The Longest Day

Thank you for all those that checked in and were wanting an update yesterday (Monday) on Princess.  It was a unique day as we were focused and understood that today would be the day that Princess would be able to finally come off the ventilator.  It has been one full week and so you can imagine the anticipation that we all have.  Unfortunately, during the overnight hours Princess was, understandably so, agitated with the vent now that she was fully off sedation.  Due to her agitation and this giving rise to her heart rate, she was given a dose of sedative.  And, much to our dismay, this meant that Monday was difficult in that Princess spent much of the day sedated and was not quite able to perform the necessary tests that would allow her to come off the ventilator.

The good news and great feedback came from one of the techs that reminded us that though she would not be coming off the ventilator, Princess did indeed breathe most of the day on her own with very little help.  It does turn out that with the length of time she was sedated, her pneumonia, and that she is very low on "fuel" for energy it is going to take most likely an additional day.  Needless to say, we were saddened by this as we also knew that now Princess would be facing possibly 24 hours or so awake and feeling the ventilator tubing down her throat...something that I don't think anyone would want to endure.  Truly, Princess is amazing and her strength to endure and get through this ordeal is nothing short of a miracle.

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Part II

The night was a very long night.  Both Princess and I were basically up the entire night.  Princess extremely uncomfortable with the vent, even more aware of the now 9 days of laying idle in bed.  Myself, trying to get Princess from becoming too agitated and hence warding off any additional sedation that could set her back even another day.  Yesterday, in order for Princess to get nutrition, a tube was inserted through her nose.  Unfortunately, I drifted off next to her bed just long enough that she, though restrained was still able to pull the feeding tube out.  This has certainly made for an eventful morning, and we are anxiously counting down the hours till we see the morning doctors and begin the process to get Princess off the vent.

Please pray for Princess day.  That she would be able to finally get some quality rest off the vent.  Her seizures would continue to stay away, and that we would be able effectively communicate with the physicians.  Yesterday was also difficult as we met all new doctors and having to make sure that everyone was on the same page.