Day 11

Sorry for the long delay. Sometimes keeping up with all the different forms of communication can get overwhelming. I dropped the ball on Anna's blog. Anna got off ECMO on Wednesday night 10/16. By the end of the17th she had an epidural in place and finally the dreaded ventilator was removed. Anna walked a bit that night. What a huge leap she took in less than a week. Friday night brought her move to the step down unit. After being in the very posh ICU, the step down unit is rather depressing. It's old, the rooms are tiny and the waiting area is pathetic. 

Each day Anna has increased her walking. It's an ordeal getting all her chest tubes (she has had up to 7 of those but is down to 5 now) and IVs situated (I haven't kept track of the IVs. She had at least 12 at once in the ICU, she's down to 2). Anna uses a walker that has arm rests about chest-high. It gives her something to rest on and more stability. She is now up to walking just about 1 mile. I think by the end of today she'll be walking over a mile. Impressive considering her pain level is at an 8 (on a scale from 0-10). The sad news is that yesterday a possible new blood infection was detected. They don't know what it is exactly but her white blood count is elevated. The Drs were concerned it might be related to her epidural (which was providing pain relief) so they took it out. Not good news for Anna. She is in a ton of pain now. 

She hasn't slept much here due to the pain and she's really uncomfortable. She cannot eat or drink by mouth. She would give anything to get even just a sip of water. Her vocal chords and epiglottis are not doing their job of closing her airway and protecting her lungs from food and liquids. She has some exercises to do which may help strengthen things.        

Although Anna doesn't feel strong, I am amazed by her ability to tolerate all she has gone through. She's not up for blogging yet (and probably won't be until she gets out of the hospital---no energy) but when she is, get ready to hear all she has to say. She won't sugar-coat anything! :)