Claudia and Dad saw mom this morning at the 11:00 visit. She was sleepy but did open her eyes for them. She raised her arm for them when they asked her to (in front of the doctor--she wouldn't do it for him). She also made gutteral sounds seemingly in response to dad's talking to her (brief but unlike any sounds she ever made). Her eyes were open when they came to see her. The surgeon came to see her and said that he would have another x-ray taken of her lung later in the day to see if the tube in her lung can be removed because her lung is no longer draining (a good thing). The infectious disease doctor saw mom while they were there too and said that she has a bacteria in her urine that has colonized (not a bad thing...it is just there). It is not causing an infection (no fever and white blood cell count normal). He also said all her respiratory signs look good and oxygen levels look good too. He said that the +3 in the sputum doesn't mean that there is an infection deep in her lungs like a pneumonia, but because she came in with hypertoxia??? (spelling???) like she did, they treat her with the same type of medication as someone with pnuemonia as a preventative measure. They look at x-rays (clear) and if she has a fever (she doesn't..this is all good)...so they make deductions. Sometimes when a trach is in, the place where the hole is can become inflamed and infected at the site. He feels that is what we are looking at and not an infection deep in the lung...but a more, upper, around the site type of infection---given all the data that is analyzed. He feels that he has every confidence that we can get mom back to where she was before this all happened. He has faith that she can get right back to where she was.
Dad, Anthony, Con and I saw mom this afternoon. She was sleepy and really just slept. She looked at us a few times and squeezed dad's finger but only looked at us when we gave her an "assist" opening her eyes (we opened them and then she kept them open a few minutes or seconds). The x-ray of her lung was taken while we were there.
Anthony, Con and I saw mom this evening and were told that her x-ray looked good and her lung is doing fine. She kept her eyes open almost 40 minutes but on and off and only with "assists" from us. She focused on our faces and turned her head to the opposite side of the bed to see Anthony 2-3 times. She tried to smile about 3 times and also tried to blow me kisses in imitation (very mild, slight attempts but attempts nonetheless). She was very, very tired. Con showed mom her shirt and asked what it said and mom stared at the words. We were told that they are moving mom out of SICU tonight and that she will now be on the 4th floor in a regular room. Visiting hours are now open from 12-8:00 p.m. to anyone. We don't have the room number yet so just ask at the desk.
You know, it's funny (maybe that's a poor word to use..) but one of the things I was going to do this winter break was go back over all these updates to chart and recall mom's progress so far...mainly, because when you are with her every day working with her, you don't see the progress. What can I say now? We are back to standing by the bed and asking her to open her eyes and trying to think of things to say to let her know we are with her. I suddenly see all the progress. Well, back to box 1. We won't give up. And...we won't quit 5 minutes before the miracle happens.
"You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." Hebrews 10:36
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