Mom didn't open her eyes today except for a little sliver a few times. But she touched her face with her right hand a lot and even scratched at her nose and rubbed her lips several times. Anthony visited with mom this morning and ran some therapies with her after I did. When dad and Claudia were with her today, dad was leaving and Claudia told her to say goodbye to dad---and it appeared that she raised her right hand and waved goodbye! She also had some resistance when I did her physical therapy today on her left arm. She continues to move her left hand, wrist, arm and fingers --- moving her whole left arm to the middle of her body frequently. Samantha said that she was sleepy but moved around a lot tonight when Sam, Anthony Michael, Con and Dad saw her. We are currently trying to spread out the physical therapies over 2 1/2 - 3 hour intervals and not give them back to back so mom doesn't get overtired. Overall though, it appears that what we are doing is working well. The therapies we are doing are called "coma stimulation" or "infant stimulation" - one in the same but different names. We found these therapies online, from our experiences and background in special education working with children with brain damage and trauma, and from the speech therapist at the center.
I spoke to the respiratory therapist today and he explained that the reason her vent was raised to 16 from 8 (in the area of number of breaths per minute that the machine gives to mom) is that her CO2 levels when she exhales went up. This is generally called respiratory distress and means any one of a number of things. In mom's case, there was no alarming explanation for this rise in CO2 levels. This term means any disturbance or change from the status quo. In such instances, there is the need to help balance out or compensate for the change in levels. He said that mom is currently quite comfortable at the 16 breaths per minute setting on the vent but that he has begun to decrease the setting down to 14 until Monday, when he will move it back down to 8 or 10. He said that mom needs to be challenged to breathe more on her own in order to wean off the vent altogether. He said that such a change in levels is not always a bad thing---it could be a good thing, in that, as mom's brain rewires, her levels go temporarily askew until they eventually balance out. I mentioned that mom's hands were trembling the day the level went to 16 and asked if the rise in the level could cause the trembling or if the trembling could be due to a seizure which made the CO2 levels rise. He said the 2 are just coincidental and unrelated events. He said her hands may have trembled due to recent reactivity in her left arm and hand---similar to a functional person who runs a mile then once stopped, the muscles in the legs are shaky and weak from exerting them---mom's hands may be doing the same thing from using them so much in new ways over the last few days. The respiratory therapist said that he has seen people of all ages, young and old, go from coma to alertness in a matter of days, or months. Some people remain in a coma a few months then suddenly make remarkable progress over the course of a few days while others make slow, steady progress over the course of a year or many months---both get to the same point of progress but at different speeds. It's all very individualized when it comes to the brain and how it works, rewires, and heals---and science still doesn't know much about the brain.
But...mom seems to be moving forward, and that's a good thing.
"I will give thanks to you because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made." Psalm 139:14
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