Quyen was Hospitalized - ill now

For everyone wondering where Quyen's been the past few days, or how come she hasn't been blogging lately, especially given the blog was beginning to gather a momentum all its own, I have some news. You may want to prepare yourself for this. Last Friday, Quyen traveled to San Diego to celebrate her older sister's birthday, the middle child, although the birthday was technically on Thursday. Jenni, the sister in question, Newton - Jenni's boyfriend, Michelle, Quyen's oldest sister, and some friends of theirs went out to eat at a nice restaurant - $300 bill, and then decided to hit a club. Unfortunately, Quyen consumed a Long Island Iced Tea at the restaurant, and had herself another drink at a club later that night - not much for the average person. However, the alcohol thinned Quyen's blood. Also, Newton, Jenni, and Michelle suspect that someone drugged their drinks at the club because they all reported a strange taste, and feeling funny. The drugs gave Quyen a 102.7 fever that night. After hitting the club, everyone went home to Quyen's mommy's house and talked the night away. At around 4:00 am, Newton and Jenni heard Quyen having trouble breathing. She was gasping in pain each time she took a breath. Her breathing got to be so bad, that her family rushed her to the hospital that night. Sometime between gasping for air and being admitted to the hospital, Quyen began coughing up large amounts of blood up. At the hospital, she was admitted into a plastic room, like in Outbreak and other hazardous disease movies and with the doctors walking around in suits. Since then, she was moved to another room, where still doctors and family were advised to wear protection lest they get ill themselves. Yesterday, she was finally taken off life-support only to stop breathing several minutes later - she was placed right back on the life support. The doctors have been running tests since Saturday morning, and finally today ruled that Quyen's lungs have been bleeding and that's why she's coughing up blood. They also have a theory that Quyen became extraordinarily sick because the combination of thinned blood and drugged drinks makes the body extremeley susceptible to opportunistic infection. The effect was worse though because she has been fighting off a form of pneumonia that doctors are guessing has been with her for about three to four years now. When Quyen's immune defenses went down, the pneumonia attacked with a vengeance. At the moment, she is at home with her family. She is by no means doing 'well' but without health insurance she could not afford to continue staying at the hospital much longer. Her two-day costs are around $8,000 now. Presently, she can't do much more than walk on a level floor, and has the hardest of times even opening a juice drink. Her breathing is very labored. For those of you who've watched Star Wars - she sounds a bit like Darth Vader. Breathing is extra-difficult for her because, to begin with, one of her lungs has already been wasted away by another disease a few years back, and the other, to a lesser degree, was also damaged. To give you an idea of how ill she is: if she forgets to take a pill, death may happen, if she takes a shower the wrong way or without assistance - death again. Stress, like with any illness, also makes things worse. I thought I'd write this blog to diminish her stress about how her blog community is doing, and to let you in on what's happening in the event that she's someone special to you. If you'd like to, I'm sure she'd more than appreciate you sending your best wishes and thoughts in the comments section.

- her boyfriend