|
Week 2 (May 3 - May 9) |
Thursday, May 9 4:30 PM Earlier, I think the site said the tube was out. That is true that they took the tube out around 1:00ish, but Hannah was having problems breathing so they had to put it back in. That seems like a minor setback, but given a choice between Hannah breathing with a tube or having problems breathing without the tube, I prefer to have the tube. Hannah is sedated and they will keep her mostly sedated until the do the trach tomorrow. While Hannah was awake, she was able to communicate with me. I told her I would ask her questions, and I wanted her to shake her head to answer. I asked a couple of questions including, "Are you in any pain", and she shook her head no. When I asked if she was having trouble breathing, she shook her head yes. That is probably why I think putting the tube back in was a good thing. Hannah's throat was very sore and when she tried to talk, she was very hard to understand. She also had an oxygen mask over her mouth. What was the coolest thing that has happened to me in a long time was when she pulled me close to her and it sounded like she said, "I Love You". I said it back to her as a question, "You Love me"?, and she shook her head yes. I can't say for sure she was saying "I Love You", but I like to think so. I guess she could have been saying, "I can't breathe". When I asked if she Loved me, she will have still shook her head yes. Either way, the girl loves me, and that means she knows how I am. That is beyond cool! |
Thursday, May 9 10:45 AM The drama team just made their rounds. Hannah was not quite as responsive as they would have liked, but they all agreed that she looked too good to do the tracheotomy. One of the doctors will come back after their rounds and remove the tube. It is almost cause for celebration, but lets wait until the tube is actually out (and doesn't have to go back in). Stay tuned... |
Wednesday, May 8 2:50 PM I spoke with the doctor a few minutes ago. I don't know the exact spelling of his name, so I will not attempt to butcher it here, but he is a great doctor. He has done an excellent job caring for Hannah, and when I can talk to him, he answers all my babbling questions. He said that, in most cases, they only remove breathing tubes during the day. It is mainly an issue of coverage, they have many more people here during the day in case something went wrong. So, here is the plan. The plan to keep here sedated today and most of the night. That will give her body the rest it needs, so that when they remove the sedative in the morning (when the drama team goes around), she can do tricks for them. She will need to squeeze their hands, and respond with her eyes. If she gets a good nights rest, and they remove the sedative in time tomorow, this should work. If it doesn't work, they will need to do the trach, but at least they will have given Hannah a chance. PS. This doctor brought my ICP numbers down (maybe not to 20 yet)... |
Wednesday, May 8 12:10 PM Hannah still has the breathing tube in her mouth. As she started to come around yesterday, it seemed like it was driving her crazy. It was good to see that she can move her legs, arms, head, and lift herself off the bed, but it was frustrating to see her in such misery. To come off the tube, Hannah has to be able to respond to commands, which she was doing yesterday. The problem is that Hannah gets herself worked up into such a fit, that they have to sedeate her or give her morphine. This is probably not the case, but it seems like Hannah has this small window to perform her trick of responding to commands. The trauma team (which I refer to as the drama team) only come around once in the morning, and they try to get her to respond to commands. If she don't respond, they order the tube left in. It seems like if Hannah is responding at 7:30 pm, but nobody from the drama team is around to see it, they just have to sedate her to help her make it through the night. Doesn't it seem like an endless loop? For her to make it through the night, she must be sedated, but for her to respond to the drama team, she can't be sedated. Please understand that this "update" was a tough one for me. I don't want to accuse anybody of not wanting what is best for Hannah. Mostly, this is just the ramblings of a frustrated dad that sees his kid squirming in anguish, and there isn't anything I can do to help her. Remember those ICP numbers that were not supposed to go over 20ish? I would guess that if I had a bolt in my head right now, I would be at 60 easy, and it were not for Hannah's nurse today (her name is Jane), I bet I could top 100. |
Tuesday, May 7 6:10 PM Hannah is breathing on her own. They still have the breathing tube in, but it may come out tonight or tomorrow. They have removed all of her IVs and Jane put her hair in a braided pony tail. As you can guess, Tammy and I are on cloud 9. Hannah has responded to commands to open her eyes, squeeze a hand, and hold up one finger. I may be saying the same thing I said in my earlier update, but who can stop. Thanks again for all of the prayers and support! |
