Day 6

01/07/08

Throughout the night mom had a low grade fever, but not too bad. Around 11 am this morning they attached a seizure detecting machine to her head. This is only for precaution because she is at a high risk of seizures. Once the machine detects any little bit of change they can give her a medication to prevent seizures. 

She is now not draining much blood from the brain, which is very good. The nurse practitioner talked to Wende and explained that they were able to get almost all the clots below the skull line with certain medication. This is a good sign! Wende also signed for her to get a tracheotomy tomorrow. This is a good thing and can help her in the long run!

Overall today was a great day for her. She has been stable and resting. 

Thank you again for everyones prayers and thoughts!

Day 5

01/06/08

Mom spiked a fever in the night again, so they gave her some tylenol to help it. In the morning they did a test to check the level of vasospasms she was having and it was extremely high. If the spasm number gets high the vessel can close and cause a stroke. They took mom to get a CT scan at 11:30 am to see what was going on. Right when the results came back they took her to go back in the catheter in her groin and see if they need to do Angioplasty and put a balloon in the vessel to keep it open. They began surgery around 12:45 pm and and we got the news at 3:30 pm that the procedure went well and the spasms were not as bad as the numbers indicated, so they just put medication into the vessel to help with the spasms it was having. 

They had to give her more fluids so she is very swollen, but now she has the right level of fluids in her body. Later that day her oxygen level in her blood was low, so they decided to give her one unit of blood for a transfusion. Kelda, our nurse, said the transfusion was to get more blood and oxygen to her brain. Her body accepted it very well and the levels were back up. 

They took a sample from her lung to test for the possibility of pneumonia. Around 11:30 pm she spiked another fever so they send more blood and urine to be tested for an infection. It will take a couple of days to get those results back. The rest of the evening she rested.

Thank you for all the visitors, food, prayers, and support!  

Day 4

01/05/08

During the night mom spiked a fever of 100.8 degrees. They sent in blood to see if there was any infection going on in her body. Her oxygen level had also lowered in the night, so she had to have the machine help her. They also took x-rays to see if there was any saturation in her lungs. The test came back negative and her lungs looked great! Today she began to eat very well through the tube in her nose.

Kelda was our nurse throughout the weekend. She was wonderful to us and mom. She was able to explain everything mom was going through so we could understand it. She assured us that everything mom is doing is as expected at this point of recovery. 

The whole family went to the breakfast club meeting at the HOW place. It was an amazing meeting. Thank you for everyone for the prayers and support!

Day 3

01/04/08

Throughout the night, Laurie had a rough time and was thrashing around too much. Her cognitive level had lowered and she became lethargic. In the morning they decided to sedate her and put her back on the intubator. Although this was a step back the doctors said that it could be for the best so she will stay calm. They also began a blood pressure medication that helps keep it up. Although on the intubator they said she was breathing on her own. 

About every four hours they would wake her up and check if she was able to still move all of her extremities. She was still able to move everything except her left eye. When any of us went back they would do all this so we were able to see it all!

Over all today was a stable day for her. She was able to rest and let the blood drain off her brain.  Thank you for all the visitors today!