Stormy Friday

what a blustery day...raining sidewise...reminds me of Alaska...

Sara stayed inside today. LOL...of course she did...

She had a real easy day. I talked with her doctors this morning and discussed her care, plan for the next few days, etc. We all agreed to stop messing with the ventilator and let her build up some strength.

Dr. Intensivist and I discussed how and when to do pressure support/ventilator changes. I explained that it wasn't just that I wanted to be there for me to watch...I need to be there because it scares the hell out of Sara and she wants me there. He totally understood and put himself in my place as a parent and said he wouldn't want his son to go through that without him, either.

So - Monday I will be at the hospital when they round in the morning, and they are going to do a ventilator reduction and breathing test. I'll have a chance to prepare her for it (like not springing it on her-which she really dislikes) and calm her during. If you've ever seen Sara scared during this, you know that she locks onto my eyes and listens to my voice. She KNOWS that I won't get all wound up unless there is good reason to be, so she relaxes and calms down. We've been through some exercise induced asthma attacks and she knows to just listen to my voice, trust me, and breath like I tell her. We'll test to see if she can do it now. My bet is that she can.

Now - that being said - this is only going to be a 2 to 5 point reduction in her ventilator pressure support. That can FEEL like a lot to her, but still plenty of support. She is on a relatively high level of vent pressure support (15lbs/H20) and he'd like to see if she can tolerate 13lbs or even 10lbs. She did not tolerate 13lbs the other day, but that was within 24 hours of starting to breathe on her own, too. We agreed that she's still pretty weak in the chest muscles and needs a chance to work back. Unfortunately, coughing is rough on her, but has been helping her build up more breath strength and muscle tone in the chest.

In the interim, she will be visited by her father and stepmom - Tracy and Denise - and her boyfriend Daniel. I'll try and go up if my sore throat lets up. I have strep throat and am probably not still contagious, but feeling like gutter crud. (I bathed in alcohol gel and wore a mask when seeing Sara yesterday...and didn't go today or day before yesterday.) Luckily, I haven't gotten anybody else sick around me, as i've been VERY careful.

So all is as well as can be - resting happening all around - working not to get any worse - letting her gather strength and heal. Monday will start the first full week of the New Year..and the first weekly goal.