Tuesday, May 7 2:10 PM Hannah is hating the breathing tube in her mouth. The nurse just asked her if it was gagging her and she shook her head yes. It is great that she is able to respond to commands. She has opened her eyes and squeezed the nurses hands when asked (although she don't have much of a grip yet). The doctors have moved the tracheotomy to Thursday. Their goal is that if they can get her off the breathing machine before that, they will not need to do it. Please continue to pray that she will be breathing on her on by Thursday. As I have said many times before, we appreciate all the prayers and fasting that have been done for Hannah. I am sure there are many more bends in the road adhead of us, but today, God answered my prayer. I plan a little cellebration with A&G pizza in Franklin. |
Tuesday, May 7 10:30 AM The drugs are beginning to wear off. When Hannah coughs,her face grimaces and you can tell that she hates that tube in her mouth. Also, when we ask her to open her eyes, it looks like she is trying to do it. Finally, during one cough, her leg came way up off the bed and she lifted her hand. I am headed back to her room to see what new "tricks" she has done since I left to update this page. I will try to update this page as many times as I can today, as she does things. Thanks Again! |
Monday, May 6 5:30 PM We have not seen the wiggle yet, but the doctors say it can take a couple days to get all the drugs from her system. They removed one of the hoses from her nose today, and they are also removing the Swan tube thing. They have turned off all of her drugs, except the morphine. I hope to see something today, but Hannah is a 7 nut, and tomorrow is the 7th. If you don't know what I mean about the 7 thing, I will have to get her to post it on here when she is better. It goes something like she was born on the 7th month, 7th day, at 7:27 in the morning. She is the 7th grandchild, and it goes on from there. Thanks again for all the prayers. |
Monday, May 6 6:15 AM Since the bolt was removed from Hannah's head on Saturday, they have started to decrease her medicine. The drug to paralyze her was stopped Sunday around 1:00 PM, but I am told it will take a couple days for these drugs to get out of her system. They do have some concerns about why they have had to give Hannah 3 units of blood. They did a CAT scan of her yesterday to look for any internal bleeding, but they didn't find anything. The other concern is her temperature. She has been at about 100.6 most of the day. That isn't too bad, and they think it may be the tubes in her nose and throat causing an infection. I think that is one of the major reasons for the tracheotomy. My hopes are pretty high that we should see some movement either today or tomorrow. I can't wait to update the web page and give you the good news. Thanks for continuing to check on Hannah and pray for her. One of the students that came to see Hannah mentioned that some of the students from school thought there was alcohol involved in the accident. Obviously, these people did not know Hannah. Also, she was on her way home from school. Unless they are serving Jim Bean in the cafeteria, I don't think she would have had time to "tip the bottle". My guess is that somebody misread the article about Monroe canceling the mock crash scene. In the article, it states, "While Brooks' accident was not alcohol-related, ...". The keyword in the quote is NOT. |
|
Saturday, May 4 7:01 PM Sorry for the delayed update, the library is closed, so I had to wait until I got to the office. They took the bolt out of Hannah's head this morning. This means that we no longer have ICP and CPP numbers to watch. I think the neuro-surgeon felt like the CAT scans were good, and everything else looked ok, so he took it out. The new game is to let her chill out over the weekend, and start to wean her off the drugs gradually starting the first of the week. I am told this may take a couple days. So, I hope to see some fingers moving by Wednesday or Thursday of this coming week. They will do a tracheotomy on Hannah to remove her breathing tube from her mouth. They will also need to put a tube through her belly to feed her. I think they will do that in the early part of the week. Hannah is in great hands. All of the people at Miami Valley have been great, from the nurses on the care flight to Patsy who has cared for Hannah each of the past three nights, and everybody in between. I need to do a full page on the awesome care that Hannah has received, but I want to get back to the hospital for now. |
|
Friday, May 3 8:10 AM Hannah had a good night. Her CPP number which is the amount of blood and oxygen getting to the brain is around 80ish. The doctors want this number to stay above 70. Thanks again to everybody who prayed like madmen yesterday (if madmen isn't a word, we should add it). God is listening. Another piece of great news is that Hannah's favorite Christian group, the NewsBoys are going to sign a shirt and send it to her. When the nurse showed me the clothes they had to cut off Hannah, the shirt she was wearing was her Newsboys TShirt. She is going to think that is so cool (and it is). Thanks to everyone who is praying for Hannah. I can never thank you guys enough for all the prayers and support for Hannah. PS. I am doing these updates from the hospital computer using MS Notepad, so please bear with me on any spelling and grammer errors. |
|
Week 1 (April 26 - May 2) |