Improvement!

 

Dear Janet has made some very encouraging improvement today - even just in the last 10 hours.  I know that so many of you are praying for her, and we believe she is feeling your prayers!  The nurse today was able to completely wean Janet off the four different medications (vasopressors) that were giving her a blood pressure.  Yesterday, each time the nurse would try to titrate the vasopressors down, Janet's blood pressure would also drop, and so they would have to turn the medication back up.  This is no longer the case.  Janet is maintaining a very healthy 110/60 blood pressure now completely on her own.  Now that the vasopressors are turned off, her stomach is beginning to wake up.  They were able to turn her tube feeding back on, and now she is digesting it as she should.

The other great news is that the respiratory therapist was able to do a trial of turning off the ventilator, and Janet responded by breathing on her own!  The ventilator is still inserted, but she is no longer depending on it.  The sedation is beginning to clear from her system and she is starting to wake up a bit and is responding to irritating stimuli.  She hates the ventilator, and has tried biting it and pulling at it.  These are all very good things!  It will take some more time before Janet responds to commands and is alert to people and her surroundings, but this is a great start to the process.  Hopefully the ventilator will be able to come out soon.

They will do blood work again in the morning.  Hopefully, the labs will show the same improvement that we are seeing in her vital signs and behavior.