Day 7

1/08/08

Today began with the doctor coming in to do his routine check and the nurses let him know that she was still not responding to their requests (squeeze hand, wiggle toes, and open eyes).  The doctor then ordered  a test for myopathy to be performed to test the response of mom's muscles.  The test indicated that her muscles were responding to the stimulus (needles).  The doctor let us know that the problem lies between her brain and her extremities.  He said that he does not see any permanent damage at this time and everything going on is not irreversible.

Later in the day the doctor's approached us to let us know they would be putting a device called Licox on her head.  This device has only been in the United States for one year but in the UK for two.  It is a very high tech device that measures the temperature of the brain, oxygen level in the brain, brain pressure, basal spasms, and small aneurisms.  We are very fortunate to be at this hospital as it is the only hospital in the Southeast with this device.  They had to drill another hole in her head to insert the leads for the Licox, but not as deep as the other hole that drains the liquid from her brain.  The leads come out of a cone on her head and we are calling the cone her "party hat".  The machine was not monitoring her oxygen level, so they will try to fix that problem tomorrow.

The nurses also let us know that the reason Mom had been running a fever was because she had developed Staff Pneumonia in her lungs.  They began to give her strong antibiotics right away.  They reassured us that it is normal for people that are intubated to get pneumonia.  We hope that the anitbiotics work quickly.

Tomorrow she is scheduled to get a tracheotomy so that she does not have the large tube going down her throat which cann irritate the vocal cords.  She is also scheduled for an operation to have her PEG feeding tube put directly into her stomach, instead of it running through her nose and down her throat.  Hopefully these procedures will make her less agitated when she is taken off sedation.

Occasionally Laurie's heart rate would jump unexpectedly, so they are trying to figure out why that is happening.