My mom began breathing all on her own today. She has been breathing on her own a little bit this entire time, but after weaning her off of the ventilator overnight, this morning was the first time that she was given the chance to do all of the work herself and she did great. Yay! I think we were a little surprised at how quickly she accomplished this. This is excellent progress and we are incredibly proud of her; however, we never doubted her ability. She is improving each day, and this particular progress is a good indicator that she will likely be moving out of the shock trauma intensive care unit (STICU) soon. We do not know exactly when my mom will be moved, but it may be as soon as tomorrow. We also do not know exactly where she will be moved to, but of course she will get plenty of attention. We will keep you posted on this.
We learned this morning that the results of my mom's MRI, which was performed late last night, were all good. Her brain has not developed any new injuries, and the ones that we can see on the MRI seem to be healing appropriately. Nothing new, but reassuring to hear.
Although we misunderstood and thought that my mom was not allowed to have visitors for part of the day, we learned that she had been sitting upright in a chair during that time (about 2.5 hours). She will be able to do this again tomorrow and we are all looking forward to seeing her sit up. Sitting in a chair is very good for her, especially for her lungs.
My mom is looking better and better every single day. We tell her this often, too. In order to place the intracranial pressure monitor, they had to shave a bit of hair on the top right side of her head. I know that she will hate this part, but her hair is already starting to grow back. My mom also had a very black right eye, but it is almost mind-boggling how quickly her eye is healing, too. She is looking great.
Lastly, I think we are going to be able to set my dad up with an apartment that will allow him very easy access to and from the hospital. He will be able to take the light rail (a little train that runs through the medical center) back and forth easily, it will be a very safe trip to make, and he will be able to sleep in a bed with the comfort of a home, yet never be more than minutes away from my mom.
We have been discussing how careful we will need to be with my mom when she wakes up, because she will be so incredibly moved by all of the touching stories and messages that we will be so anxious to share with her. Thank you all again for the continued support, as it makes a world of difference for us.
-Sarah
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