our culture was realized again and again in that the medical care her daughter received until three days ago had been dismal, with misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis as the cyst was growing. Tanya was airlifted to the place from which I am writing, her third admitting hospital (she has had 5 hospital visits and 3 urgent care visits in the last three weeks), three nights ago. She is now in good hands, the first hospital that seems to understand her disorder, "ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome" (the original hospital wanted to take out her appendix -- Donna and Jeff have been champs and Jeff convinced them otherwise -- and from that point on the hospitals kept changing the diagnosis, though we correctly told them the very first night what it was -- a fairly rare condition that many doctors have never seen -- finally at this hospital the medical team knows what they are dealing with and has had some experience with it). The doctor who examined Tanya shortly after she was airlifted here said, "How did she stay alive for three weeks???!!!!" His conclusion after speaking with us was that if it weren't for the big doses of energy medicine Tanya has been receiving from Kim, Jeff, Dondi, and Donna, plus Tanya having an incredibly strong heart, liver, and lungs, she would not have survived this far, and there were two times we knew we were precariously close to losing her. We all believe that one of those times, she would have died had Jeff not applied energy medicine on an emergency basis.

Tanya is not out of the woods, but we are feeling hopeful. The hospital we are at is in Palm Springs where she will be in Intensive Care for 7 to 10 more days if all goes well. As you can imagine, it is quite an emotional journey. The blood clots continue to pose a very serious threat, so we are praying and sending strong intentions for her body to dissolve them. Medical treatment is complicated by a number of related conditions as the hormone infusion threw her sensitive body into physiological bewilderment.We know how much good will and caring is out there, and we feel it. There is no real action for you to take unless you wish to pray or send healing energy. Tanya can't receive phone calls and the Intensive Care unit is not allowing visits beyond Donna, Dondi, Jeff, Roger, and me. Responding to the situation is a 24/7 job for all of us, and e-mails right now are a distraction.

If you wish to send a card, please send it to Tanya's home in Big Bear (1009 Tinkerbell Avenue, Big Bear City, CA 92314), and Jeff will pick them up regularly. She cannot receive flowers while in the ICU.

We will keep you posted as new developments emerge, though it is a matter now largely of waiting and hoping for the clots to dissolve, so for the next week or two, no news is good news. Katrina Hill (innersourcekatrina@yahoo.com) has offered to speak with anyone who wishes more exact or up-to-the-minute information or simply wants to talk.

Love,
David

P.S. Now a day after having written this, the doctors are saying the blood clots are not due to the bleeding cyst but are the direct effect of the massive hormone infusion so, thankfully, emergency surgery is off the table.