It's Not Over Until the Fat Lady Sings

Today was a day of good news!  When I walked into Nancy's room at 12:30 for visiting hours I was greeted by the nurse telling me they were going to try and remove the respirator.  About 10 minutes later the respiratory therapist came in to remove it. They put her on an oxygen mask.  Her blood oxygen level continued to be good with minor drops that she could correct by taking deep breaths.  I left at 2:30 when visiting hours were over.

When I returned at 4:00 they had removed the feeding tube.  More reason to celebrate.  The cardiologist was in and they change one of the heart meds from IV to pill.  More reason to celebrate. She continued to be on the oxygen mask.  I left at 6:00 when visiting hours were over.

When I returned at 7:30.  They had removed the oxygen mask and replaced it with the little things in the nose and she was eating jello and drinking juice.  More reason to celebrate.

I am feeling particularly good tonight.  Overall this has been a good day for us.  Mark, however, continues to be without power or AC.  He and the cats are trying to stay cool but it is not easy.  He is my rock through all of this and I thank God every day for him.  Thank you Honey!

Nancy still needs many many prayers.  She is still in the ICU and will be for a while.  She still has a blood clot in her leg that is blocking the blood flow.  However, this afternoon the nurse heard blood flow lower than they have before.  Please continue to pray that the blockage will break up so blood will once again flow the her lower right leg.

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support.

Everything will be alright in the end.

I continue to be reminded of the line from the movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"  which is Everything will be alright in the end and if it is not alright it is not yet the end.  I think that is a great line and it keeps coming into my thoughts. 

Nancy is holding her own.  They were trying dialysis to remove some of the fluid build up,  but each time the tried to remove fluid her blood pressure dropped.  They have turned down the oxygen level on the respirator and her blood oxygen level continues to be around 98.  One not so good thing and one good thing.  We're still even for tonight. 

She is getting tired of all that is going on and all the machines she is hooked to.  I feel so bad for her, she is aware of everything that is going on and can just lay there.  It must be horrible for her, but she continues to have an amazing attitude toward all this.  I pray that she will continue to improve and be able to get past this. 

On a lighter note, I'm getting a little tired as was evident tonight.  The ICU is on the 4th floor of the hospital.  I was parked on the 3rd floor of the parking garage.  When I left tonight I got on the elevator, road up, walked out to get in my car and it was not there.  When I turned around I saw the sign on the wall and realized that I had automatically pushed the button for the 4th floor.  When I got down to the 3rd floor there was my car right where it should be.

Please send cooling thoughts to Mark.  When I talked to him tonight he said our AC had stopped working and the repairman can't come until tomorrow morning.

Continued Improvement

Although Nancy slept more today she is continuing to improve.  They have put her on dialysis temporarily to get rid of some fluid build up.  When her blood pressure dropped on Sunday they had to pump her with fluids to try and get it back up.  Her kidneys are not working good enough to get rid of that fluid.  So they are using dialysis.  Once they see how the dialysis is working they are going to try and get her off the respirator (hopefully by the weekend). 

Although she slept more today when she was awake she was very alert and continues to write notes. 

She is an amazing person and very strong so I'm positive she is on her way to recovery. 

Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayer.

How it all began

It has been an emotional few days.  On Saturday June 23 Nancy was admitted to the Crozer Chester Medical Center with internal bleeding and an elevated heart rate.  I talked to her Sunday morning and she was ok and waiting for her doctors to come in on Monday.  Mark and I went to the hospital at about 11:00 am for visiting hours.  As we walked through the hospital I heard on the PA system something about room 4504 (that was Nancy's room).  When we got to the room there were many people in the room and the hall.  We spoke with a doctor who told us that Nancy had collapsed and had lost a lot of blood.  She was being moved to the ICU.  We waited until they moved her and we had a chance to talk to the ICU doctor.  Dr. Williams told us that Nancy would be sleeping most of the time so we left for Virginia so Mark could go to work on Monday and I could pick up clothes and the pills I take.

Monday morning at about 5:30am a doctor from the ICU call to give an update, which was not encouraging.  I left VA to come back to PA.  When I got to the hospital Nancy was awake but not too alert.  The doctors said that Nancy was not well enough to withstand any type of testing to determine what was causing the bleeding. The plan was to wait and see.

Tuesday Nancy slept most of the day.  The report was she was stable but critical.

Wednesday I walked in to find Nancy awake, alert and ready to give me a to do list.  She is still critical but it looks like she is progressing.

I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers.  God is amazing.  Nancy lives alone and if Mark and I hadn't been visiting who knows what might have happened.  God put is here so we could get Nancy to the hospital and be here to support her.