ICU Day 9 - Ups and Downs

I need to remind myself that progress in the ICU can be slow. Yesterday was such a quantum leap forward from the prior, that I fooled myself into expecting the same trajectory to continue.  My arrival this morning quickly dispelled any such hope.

Before I even saw her, the overnight nurse, Javinder, told me that she had not slept at all overnight.  When I went in, Shirley's eyes were open and she was staring straight ahead.  She didn't respond to my greeting and had to be coaxed into squeezing my hand.  She was unresponsive to the doctors as well.

At this point, I'm hoping that she is just exhausted from a busy day and being up all night.  They have prescribed a sleep aid for tonight, so that hopefully she'll get some quality sleep and return to yesterday's form on Wednesday.

But despite her foggy state, they conducted another breathing test and she did the best yet.  One of the key readings they monitor is her PVe, which is the volume of air on expiration.  Yesterday, she could barely manage 100 cc's, which was just over a third of the volume (270cc) that was being administered by the vent.  That test was halted at just over a couple of minutes.  Today, she sustained a PVe range between 250 and 270 for over 30 minutes.  She eventually had a coughing fit--or as close to one as you can on a vent--which ended to test. I don't know if she could have gone further, or if the cough was because she had given it her all. In either case, it was a huge improvement and very encouraging.

Shirley also got out of bed and stood once today.  No attempt was made to walk but she stood up as her bed was remade.

As I write this, I am thinking back to exactly eight years ago when Shirley and I had our first date.  I some ways it seems like it has been much longer and and in other ways, those eight years has just flown by.  Happy Anniversary my love!