UPDATE: Wednesday Morning at 11:13 am CT- COME ON HEATHER, "LET'S DO THIS THANG!"
COME ON HEATHER, "LET'S DO THIS THANG!!"
Heather has ways of getting herself ready to do a task like standing, or transferring from her wheelchair to the car etc... She often will count 1, 2, 3 before she is ready to stand. "Let's do this thang," is one of her little sayings she will usually say before she can perform that task...Right now, we need her to "Do this thang," of waking and come off of the ventilator. They have inserted a feeding tube last night and began the EEG, which is a test to determine the electrical activity in the brain, and it is supposed to run for 24 hours. Before the surgery, her Neurologist tried to prepare us that it could be a tough month for her. A chest X-ray was done this morning, but we haven't heard the results. The Critical Care team came in a few moments ago to prepare us of the possibility that she may have to have a Tracheotomy, which is a surgical procedure to provide an opening through the neck directly into the windpipe in the event she has trouble breathing on her own once they take her off the vent. We refer to the doctors a lot as a team because Vanderbilt is a teaching hospital and about 10 people or more come into the room at times.
She is still very sedated and has received no medications that would attribute to this in over 24 hours. She has had two pints of blood on yesterday and a unit of albumin, which is a protein of the blood plasma. The level of one of her seizure drugs is extremely low. She is still running a fever, and they are now checking to see if there is any infection or just her way of responding to the surgery since she has had a fever for over a 24 hour period.
Her nurse from yesterday believes she is more responsive to commands and seems to be more alert to her! She is definitely getting rid of fluids now and seems to be less swollen.
Your continued prayers and interest are amazing!! We can feel you pulling for Heather and cheering her on! Undoubtedly this is tough stuff to watch her go through, and we have our moments, but, we can't explain the calmness and peace we feel. We are accepting things as we hear them, but, yet, our trust is in the fact that we KNOW that the Lord is in complete control and it is going to be okay! Please keep praying and believing this with us.
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