This morning, they started Laurie breathing on her own again with assistance from the ventilator. Her breathing is a little heavy, but because her carbon dioxide levels are remaining low, they are going to let her continue to breathe on her own. She is receiving 40% oxygen from the ventilator.
Laurie was taken off of the blood pressure medicine and they removed the EEG leads from her head. Now that there is nothing on her head, they were able to shampoo her hair.
Tonight at 10pm, they are going to cut her pain medication drip in half, and then tomorrow at 10am they will stop it all together. They have already placed a 72 hour narcotic patch on her to take over pain management. They continue to wean her of of the sedation, monitoring her vital signs for agitation as it is decreased.
The doctors and nurses have talked about Laurie's next level of care. If she can get to the point where she can breathe on her own and does not need continuous medications, she will be able to be moved to long term care. This is great news that Laurie is recovering.
