Where We Are

I realized that over the last few weeks, we’ve done mostly sporadic updates. I see Judi almost every day, so it occurred to me that the picture might not be so clear to all the wonderful folks who are sharing our concern and supporting Judi through this struggle. So today I’m going to do a little ‘State of the Union’ post to get everyone up to speed.

Physically, Judi is strong. The swelling in her head from the brain injury has obviously been down for a long time. The incision in her head has healed well. The bone flap is still out, but it is a low-priority issue. Her back incision is also healing nicely.

She is no longer on the ventilator, but she still breathes through the tracheostomy. When she first went off the ventilator, she was receiving extra oxygen through a respirator collar. However, she now goes all day on room air, with just a little extra moisture added to it. She also spends progressively longer periods with the speaking valve, and she is able to maintain oxygen saturation all day with it. She still has some lung secretions that have to be suctioned, but this is an ordeal that only occurs a couple times a day now, instead of every ten minutes. (We’re all VERY happy about that.)

When this first started, I would need both hands and at least one foot to count all the tubes and wires coming off of her. Now, she only has her PEG (feeding tube) and the PIC line in her left arm. She receives various drugs through these tubes and a constant feed of some delightful (sarcasm) looking stuff called Jevity. This week, she should be doing the swallow test. If she passes, she can start having some liquids orally.

She is not on any sedation. She gets pain medication as needed, but she is not on a constant drip. She is receiving several drugs that increase awareness and should help her along in the healing process. She is currently on a drip of antibiotics to take care of some minor infection. Nothing serious – just the natural consequences of being in the hospital for so long.

Neurologically, she has also made a lot of progress. One thing that has been hard to explain has been her level of awareness. She has been ‘awake’ off and on since a few days after the accident. However, at first, she was only awake in the sense that her eyes were open and she wasn’t quite asleep.

Now, she has two main states. One is her ‘chilled’ mode. She is in this state most of the time when she is awake. She watches TV, checks out pictures, tests her toes, and generally pays attention to what interests her. She responds to stimuli, but only for a short time before going back to what she was focusing on before. Dad and I have learned to put on our thick skins, because she will sometimes ‘play possum’ and close her eyes until people go away. We think this is a good healing time for her – she’s relaxed and doing what her brain needs to do for a while.

The other mode is her ‘connected’ mode. These phases usually last from 15-30 minutes. During these times, she responds to commands, listens to what we say, and really focuses on things visually. When she has these times, we try to stimulate her and test what she can do. As I mentioned once before, we hope that this will make her more confident and hopefully encourage her to tune in with us more often.

She is visited by occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT), and speech therapy several times a week. OT focuses on the upper body and also applies various stimuli like light touch and sound. PT focuses on the lower body. Both of them focus on preserving her range of motion. Now that she is more aware, they are trying to get her to do the movement on her own.

So I think I’ve covered everything – I hope this is enough info without being too much! If you have questions, please feel free to ask. We are so grateful for all the support and prayers you have given us. We are all going to see this through!