Status - 10/30 a.m.

Sara is improving after having her cranial shunt inserted. Excess fluid has been able to slowly drain and pressure return to normal.

She is also out of her coma and is back to breathing on her own. They do have her getting about 40% oxygen to help support the oxygenation of her blood, with the goal being getting her to room air with appropriate blood oxygen saturation.

They removed a couple of lines overnight that are no longer needed...one of those being an arterial access line. This line was put into her femoral artery and allowed access to her brain for the removal of the clot in the pons section of her basal brain. The amazing surgery the performed with a device called a Merci Retriever. They then injected the tried and true clot busting medication t-PA. t-PA is normally only effective within the first 3 hours of stroke onset, but is used in companion with the Merci Retriever to break down any residual clot left behind and prevent more from forming. They also (through normal IV) gave her Heparin, which is a blood thinner with anticlotting capabilities. They had to balance very carefully her blood clotting capability, as being too aggressive with keeping clotting from happening would have caused her to bleed excessively in other injuries and jeopardize her.

This morning she was able to communicate again, using eye movements. The Trauma Resident was able to ask her some questions with yes/no answers. She was asked if she was in pain, to which she answered Yes. She was then given some pain medication and a mild setative and has been resting.

When I told her that I was here and talked to her, she cried. She's very scared and in some pain. We both cry a lot, out of frustration mainly. I told her that I was going to be right next to her and she could rest, I would be watching over her - to which she answered Yes. So I stroked her arm for a few minutes until she started to relax.

We'll keep you posted. But, for right now, she's coming back from her episode yesterday and doing better.

K