Today began with a weight a heaviness in Andrea's room. Andrea remained the same all day, sleeping, unresponsive. Her breathing too fast around 57 breaths a minute and her heart rate to rapid, around 145 beats per minute. She was running a marathon lying in the bed.
At 12 noon we stop to join in prayer with friends around the country.
My sister Maureen and I left around 5pm to meet Andrea's Mom, sister and brother in law who were driving in from Wichita Falls. We went back to the hospital around 8pm and found Andrea's heart rate down to 134, and her breathing rate down to 44 breaths per minute. Roz was there when we arrived and we had a nice visit with Andrea. She seemed to respond to our voices. She did not open her eyes but she definitely heard us.
Still no answers as to the cause of the infection. We met with the doctors around 3pm and discussed her options. If there are no changes by Monday we will have to consider other treatment options. The assumption would be after one week of antibiotics and no response the infection is most likely not bacterial. Our next course would be to try steroids. Now there is a lot of time between now and Monday and I'm praying Andrea will just improve and make the decision for us.
They did stop Andrea's sedation meds and went back to manual delivery of her pain meds. This was the same treatment option they tried on Tuesday which resulted in Andrea waking up and fighting the ventilator as well as Roz and me. This time I was clear with the doctor that I did not want a repeat of Tuesday. We had a great day shift nurse who kept Andrea comfortable yet able to do some breathing on her own. Tonight Jan is the night shift nurse. This was her second night with Andrea and she is a jewel. Roz had a good idea to show Jan the pictures on the blog site. It allowed Jan to get to know Andrea and her friends and family. When we left tonight Jan was standing by Andrea's bed holding her hand.
Although today's victories were just a few steps of a long journey, but they were victories. When we left the hospital at 9:30 I was encouraged in my spirit and hopeful.
Thank you all for the prayers.
Still no answers as to the cause of the infection. We met with the doctors around 3pm and discussed her options. If there are no changes by Monday we will have to consider other treatment options. The assumption would be after one week of antibiotics and no response the infection is most likely not bacterial. Our next course would be to try steroids. Now there is a lot of time between now and Monday and I'm praying Andrea will just improve and make the decision for us.
They did stop Andrea's sedation meds and went back to manual delivery of her pain meds. This was the same treatment option they tried on Tuesday which resulted in Andrea waking up and fighting the ventilator as well as Roz and me. This time I was clear with the doctor that I did not want a repeat of Tuesday. We had a great day shift nurse who kept Andrea comfortable yet able to do some breathing on her own. Tonight Jan is the night shift nurse. This was her second night with Andrea and she is a jewel. Roz had a good idea to show Jan the pictures on the blog site. It allowed Jan to get to know Andrea and her friends and family. When we left tonight Jan was standing by Andrea's bed holding her hand.
Although today's victories were just a few steps of a long journey, but they were victories. When we left the hospital at 9:30 I was encouraged in my spirit and hopeful.
Thank you all for the prayers.
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