Progress

We are breathing a little more deeply today. The medical team seems to have largely figured out how to avoid various troublesome reactions. Her chest xray looks better today. She is resting comfortably on her belly right now. The doctor is excited about her progress and his plan for her. They hope to wean her from the respirator so that she can breath on her own. However, they will still probably keep her sedated so that they can continue to suction mucus out of her lungs when she "coughs." Things seem to be going well, but we're still probably looking at a week or so before she can come home.

My parents have been doing shifts with Jeff and I to ensure that someone is with Keira all the time. It's true what they say...even when she's in a coma it's evident that she hears (sometimes she opens her eyes and she still startles to noises) and she prefers certain things (ie. her vitals are more regular when she is on her belly, which is how she likes to sleep at home). It seems helpful to have someone here to advocate for her in these ways. I'm not ragging on the hospital staff, because they are great, but they seem most interested in the obvious and most critical problem at hand. However, we see a slightly bigger picture, knowing how, on a normal day, being overwhelmed continually causes her to be very disoriented and even to decompensate. That has to apply even now. Iny fact, the doctor even said today that maybe we should have intubated sooner, which is exactly what I had thought when I saw her eyes and body posture while she was struggling to breathe a couple of nights ago. Sigh...we live, we learn. I trust the staff and know that they are all human, all want the best for her, and all have judgement calls to make based on the information they have and that there isn't necessarily one way to do things.

Unfortunatley, the boys can't come see their sister because they, too, have colds. Jeff and I went to Liam's basketball game this morning and went to lunch with them. They're doing great. I gave them some honest, though limited information on how Keira is doing. I told Ronin that Keira pees into a bag. He thought that was pretty funny.