Emma is still doing well and not awake, so Dad and I decide to take advantage of the free golf pass that comes with the apartment, and head out there at 8:00 am. Miriam goes back to the hospital for the morning.

The nurse says that Emma actually started waking up in the night, but the doctor wants her to have lots of rest, so they upped her meds and she went back to sleep. In the morning, her electrolyte level was low and her kidneys weren’t doing as well as they’d like, so they put her on dialysis and added electrolytes via IV. Didn’t last long though, she recovered nicely and was soon back off that machine.

We meet back at the hospital at 12:00, and Dad says goodbye, and leaves for Siloam Springs. By now her sleepy meds have been pulled down, and she’ll move around if you touch her. She’ll even open an eye if she’s jostled as things are adjusted. So Miriam and I grab lunch and then head back to the apartment to rest a bit (and I start this page).

   

Back at the hospital at 5:30, the nurse informs us that Emma is now breathing on her own! The ventilator is still there to help, and just in case she has trouble, but her lungs are doing the work. She was also a lot more active while we were there. It was nice to see her moving around a bit more, but it was also hard because she’s obviously not comfortable and not happy. We visit again at 6:30, and then go out for dinner while the shift change happens from 7:00-8:00 (no visiting during this time).

At 8:30 the night nurse (Brandi) says everything is going well. They have pulled back her morphine to continue moving her to being on her own, which has something to do with why she wasn’t as happy last time. Fortunately, there’s some other medications Brandi is able to give Emma, so she’s much quieter this time.

Everything seems to be on schedule to completely detach the ventilator tomorrow morning. If that goes according to plan, she may even start re-learning how to eat tomorrow evening! Supposedly that’s a pretty big deal, it can be hard to get them to start again.

So here we are at 9:30 back at the apartment for the night – Miriam will be going back in the morning while I try to catch up on some work.

More news tomorrow…