Quiet day

Janet is continuing to show good progress.  She took a lot of steps forward in her recovery yesterday, so today has been more quiet to just allow her body to catch up with itself.  All of Janet's treatments and medications right now (i.e., the ventilator, the tube feeding, the antibiotics, the IV fluids, etc.) are really aimed at supporting her so that her body can regain strength and stamina.  Her body has a lot of hard work to do as it repairs itself and comes back into balance.

For those of you who are interested in a more clinical update, here it is.  Janet became much more responsive yesterday as some of the sedation and other medications cleared from her system. 
She is not alert or responding to commands yet, but she is definitely not liking all the tubes and wires that are attached to her (this is all a normal part of the process when someone has been totally sedated on a ventilator).  Last night, Janet was able to pull out her feeding tube.  Oops!  Thankfully, she only pulled out the feeding tube (which is relatively easy to replace) and did NOT pull out her ventilator.  The nurses are now watching her closely and soft wrist restraints are keeping her from pulling anything else out.  Although Janet did respond well to the ventilator being turned off yesterday and was breathing on her own, they did end up turning it back on on a low setting so that she can rest a little more before they take it out completely.  They will probably allow her to just rest tonight with the ventilator as is and do another trial with it off tomorrow.

Janet is tolerating her tube feeding without any problems, so now she is receiving nutrition around the clock, and this will also help her heal and get stronger.  Her lab work looked a little better today.  Her white blood cell count is the only thing that still isn't coming down yet, so continue to pray that the IV antibiotics start kicking in.  Her vital signs and kidney function are good.

Janet's fingers on that left hand are looking a little better.  While they were worried a couple days ago that she may lose her index finger in this process, it is now looking like she may only lose the tip of her finger and maybe the tip of her thumb... The vascular surgeon said that they will just continue to watch it.  It is possible that she could get enough blood supply to those areas where she may not lose anything.  They don't know.

So just continue to keep her in your prayers as I know you are.  Janet is definitely loved by so many!