Midday report on April 10, 2009

WAHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Mom is off the ventilator!!!!! Okay now an update for the last couple of hours.

At 11:30am a pulmonologist came in and ordered another blood test for hormones. The respiratory therapist came in and he lowered the amount of breaths that the ventilator was making her take. And then after she breathed a few times on her own he turned it completely off to see if she can do it on her own. They turned off all the sedation at this time. It was too hard for her at that time to breathe on her own and she started to worry because of it so they turned it back on but only with 7 breaths instead of 14. She was too sedated still to really get some good breaths on her own. It needed to wear off. She then was breathing anywhere from 5 to 8 breaths on her own. So she did really good staying calm while the tube was still in the throat. Can't imagine what it must feel like to have that tube in there. They let her breathe like this for awhile and get used to it. Then at 1 pm they came in and turned the ventilator completely off so that she could try and breathe again on her own. She did really good with this! She asked Kevin to give her a blessing right after this to help her remain calm. She was told that the Lord's spirit was with her. She asked him to do this by pointing to him and putting her hand on her head. At 2:00 she got thru an hour on her own with Kally and Kristi helping to keep her calm and focused. Now all she needed to do was pass a test - gas levels and pH. At 2:30 they came in to report she passed and got everything ready and were able to pull the tube out. As soon as the tube came out she wanted to start talking and began trying. She said she was anxious to talk because she hasn't been able to for so long. Her voice is really hourse and she can only talk real soft. While she was breathing on her own with the tube in Kally did lifelines on her and she feels like mom released a lot. At 2:45 pm they came in and did a breathing treatment to keep the swelling down.

She has been asking questions about what happened and what has been happening so we have been filling her in.

We haven't been told a game plan as to what happens next, how long she has to be in ICU or when and if they will do an angiogram.

Her favorite flowers is tulips, she can't have any now but once she is out of ICU then she can.

Kally, Kristi, Chelsey and of course Richard and Kevin