Shirley's breathing without the ventilator has stayed steady. She is using only one liter of supplemental oxygen and her respiration rate is acceptable (around 30) with very good oxygen saturation. That's the good and most important news.
She isn't able to swallow yet, so they inserted a feeding tube that they are using to give her nutrition and most of her medicines.
Her mental and neurological faculties are improving slowly. Last last night, she lifted both arms and crossed them. This morning, she was able to tell her nurse her name (although her voice is very hoarse from 9 days with a tube down it), and waved good bye when her night nurse left. A team from Neurology came down and gave her an assessment and was satisfied with her progress that they cancelled her MRI.
Concern now turns to her renal function. Her blood chemistry is showing elevated levels of creatinine. This can be attributable to several factors,the most likely of which was the aggressive diuresing down to dry out her lungs. But they are also worried about an elevated white blood cell count which could mean another infection lurking. She was just brought back from a CT scan of her belly--the ICU docs suspect she may have a troublesome build-up of fluid in the area where her gall bladder was removed. We should hear the results in the morning.
Meanwhile, we continue to wear gowns and masks in the room due to the suspicion of a MRSA infection. But the blood cultures haven't proven it to be an issue yet and I suspect tomorrow they will lift her isolation and chalk the nasal swab up to a passing germ that they happened to catch in her nose.
Thanks once again for all the support. I apologize that I haven't been able to respond personally to every contact personally. There are so many people checking in that this blog is the most efficient way to get the news to everyone.
Greg
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