Thursday ~ from Kara

Began the day at Jameson at 6 a.m. Mom is still on the ventilator, they have decided to keep her on for the remainder of the day and try to wean her off of it tomorrow. I know she cannot wait. She had periods today where she was alert. She held our hands and nodded her head. She kept pointing at something; it took a while for us to realize she was pointing at the ventilator and its tubing -- wanting it out, of course. She motioned with her hand as if she were writing, so we gave her a pen and paper. It appeared as if she started to write a "T" and then it was just scribbles after that. I'm almost positive she was trying to write "Tube." We will all be so happy when it comes out! She went back to sleeping. Then later, she woke again and this time traced out letters onto the palms of our hands with her finger. She wrote "day" on my dad's; wanting to know what day it was. She grabbed my hand and started to write "why," and pointed at -- you guessed it -- the tube. She had a small, scary coughing spell; it made her thrash around but then she settled down. The respiratory therapist and her nurse both keep assuring us that all is well. She had a visit from the pulmonologist, the general surgeon who is following up with her while she is in the hospital, the respiratory therapist (who administers breathing treatments every 6 hours and keeps a constant watch on the vent), two nurse anesthetists, and her thoracic surgeon's nurse -- and the cardiologist is also supposed to stop in to check her at some point today. I came home and now Shawn is at the hospital with my dad. Just talked to him and he said everything is okay, but her blood pressure is getting a little low - most likely from the pain medication (toradol) so they are slowing that down. Couldn't get any more info from him because somebody told him to get off his phone and he had to hang up. I will get in touch with him later. Tomorrow I will go back to spend the day at the hospital. Her doctor said she will most likely remain in ICU until Saturday, then be moved to a regular room for the remainder of her stay. More updates to follow. Please keep the prayers coming, they are helping more than you know. :)