Day 10

1/11/08

They are keeping Laurie's temperature at 97.7 degrees, which is good for the brain.  Her skin seems so cold to the touch.  I know how Laurie likes to be warm, so I wish they could raise her temperature a little.  She occasionally shivers which is probably a good sign.

The doctors moved her feeding tube from her nose and throat, running it directly into her stomach.  The food is a cream/tan colored liquid that drips from a bag.

Overnight, the oxygen levels to Laurie's brain fluctuated, and her levels were high indicating vasospasms.  The doctors decided to perform another CT scan with contrast dye in the morning.  After the radiologists analyzed the CT scan data, they decided to take Laurie down to take a look at her brain through the catheter and either use drugs or a balloon angioplasty to open up the arteries to her brain.

The news from the doctors afterwards was not good.  They  were able to open her arteries in three locations, however the artery in her middle cerebral artery did not respond to the balloon angioplasty.  Laurie had also suffered two strokes, one in her right frontal lobe and the other in her left frontal lobe.  The frontal lobes control her personality, concentration, and wakefulness.  This means she will spend more time in the ICU so they can hopefully keep her from having anymore strokes.

We were so thankful that Nina, Terry, Nicole, and Emily were there to comfort us after talking to the doctors.

Day 9

1/10/08

Laurie had a pretty good night according to the nurse.  Her fever reached 102 degress, but was down to under 101 in the morning.  Because of this fever, they are now using a machine that circulates a cool fluid through some pads.  A few of these pads will be used to keep her fever down.

The Licox monitor is now working properly, and the oxygen level going into Laurie's brain is at a good level.  This is great news!

Day 8

1/09/08

Laurie's temperature this morning was 101 degrees.  This due to the Staff Pneumonia she has had for a few days.  In the evening her fever had reached 101.3 degrees.

They performed another CT scan with dye to view the diameter of the arteries that provide oxygen for her brain.  Dr. Cowley said that the scan showed a little constriction of the arteries, but not enough to warrant any procedures.

She had a successful tracheotomy performed in the morning, so now she does not have to have the breathing tube running through her mouth down into her throat.  The doctor also adjusted the leads in her head for the Licox monitor.  All of the readings are now showing up.  However, her oxygen level being provided to the brain is on the low side, so tomorrow morning the doctor will decide what to do to increase the oxygen level.

Katie and her dad went to lunch outside of the hospital.  Of course we had visitors while we were out, but they were still here when we returned.  Thanks for coming to visit Daniel, Donna, and Julie.  I know Laurie thanks you too.

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.

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!