Saturday, November 11th

I arrived at the hospital around 9:00pm, last night, and was so happy to see Kerrie I wanted to cry. She has lost a lot of the water weight and fluids she’s had, so she looks a lot thinner than when I left. Part of her were really bloated, like her hands and feet, so it was nice to see they had gone back down to normal size… except now she looks so fragile, that I am afraid I am going to break a bone when I try to help her with her excersizes. 

By the time I got there, she was pretty exhausted from all the activity they put her through during the day so she was not very responsive when I was trying to talk to her…. had to call her name three or four times, and stand directly in front of her face, to get her to pay any attention to me.  But, she does have her moments when she is alert, and with us.. ahd you can definately tell when she is not “with us”.

This morning Mom showed me how to do all of her excersizes properly and how to be careful with her right arm and wrist. If you hold up her hand her wrist will just dangle, almost as if it’s broken, so I am very wary of even moving her hand.

She brushed her teeth, with a little help from Mom, and  managed not to get too much toothpaste on her face. 🙂 I should say she “sponged” her teeth as she is not allowed to use a real toothbrush.. too much of a bleed risk. Her toothbrush is a small sponge on the end of a tube, that hooks up to a little suction unit that keeps all the water from pooling in her mouth. She did pretty good with the water and mouthrinse combination, but when Mom put the toothpaste on the sponge, Kerrie missed her mouth by a little bit and ended up with toothpaste on her cheek. At least her cheeks will be minty fresh. She did most of it on her own, but tires so easily that mom had to finish the job for her.  

She was good about doing all of her excersizes, but it is obvious she is very weak today. Mom was able to feel a little push coming from her right arm, but not able to feel any resistance from her right leg. When I was doing her second round of excersizes, in the afternoon, she was not able to give me a push or any resistance from her left leg and it was obvious she was trying pretty hard. Her strength in her left side is getting weaker.. and what was once a pretty strong grip would now qualify as a weak handshake, but we know this will improve with her physical therapy.

Because she was so weak, and tired, we did not try to have her sit on the side of the bed like the Physical Therapy team did yesterday.. and I am definately not going to try that without Mom there.

Although she did not do it as well as I heard she did yesterday, she was able to move her tongue for us this morning and then again this afternoon. Yesterday she was able to actually stick out her tongue, today she is just moving the tip of it.. but we may have really worn her out in the last few days.

Blood pressure, pulse rate and sugare levels are still high but her fever has gone down… breathing is still labored, but we think this will improve soon. The ENT team came in to look at her nasal passages and said they are still too dry, and get blocked, so they will have to continue to suction her for a while ( She does not like this and neither do I)  and they have decided to turn up the humidty, on her oxygen mask, to 70%. Hopefully this will not only help to keep her nasal passages moist, but will help with her chapped lips and gums as well.

Her left eye looks so much better today too. The swelling is almost gone and the upper and lower lids are almost back to normal size. Still no vision in the eye, and the pupil is not reacting to light.. but the lid has been partially blinking when her other eye blinks, so that’s a good sign!

For the most part she looks good, but appears very tired and has been unresponsive most of the day. When I asked her if she knew who I was, this morning, she shook her head no.. but when I started asking if I was different people ( Joan, Alisa, Joyce, Kerrie) she shook her head yes when I got to my own name. Hestitated for a second on Joyce and then shook her head no… shook her head yes, without hesitation, when I asked her if I was Jenny.

Small improvements.. one day at a time… and we try not to be too upset when she zones out for long periods of time. She’s still here, she’s with us sometimes and we’ve had some good news in the past few days. I guess we just have to remember she’s going to have her set-backs and this isn’t going to go away overnight.

Keep her in your thoughts and prayers… I truly believe that is the reason she is still with us!

 Jenn