Weekend update

I apologize for the delay in updates, Shel and I have been in Des Moines visiting the entire weekend so there wasn't much web access around.

I'll start with medical updates. Before the weekend we were hopeful that Mom would be off the ventilator by the end of the weekend. Unfortunately this did not come to pass. Shel and I asked the nurse about it this afternoon. The nurse said that the doctors want to get her off the ventilator as soon as possible, but that her lungs currently aren't strong enough to take it. In fact she said that currently the ventilator is still turned all the way up, that is, it's working as hard as it can. I was a little disheartened to hear that, but the nurse also said her lung function is improving and that an interim step to being completely free of the ventilator could be a temporary tracheotomy. A temporary tracheotomy would be advantageous because then the doctors could hook up the vest part of the halo, thus allowing Mom more freedom of movement and the ability to talk in short bursts. Currently Mom's head is in traction, literally held in place by a combination of the halo and weights and a pulley, thus her movement is extremely limited and the prospect of her being able to move around a bit more is extremely appealing. The nurse seemed to think that barring a dramatic improvement a temporary tracheotomy was the most likely route to getting Mom off the ventilator sooner rather than later. The nurse seemed to think that would be something that could be done this week sometime.

In other medical news Dad noticed this afternoon that Mom's left leg seemed to be swollen a bit more than the right. The nurses checked it out and notified the doctor. The doctor seemed to think it could possibly be a blood clot, but that he wasn't too concerned because they have already installed an umbrella in the inferior vena cava (vein), referred to as the cervic tube in a previous post, that will prevent any blood clots from traveling to anywhere where they would do any damage. The doctors are going to check out more thoroughly tomorrow.

Yesterday and today I got to talk to Mom for a fairly good chunk of time while she was semi-conscious. We worked out that she could squeeze my hand once for yes and twice for no when she was answering questions. That seemed to work fairly well. On Saturday I asked her some questions about the accident and found out that she didn't know what had happened. I explained to her the details of the accident and the extent of her injuries, she seemed to understand. That was pretty hard and I started shaking a bit, but we got through it. I told her that her prognosis was good and that as far as I knew she was expected to make a pretty full recovery. During the conversation she indicated that she wanted to write and after a few attempts she managed to write "move me." I didn't quite know what she wanted. I didn't know if she was uncomfortable and needed to be adjusted, or whether she wanted to go to another room, or whether she wanted to go home. I told her that that had a schedule for adjusting her, but that's all I could think to do. Today, I started over and asked her some of the same questions that I asked yesterday. We covered some of the same topics, I had to retell her what had happened but she also had some more questions. After much trial and error we figured out that she was thirsty and needed and drink, which they couldn't give her, but we did get the nurse to come in and swab her mouth to moisten it. At nearly the same time she asked a question via her one handed charade method that really caught me off guard but certainly made sense when thinking about it from her perspective. She made a chopping motion with her arm and then pointed at her legs, indicating that she was concerned that she had lost her legs, we reassured her that no, her legs were fine, but it really brought to light for me that she really doesn't know too well what is going on, so we probably need to do a lot better job of keeping her updated and letting her know what is going on. I am sure that this is a really frustrating experience for her not being able to communicate with us very well, her brain is probably racing a mile a minute. Today she also asked Dad when he was going to have to return to work (Dad has been approved for FMLA leave, so he told her that he doesn't have to go back for many months) and he just told her that he was going to be there for as long as it took. My Dad is a great man.

Other than that we spent the weekend visiting with lots of relatives and a few friends. Visitors included Diana and Grandpa Bob, Alissa and Moses Mangae, Julie and Bob Caster, Mary from Marshalltown, Marion from DHS, Beth Walling, Jennifer Pilkington, Jeannette Wilson, Jerri Knode, and Elena's friends Abby and Maria.

Another story from the early moments of this whole deal emerged this weekend. Grandpa Bob talked to the ER trauma doctor who happened to visit while Grandpa Bob was in visiting Mom. The trauma doctor said that on the accident scene Mom's head was initially found at an awkward angle due the broken neck and that someone, maybe Mom herself, had pulled down on her jaw causing the broken bone in her neck had set perfectly back into place. The trauma doctor said that if that hadn't been done, or that the same thing had been attempted by a different method, that it is very likely that Mom would be paralyzed. Not much more I can say about that without getting too emotional.

So I'll leave you with that. Count your blessings, we're counting ours. Mom, Shel, Luka, and I will be back on Friday, stay strong.