Day 8: Extubation

Today was a great day! Ronda got to be taken off the ventilator! We still have a long way to go for physical and cognitive rehab but she is stabilizing medically. She is on oxygen, a feeding tube, and various medications. She is still receiving medication for her brain swelling which requires her to stay in the ICU to be closely monitored. She is not allowed to get out of bed on her own. Her strength hasn’t returned yet and she needs to get a helmet to protect her brain while she’s missing a big part of her skull. PT and OT have been able to get her moving around a bit. She sat up on her own today and was able to take a few steps, with a lot of help. It was tiring but I think it felt really good for her. We are hoping to see a speech therapist soon so she can have a swallow study and be cleared for eating and drinking.

Now that the ventilator is gone she is seeming a lot more like herself. She is a lot less agitated and a lot more comfortable. She has also been able to ask questions about her care and about how her family is doing. She is trying hard to talk to everyone and get to know them. So far her voice is very weak, barely a whisper, and she needs to focus a lot on her words but she is much easier to understand than when she was ventilated. Prior to her stroke, she struggled with some short-term memory loss. Now it is much more pronounced. She still doesn’t remember anything post-op and she doesn’t hold on to new information for very long. She remembers names with some effort but not important dates. She tries to get out of bed at least every hour. She is bored and she wants to get up and go hang out at the nurse's station and get to know people. Social connection has always been important to her! She needs to be reminded of what happened and what she can and can’t do frequently. We are hoping this will improve as her brain heals and she gets going with a cognitive rehab program.

We are considering transferring her to another hospital for her in-patient rehabilitation as soon as she is cleared medically to do so. We have received excellent care at the McKay Dee ICU, I would recommend the facility to anyone who needs critical care in the area. For her next step, the best rehab program for her might be at another facility. We would welcome feedback anyone has on rehab programs in the area, particularly for cognitive rehab in stroke patients.

Thank you all for your prayers for a miracle! We are seeing it happen. Now we have a lot of work to do to help her get healthy and get back home. Keep the prayers coming!