Off the ventilator 3 hours, Meningitis?

Big miraculous news today!
Denise was completely off of the ventilator for almost 3 hours today! The respiratory therapist was very excited. She said that it was remarkable progress. The turned her from SIMV to CPAP mode around noon today. Then just before 3 pm they took her off of the ventilator and only had an oxygen hose hooked up to her tracheostomy tube (30% oxygen, 100% saturation). She started breathing faster and was put back on the ventilator on CPAP mode after about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Leaps & bounds once again. I hope that the streak keeps up for a long time before there are any steps backward.

As far as activity, she was very awake for several hours today (even wearing her glasses and watching some TV). She drew a picture on the Magna Doodle for Gracie. She's moving her shoulders a little & raising her arms up above her head. Yesterday and today she wrote my aunt's name (the nurse that's been the resource for this blog), indicating that she wanted her to come visit again. She also asked for the moms to come back & pray/have church by the bedside again.

More super news is that she's currently completely off of the heart & blood pressure meds. Her heart rate was 107-115. The lowest I saw the blood pressure get today was 107/74 (yesterday I believe I saw it get down to 89 or so for a bit). Also, the p/a catheter was taken out and a central line put in. She did develop a deep vein thrombosis (uh... clot?) in her left leg, so she's on blood thinner again. The Quinton catheter that was in her neck for the 24-hour hemodialysis was removed. It was never used! I don't remember if I posted or not, but her last dialysis was at Arcadia Methodist. Her kidney function has been improving and she's not had any form of dialysis at USC.

Other bits:
Her j-tube feedings are up to 60cc/hour now. She's on insulin, but not needing much.
Other meds Voriconazole (doube-duty, antibacterial, antifungal) and piperacillin are being dripped into her.
The pigtail was removed from the ab, and the ascites is building up again (I believe it was building up even before the pigtail was removed).
Female organ scan done, nothing showing up to be concerned about.
Fever curve is down to 99-100 with the help of ice baths & cooling blanket, however cooling blanket hasn't been used since this afternoon.

The prayer points:
There's still some infection somewhere. So tomorrow she'll be getting a bone scan. She'll be going at 9am and again at 12pm. If you were planning on visiting her tomorrow, you will definitely want to call ahead first. (323-442-8500, ask for 7ICU, then ask about Denise's schedule in room 704). There is also a spinal tap on deck probably for the day after tomorrow (her plateletes are at 35 and she needs to get off of the blood thinner first). The MRI shows "meningeal enhancement that is consistent with possible meningitis." I don't like the sound of that. USC said that our insurance is still covering this at 100%, but there's now a question of Denise's lifetime limit on insurance. Small concern compared to everything else, but still a concern.

The stupid news:
Our car turned 200,000 miles on Saturday night (intersection of Huntington & Fremont). Then the left front axle went kaput today. After that many miles, I guess I don't have anything to cry about.

And in case you were wondering:
I decided to try to finish out a week of work, then take several weeks off. I talked to some friends, and they knocked some sense into me. The work schedule, family time with the kids, hours at the hospital, traffic, and distance all point to using up my sick days (and the donated days from my work family... THANK YOU!), then family medical leave. Thanks for the posts, emails, and "water cooler chats" that helped me decide the right thing to do.

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