Today is a new day
Today is Saturday October 11, 2008. Stephanie fought through the night. Jay stays at her bedside all day and all night. Our sister Jen is having a very hard time. They are 1 year apart. Steph and Jen are not only sisters but best buddies. They never go very many hours throughout the day without talking on the phone just to say hello. Jen is struggling and I hope she can hang in there
I saw Jen smile for the first time in 24 hours this morning. She came out of Stephi's room around 11am and Steph had been writing. No one could understand or read her hand-writing after her first 2 sentences. She must have been frustrated or mad because her next sentence was VERY legible. It simply stated said: "Just F****** read what I wrote!" We all could read it very clearly. Then she tried to hit Jay with the clipboard they had given her to write on. I'm sure Jay probably won't give her a clipboard again soon :) I can't imagine what it must be like to want so badly to say something and can't.
She is mostly sedated. The staff will bring her out of her sedation every 30 min - 1 hour to assess her ability to move and follow commands, and then re-sedate her. She moves her right side well. Her left side has very minimal movement, but she must have some feeling. She is able to feel people touching her on the left side. She will hold up an appropriate number of fingers when asked. She also nods and follows commands well at this time.
Steph hates the breathing tube! She grabs it once in a while but she knows not to pull it. When she needs to cough she usually can let someone know that it needs to be suctioned or have her mouth suctioned out. She was on the lowest vent setting as of 11 am and it is sounding like she may be able to get that tube out tomorrow. I hope she takes it easy on us for not understanding her all the time right now once she can talk :)
The baby's heart rate has been within normal limits so far. (I know all of you OB people have been wondering). We still don't know which way that may go. She has an OB consult everyday and she is dopplered. She will need an extensive OB evaluation once her brain activity is stable, but they are trying hard to limit her stimulation until her brain swelling has improved.
She gets a lot of visitors at times and it makes her monitors ring when there is too much activity in her room so we have been keeping it at 1-2 people at a time. So far she recognizes us and she moves around when we talk about Christopher and Olivia but they have not seen her yet.
Her kids went with their dad last night. It was very hard for me. I know they will be well taken care of, but they have lived so close to me for the last couple years that I'm sad to see them go. Their daddy lives in New Richmond. He is supportive to Steph's condition and promises to get them down to see her when she is ready and get them back to her if she is able to get back on her feet. They asked about her all day yesterday. They know mommy is very sick. They know the doctors are taking very good care of mommy, and they know mommy loves them. Olivia says "I give my mommy a kiss when I see her". Christopher tells me to tell mommy he loves her. I gave her the message several times!
I will head home for the night for new clothes and my own bed to see if I am able to sleep for a few hours. Sleeping is difficult for all of us these days. So far so good. I will head back to Madison in the morning, and pray my phone does not ring tonight. We are all afraid of our phones right now for fear of bad news. Keep fighting Stephi!
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