Some Good News

There are signs of improvement, thank God.

Let me explain ; when we made the decision to put mom on ventilator, the risk is that her own muscles will be inactive, and in time, they will weaken and she may never be able to breathe on her own again, never be free from sedation, never be conscious again. We took the risk because she was in a state of extreme crisis.

So she was sedated and the ventilator tube was inserted into her lungs. She was under two types of sedative : Dormicum, which puts her to sleep, and another one that is a muscle relaxant which causes her to be temporarily paralysed.

They have been gradually reducing the dose, and today, mom is no longer on the muscle relaxant. This means that she is breathing on her own together with the ventilator. That's the first good news :)

Second good news : her heart is stable now, even after all that she has been through! She was on two 'heart tonics' as her blood pressure was sky high and pulse was racing. Both heart tonics have been reduced to a minimal amount and she is still doing well. They will stop that tomorrow. Wow, what a strong heart she has!

Now that her heart is doing fine and blood pressure is back to normal, they plan to remove the ventilator completely tomorrow and see if she can breathe on her own. If she can, they will stop the sedative and allow her to wake up. Once she is free from the ventilator, we can plan to move her into the ward and fight her infection from there. That's the 3rd good news :)

This is wonderful progress. God is really taking good care of her, and her incredible fighting spirit is just amazing!

However, she is not out of danger yet. Her lungs are still badly affected. Today's x-ray showed that the lower part of both lungs are damaged and infection has developed. This is still at a critical stage. The doctors are worried. If it was normal pneumonia, they know what the germ is and how to fight it. But this is from the vomit, so it could be anything.

The next step is to do a lung scope. While the ventilator is still on, they can easily put a scope into her lungs and collect a sample of the gunk in there and see what germs are breeding. Then only they can prescribe the right medicine to whack those fellas and clear mom's lungs.

Now that she's on light sedation, she can move a bit. When we were there at lunchtime, as usual, I would check everything and try to adjust her position, exercise her hands and feet. She usually groans and glares at me. Yesterday, she was completely out, so no response at all. Today, as I moved her, she fidgetted on her own!

She half raised her hand. She turned her head away. Yay, it feels so good to see some "sign of life"!!!

Hahaha, this is layman talk. The doctors would say that the machines are showing her signs of life. And she's not in a coma, she's just unconscious from sedation. But still... there's nothing like seeing her move that raised our spirits. We miss her voice, even her groaning. So it's such a joy to see even some small movement.

Please continue your prayers, and let's help her through this.

If you'd like to visit, you are most welcome to. However, they are very strict. Visiting hours are 12 - 2pm, and 6 - 8 pm. Only 2 visitors are allowed in to see her at one time, so please don't stay too long.

Every visitor, even healthy ones, will naturally bring in some germs, so please take care to sterilise your hands before you go in. Mom is very delicate and her immunity is low.

The ICU is on first floor, Pantai Hospital.