i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

A true miracle....

Here's all the updates/emails that went out the past week about my little sister (21 years old)who went into Cardiac Arrest last Wednesday while taking a spinning class at the gym. She young, active and perfectly healthy and we still don't know why this happened. It's a miracle she's here today and we are so blessed.

First email- January 10th
Hello all; Just wanted to inform and update on Katelen's status; I know all of you would want to know. For those of you that don't know, Katelen is in the CCU at Morton Plant Clearwater recovering from an apparent cardiac arrest that she suffered yesterday while taking a Spinning Class at the gym. No one knows why it happened. As you all know she's a fighter and, thanks to everyone that was there when it happened, we are all confident that she's going to be fine. As a preventative measure, she is currently receiving a special treatment called "Arctic Ice" - she is heavily sedated while she undergoes a lowering of her body temp for 24 hrs. According to the experts here, the cardiologist that we've spoken too, and all we've read about this treatment - this is the way to go. This treatment will continue through tonight before any diagnostics are performed. Basically, we will not know anything until the treatment is completed. Melody is hanging in there and doing as well as can be expected. We'll be at the hospital all day.

Next email- ThursdayRight now everything is the same, she still in the "artic ice" treatment until 7pm. She has developed a touch of pneumonia, which was expected.

10:00pm update-They continue to raise Katelen’s temperature from approximately 32 degrees C to 37 degree C, about one tenth of a degree every 25 – 30 minutes. She is currently at 33 degrees C. Raising her temperature will take 12 hours plus or minus a few hours. As the temperature is raised there is a greater risk of a cardiac event than when her body temperature was reduced.Increasing her body temperature is just the first step. Once the temperature has been raised the medication used to maintain the comatose state will be removed. There are a total of the 3 medications (Nimbex – paralytic; fentanyl – pain; diprivan – sedative). Nimbex is removed first, followed by fentanyl. The third medication will most likely remain at a reduced dose. This is to prevent her from rejecting the ventilator. It is conceivable that she will remain on the ventilator through the weekend. Once the medications are removed it can be anywhere from a few minutes to 10+ hours before Katelen fully begins to wake up. It is dependent upon how sensitive her body is to the medication and how much, if any damage was initially incurred. As medication is removed, movement of her eyes (fluttering) and/or hands twitching as she fights to wake-up may be observed. Essentially, it will be at least 24 hours or more before she truly begins to respond/wake-up.

12:15 AM We have made it to the 35 degree mark. Which puts us in the critical range (35-37) where there is a greater risk of a cardiac event. Good new, her pupils are responding to light stimulus.

7:15 AM-At approximately, 5:30 am when her temperature returned to normal she started becoming very responsive. She has been responding to yes and no questions, looking around and starting to mouth words. Has told her sister not to sing to her. The medical staff has indicated this will be a very critical day of recovery and has indicated it would be best to limit the number of visitors to the immediate family. They want to keep her calm to allow her body to continue to heal. She is confused, and does not understand/know why she is here. They have told her what happened, but due to the heavy sedation medications she forgets easily. Melody and Joe do not want to discourage anyone from coming down, but please realize you will not be able to see Katelen. It may be tomorrow or the next day before you are able to see her. We will continue to send updates throughout the day.

930 AM update- Well, Katelen the fighter is blowing everyone away. She much further than anyone expected. She is off all sedation medication and breathing on her own. The ventilator tube was just pulled and she is talking. Next is for her to take another nap. We will continue to send updates as the day progresses.

Katelen is continuing to improve. As a matter of fact she said "Thank you for coming and emailing". Only Katelen would think to thank all of us within a couple hours of waking up. We've been getting lots of requests for what can be done. After 2 days and several more to go hospital food is getting old. So we'd like to organize a sign-up for meals and snacks. Let's just do today (Friday), Saturday and Sunday to start. Also, there are several people who are either flying or driving in from out of town that need a place to stay.

3PM Update (Friday Jan. 11)-Katelen is doing very well. She is telling everyone “thanks for coming,” and so far does not seem to want to sleep. She has a chart next to her that gives her a time frame of the last couple of days. We have established an account at Merrill Lynch to help the Dixon Family cover the some of the cost. (Time off work, travel, food, cell bills etc). If you would like to contribute please make checks payable to:”Joe Dixon FBO Katelen Dixon.” Joe Dixon FBO Katelen Dixon C/o Merrill Lynch Greg Hicks 26301 US Hwy 19 NClearwater Fl 33761 If you have any questions related to donations please don’t hesitate to call my office on 727-799-5604. We have been working on food and accommodations for family members and quests, for which my sister is handling. (Karen Hicks 813-447-0527) At this point donations would be very much appreciated.

10 PM Update-Katelen is continuing to grow stronger. It will most likely be the first of the week before a timeline for her recovery, how long she will be in the hospital, when the AICD will be implanted. There is a long road ahead still. Melody and Joe would like to thank you for all your thoughts, prayers and support. They are reading your emails and are very touched by the out pour of support. Thanks to all of you who have volunteered to help with food, transportation and housing. We are covered for the weekend. As you know this is a long process of recovery.

Saturday morning update-I just spoke with Joe; Katelen had a great night’s sleep last night. She has been able to sit up and eat. She has some soreness in her shoulder and arm where she fell of the stationary bike on Wednesday for which they are able to now give her some pain medications.

Katelen had a very restful day and is doing great. She does have a little bit of short term memory loss, but that appears to be “normal.” For example she doe not remember some of the conversations from yesterday and saying “thanks for coming.” Mel is staying at the hospital tonight. Joe said he was going to eat dinner and smoke a cigar.

Just wanted to let you know that things continue to move in a very positive direction. She will have the "cardio-cath" in the morning (Mon) as the Dr.'s begin their quest for possible causes. The prognostications are flying freely around here ranging from nothing to a defibrillator. Though nothing may sound good, we are hoping for some answers. We are trying not to speculate further until the results of tomorrows morning's test. Thanks for all the prayers and support; I believe the support circle played a key factor in the recovery. All of our friends here really (really!!!) stepped up to the plate; and, they are doing more than we'd ever expect or imagined. I will let you know tomorrow as the results of the tests begin to come back. Just to let you know how Kate is feeling today: We are having to keep an eye on her to keep her from walking out of the hospital. They've disconnected everything except the IV and the last of the antibiotics. Best quote of the day from the infections specialist: "I wouldn't be surprised if she were home on her birthday (16th) and playing volleyball in no time".

January 16- Kate's Birthday

Hello friends and family (seems to be synonymous these days), Katelen says hello, and continues to extend her "thanks for coming" salutations to everyone. She looks absolutely wonderful and very at ease with everything. Looks like she's opened the new book and she is prepared to proceed to the first chapter. Everything has pretty much followed the plan laid out earlier in the week as for as the diagnostics; basically, we don't know anything????. The doctor said the surgery went extremely smooth. She got back to her room after 2 hours of surgery around 11:30 or so. She is, of course, her smiling self and on her way to full recovery. Doc says she should be released not later than mid week; hopefully, we'll be out of here a little sooner. Very hard to digest where we were a week ago. The litany of restrictions are beginning to accumulate. The Dr. said no driving for at least 4 months....Kate said, "no problem there; I hate to drive." Guess who she looked at next? :) Small birthday party later. She already got the big gift (aka LIFE) plus the special customized addition ($50,000 defib). Good thing she didn't exploit the situation...We'd gotten her anything she'd wanted. Your thoughts and prayers remain with us. Joe, Melody, Erin, and Jay

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face . You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must to the thing you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt