Prayers Please

So good to hear she is continuing to improve!  Brings back memories......   Will continue to hope for better days ahead.

Thanks!! 
 
Dana, your mamma? 
 
It reminds me of Jeff's dad, who, btw, is doing fantastic!! After I freaked Jeff out by praying the prayer of salvation with his dad at his hospital bed when everyone thought he only had a day or so left in the world.  hmmm..... It was the chance I had to take!

Hunter-my mom and then Shaylea. At least with Shaylea it turned out really well but there were days.... as loud and healthy as she is today, it's hard to believe we were stressing over lung x-rays then...... she had a 50/50 chance of surviving the ambulance ride from the hospital where she was born to Loma Linda, then I can't remember her odds for her 7 1/2 hr. heart surgery and 6 weeks in the NICU and CNICU, seizures, then stomach surgery. That girl is one tough cookie and it sounds like Pilot's niece is too

Yesterday 2/10
Another good day.  That makes 3 back to back with a little improvement each day.

She was more conscious Saturday that any day before.  Starting late Friday they would remove the vent tube to make her try and breath on her own and give her 100% oxygen in the collar around her trach. That would keep her oxygen saturation up between 98 and 100% but make her work her lungs.  This tires her out very fast of course and she nods off to sleep again.  They put the vent back on her at night so she doesn't have to work to breath and can get some good rest.

I saw no doctors yesterday, but she did get breathing treatments and the doctors called to check and change orders.

When she is awake she can focus and when asked a question she can move her head slightly up and down or right and left to respond.  Her skin in still healing slowly where the infections were about to break through on her feet.  The one on her forehead is healing as well.

The physical therapist was in Friday and worked her on a range of movement to start getting some muscle tone back (she can't move anything herself with the exception of eyelids, lips and the occasional head movement) 

The doctors have said they don't understand why she is improving but she obviously is.  They have not ordered any changes to her treatment and the cardio-vascular guy wanted to wait a few days before anything else was attempted.  They don't feel she can stand any invasive procedures and just moving her around in the bed can cause her numbers to slide for awhile afterwards.

If she can get the lungs to re-attache (and they evidently have in one small area) and can absorb (or they can remove) the air trapped outside the lungs, she will be able to breath a little easier.  She does have a little healthy lung tissue left and they are hoping that with the exercise of her lungs that it will improve.

This is going to be a long pull even if everything continues to go well.

God give her strength!
 
My mom had part of a lung removed when she had TB. Didn't stop her from being a life-long smoker. [>:]

02/11
This morning they removed one of her chest tubes so it could start to heal.  She has been off the vent all day and she is doing so well that they will probably keep her off tonight.  They just removed her from the narcotics so she should be a lot more alert soon.  She had physical therapy this morning and increased the number of reps that she was getting.  Her disease control doctor came in and said she was fever free for the last couple of days and they would stop the antibiotics on Wednesday.  They have slightly increase her food (still feeding through the stomach tube).  After her respiratory therapy today they added an attachment to her trach tube that should help her to talk, but she still doesn't have enough strength to use it yet.

She has been awake most of the day, can move her head for yes and no.  He can move her hands and feet to a minimal extent, but this should improve soon.  The doctor has left orders for some pain meds if she needs it but so far she hasn't.

thankful for the continued improvement.  Will continue to pray.

You GO Elise!!! That's amazing!!! 

2/12 update
She is doing better.

She evidently had a seizure around 1:45 a.m. this morning due to coming directly off the narcotics without tapering off the dosage.  The night nurse was standing right there and gave her ativan which stopped it.  They have her on a low dose of ativan and a mild pain killer now and will slowly reduce that as she can tolerate it.  The pain killer is mainly to dampen the effects of the physical therapy.

The speech therapist came in a worked with her on how to use the attachment for her trach so she could talk.  Gayle said she and Earl both have gotten to where they can understand her fairly well today (yesterday I couldn't make out what she was saying at all and neither could the RT).  Gayle said that she is already issuing orders and is ready to get out of there.  Of course she is still way too weak and needs to be on oxygen with the respirator when she is tired.

She really hasn't slept much in the last 24 hours (again coming off the drugs), but she can remember everything that has taken place in the last 24 hours as well.

The physical therapist came in and gave her PT.  Her muscle tone is slowly increasing and she can raise her arms, move her fingers some and almost make a fist.  She can move her feet and toes somewhat now as well.  They currently have her planned for PT 3 to 5 times a week to get her muscles back in shape.

They discontinued the antibiotics today as per her infectious disease doctors instructions, so that is positive.  They are taking a few tests on her urine to make sure she doesn't have a yeast infection due to all the mess she has been on the last four weeks (tomorrow will be five weeks in ICU).

She stayed off the ventilator for a longer period of time today than she has been, but she does get worn out and asks to be put back on it to rest.  Her pulmonary doc says thats fine but he will be extending her time off the vent each day to help build her lungs and decrease her dependance on the vent.

She does have one lung that has re-inflated better, but it is still too early to tell how much undamaged capacity she will have.

There is progress but it is slow and probably will remain that way.

However, this is certainly a different picture than what we were looking at last week at this time.

2/14 Off the vent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

t's hard for me to believe but she is off of the ventilator and today they are even trying her on room air (no oxygen) and she seems to be tolerating it well.  She still is extremely weak due to being in bed for 5 weeks and as of this morning could still barely squeeze a ball placed in her hand.  However, this evening she is sitting up and eating ice chips without asperating (sp) them.  The physical therapy should get her muscles back in tone in a reasonable period of time though.

I'm truly shocked from what we were looking at just a week ago.  I'm actually thinking that she may be able to go home in a reasonable time and breath on her own without oxygen.

The docs still don't know what to say about such a turn-around so please get the prayers and well wishes coming for awhile.  I think it must really pay off to be a healthy 25 year old when faced with something like this.

Tears of joy here. So glad, so glad, so glad. Prayers for a complete recovery.

The docs still don't know what to say about such a turn-around

The docs might not know but we know what is bringing about the turn-around. &nbsprayers and heavenly healing.

Wow! That's wonderful news!

Pilot spent the day in the ICU with Elise yesterday:


  Boy was I surprised at how much progress she has made in such a short time.  With the "talking plug" installed on her trach she could talk almost as well as she could before she got sick.  Not only that, but she was completely "with it" now and can remember what has been happening to her (since she is off the drugs except for some minor pain stuff).  She has been having a little trouble sleeping so they have been giving her Ambien at night and that seems to help.

Gayle showed me the exercises that she has been doing with her for Physical Therapy (PT) and then headed out to starting taking care of some of the stuff she was behind on.

Dr. Salazar came in and said he was seeing improvement on a daily basis.  She still has two chest tubes in and one is still leaking a little but he felt like one of them could be removed by the end of the week.

Elise and I worked on her exercises (she can lift a ball and squeeze it somewhat, move her hands, legs, and arms but that is about all).  Then I read to her for awhile (I don't know if I'm going to be a fan of "The Hunger Games" or not, we'll see).  About that time her lunch arrived.

Yep, she has started eating and they say she will probably get the stomach tube out this evening or tomorrow.  She has progressed from pureed food to a "mechanical" diet (bigger than pureed, but not just plain old food).  She did very well with it even though she can't feed herself yet.

She got a breathing treatment and then the Respiratory Therapist cleaned her trach and put a new trach collar on.  It's hard for me to believe she isn't on the ventilator any more and is even off of oxygen. Breathing through the trach is easier for her though.

When the RT finished we did some more PT and just as I sat down and she started to nod off to sleep the wound care specialist came in to change bandages and dress her wounds.  All of which are healing very well now.

So, she was awake again and we might as well do more PT.  We worked on range of movement, lifting, stretching and fine motor skills and just as we finished and Elise was ready to watch TV the real Physical Therapist came in.  Oh well, she got to work out again.

Her progress is really impressive.  For a lady that we didn't think was going to survive two weeks ago to where she is today is hard to believe.

Thanks for all of the prayers and positive thoughts.

Truly a miracle   All of her doctors and nurses must be so pleased too. 
 
With all that activity you'd think she'd sleep really well!
 
Any idea when she'll get to go home?