Day 31 // Surprises (the good kind)

Late last night Alex and I went in to visit JoAnne.

I asked for the usual updates from her nurse, Noah, and checked her vitals on all the machines as I usually do.

Temp: 37.2 (normal)
BP: 126/50 (decent)
Phentanyl: 150 (her usual pain dosage)
Versed: 3 (One number lower in sedation! Means they're weaning her off a bit, which is great)
Ventillator oxygen volume: .... the breathing machine did not look like it was turned on.

In horror I looked at Joanne, who seemed to be breathing comfortably with her eyes closed.

I looked up at Noah, who didn't seem to think it was a big deal, and said "Um, Noah, JoAnne's breathing machine doesn't seem to be working?!"

Well, it turns out they took her off it. And she's breathing on her own!

Yup. How awesome is that?

This means so much. It means that JoAnne's lungs remember how to function after four weeks with help, and above that, they're doing well. This is not always the case with someone in the ICU this long, let alone a 2 pack-a-day smoker. And even more exciting is it means that as they reduce her sedation, she'll be more comfortable, more lucid, and more healthy breathing on her own, able to begin recuperating faster, etc. In short, this is a big step.

MORNING- This morning Jani and I went in this morning to see her and they'd dropped her Versed (sedation) from a 3 to a 2. I got so excited at the prospect of JoAnne maybe responding that I woke her up with an overzealous, shrill "Good morning, AJ!". She opened her eyes, focused them on me and gave me a big ol' smile!

I then told her that she's doped up, and it sucks, but she's getting better and it's going to get easier every day. She gave me another smile, this time a relieved-looking one, then closed her eyes for a few moments. Eventually fell back to sleep. Mom and I couldn't believe it. She also squeezed mom's hand upon command, and this afternoon the nurse said she'd wiggled her toes on command.

AFTERNOON- When we were there this afternoon she even tried to talk a bit, seemingly saying W-questions like WHY, or WHAT... we're not sure. Probably wondering what the hell was going on, as she's still pretty high on pain meds and likely has pretty severe amnesia about this whole thing. We stroked her head and told her it'd be ok, and that we'd explain everything soon, and to rest. She won't be able to talk with her trach in for now, but she'll be able to respond to commands and maybe even write at some point. Later they'll discuss techniques to momentarily plug it for speaking, etc. First thing is first!

NIGHT- This evening Noah said she'd completed other requests, and also had nodded at him that she needed more pain meds. By the time we got there at 10pm she was all tucked in bed with the news on, already falling asleep...

What an amazing day of surprises, guys. We're not planning on getting ahead of ourselves with the excitement about this, but damn, it feels good to see improvement and to just see Joanne. Her facial expressions, her movements, her eyes.

We visited with Dr. Singh (spelling! arg) today, and he seemed very optimistic about her improvement, saying that they may even be able to move her to the TRACU (trauma care unit- one step down from the ICU) in the next few days, assuming she does well with the sedation weaning. They don't want her to be uncomfortable, so it's again a balancing act with that one. We'll keep you posted!

Much, much love to you all. We're so looking forward to seeing Jan tomorrow who is coming up for the weekend from LA, as well as Nick and Susan who are back from travels. We really feel so blessed by everyone's good wishes and supporting thoughts through this. Fingers crossed things continue to improve, and in the meantime we'll continue to relish the surprises (the good kind) as they arise.

xoxo Team Jojo