A Big Step Forward

Pam had her respirator removed today at 11:45am! She is doing great and breathing nicely on her own (with some oxygen in the nose). The next 12 hours will be important as that will tell us if she will sustain this or take a few setbacks. She is EXHAUSTED and can not really talk. We are checking in with her periodically and just letting her sleep as much as possible.
The last week has been a blur but let me try to fill you in:

• Pam started having fevers last week. She also had a full body rash and got a skin biopsy and stitch in her back. This continued and on Thurs. evening she started to have trouble breathing. They started some oxygen under the nose.
• She didn't get much sleep and was very tired the next day. Still fevering. Breathing continued to get a little worse. Fri. afternoon they put her on more O2 with vapor added.
• Friday evening she really started to struggle and they put the light face mask on her. Didn't really help.
• ICU came and got her and brought her upstairs on Friday evening around 11:30. They put the pressure face mask on her. This seemed to settle things a bit. I went to try and get some sleep in the recliner in waiting room.
• Phone rang at 5:30am asking me to come back to ICU. They needed to intubate her (put breathing tube down throat). She was exhausted from trying to breath. X-rays now showed fluid build up in/around lungs.
• Blood pressure was low, heart rate high, rhythm off, still fevering. They let me know that she was in very critical condition. They were trying to stabilize the situation.
• Saturday was a day to dial in the drugs and try to get things under control. Pam seemed to get leveled off, not getting any worse, but not getting any better.
• Got a call late Saturday from sister in law to tell me they were at hospital in Middlebury with Tucker to x-ray a possible broken clavicle from lacrosse game. Turned out negative.
• Sunday morning met with docs after rounds. Pam had not really improved much and blood pressure was still a battle. They wanted me to really understand how serious her condition was. It was mostly wait and see how she responded.
  
• I had a minor emotional breakdown.
• They had so much fluid in her to raise BP that she was 20lbs overweight. This was now a concern as well. They tried to put in new port line so they could take hers out to check for infection. They were unsuccessful due to small and deep veins. Took fluid from lungs to check for infection.
• My parents came to visit and my dad got ill at end of day. Ended up in the ER the next morning with an obstructed bowel. Taken care of and released two days later.
  
• Monday she seemed to dig in a bit and we saw temp lower and heart rhythm correct itself on own. They brought her downstairs to get new temp line put in. They removed hers.
  
• Tuesday no temperature, they were able to lower oxygen levels a bit. Blood pressure got under control. A little bit more improvement.
• Wed. a big step forward. Lowered O2 support more, blood pressure and heart normal with out help of drugs. Urine output started to pick up as well.
• If she could hold all these in place for 24 hours they would remove breathing tube. This was great to hear as every time Pam would wake up she was really agitated and wanted it out!! Very hard for us to watch.
• Thursday morning, today, one week later, tube is out and she is doing fine right now.
• Next 12 hours will be very important for her. She is still in ICU. Was able to say "I love you", and now getting some rest.
• Hopefully she will continue this trend and might move back down to HSCU late tomorrow or Saturday.
• She truly is strong. When doctors told her this morning that they would get tube out in a couple of hours if she could just hold on, she gave them a wink and a thumbs up.

Troy