Upon my return to Cathy's ICU room this afternoon I was greeted with a set of bright eyes and a wide smile. Cathy was more alert than she has been in almost three weeks.
Cathy has been on pressure support from the ventilator, through the 'trach', all day. Her last blood gas measurements (~3 pm) were good, even the CO2.
Tonight the respiratory therapist is going to begin 'exercising' Cathy's lungs off of the ventilator. At 8 pm Cathy will be completely removed from the ventilator. She will be connected (by her trach) to a flow of a moist air and oxygen mixture, without any pressure. Cathy will have to do all the inhaling and exhaling herself. They are planning on leaving her like this for one hour. After that time she will be returned to the ventilator on pressure support mode (as she is now). After an additional hour, the ventilator will be switched to full support mode to allow Cathy to rest and sleep comfortably tonight.
Cathy sends her love and thanks everyone for their thoughts and prayers.
David
3 comments:
This is the best news yet !! Those bright eyes and smile brought tears to my eyes!
We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
Cause we are the champions - of the world.
David - I wanted to thank you so much for your postings. Although Norma and I are not posting responses, we are following Kathy's progress closely. We subscribed to your blog via RSS so as soon as you post, we get a notification.
Please let Kathy know that we're pulling for her and following her progress through your postings.
Mike and Norma
Cathy,
I am so happy to hear you are improving. David is and has been very dedicated in keeping everyone up to date on how you are doing. You and your family are in my heart and prayers.
Love Lynn
better known as " Denise's sister"
Some things never change
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