Angela Feb 28/11 @ 1630 hrs

Visited Angela this afternoon. To me, she seems about the same as yesterday. She "seemed" to be able to track me with her eyes briefly as well as was able to stick her tongue out a couple of times on command. Seems to drift in and out of different states of alertness.

Medically, they ran her through dialysis again today, with plans of doing it every other day for 4 hours at a time. They were performing another EEG later today to look for brain activity.Later this evening, they are going to clamp off the drainage tube coming out of her brain and give her a Catscan tomorrow to see if there is still fluid build up or not. If it seems ok, they will remove the tube tomorrow. Ang is still scheduled for an MRI on Wednesday, at which time we will hopefully get some more insight as to what is or is not going on in her brain.

Thanks,

Ed

Angela Feb 28/11 @0700hrs

Unfortunately, it sounds as if there may have been some regression in Ang's condition overnight. She has slipped back in to being unresponsive again. They are hooking up the E.E.G. again today to monitor brain activity and as far as I know, she is now scheduled for another MRI on Wednesday.

I will be going up there around lunch time and hopefully can kick her butt back to the responsive state she was in yesterday. I kinda thought that we may go through this though....one step forward, 2 steps back for a while. Just have to remain positive and take it one day at a time.

I will update later this afternoon when I return from the hospital. As a family, we again, cannot thank everyone enough for all your positive thoughts and prayers during this time. We love you all and appreciate you more than words can say. :)

Ed

A glimmer of hope Angela Feb 27/11

Well I certainly got a little surprise today when Brandon and I arrived at the hospital. The nurse said she thought Angela was tracking her with her eyes earlier when she was bathing her. So I stuck my tongue out at her and low and behold, she did the same back to me!! Not wanting to jump to any conclusions, I repeated the same thing a few more times and left a span of about 5 minutes in between just to ensure it wasn't just a reflex or involuntary movement.Sure enough, she was able to do it on command a few times. Angela was also able to move her legs a small amount but very little, if any, movement in her arms.

Not sure if it was voice command or sight that made her stick out the tongue. I felt it was visual thing but when other family members arrived, they thought perhaps voice command. Either way, its a small step in the right direction. The nurse said she was also responding to lower leg pain stimulus testing. (i.e. scraping/pinching her foot). She seemed to slip in and out of whatever level of conscienceness she had been able to muster so we didn't push her too far today.

I swear this kid has nine lives!!! I will be visiting tomorrow after my own MRI results meeting at LRCC and with any luck, will see some more improvement.

Angela is by far out of the woods yet (today's nurse said it could be up to 6 months before the extent of damage is known) but at this point, any small glimmer of hope is a good thing. We remain with guarded optimism and can only hope and pray that time shows more good things.

Angela Feb 27/11 @ 0900hrs

Well, here we are at Day 10 now. It feels like day 100 some days, and at other times it feels like only yesterday.

I have got the morning update from the hospital and there has been no change neurologically with Angela. She was up to 80% oxygen requirements (from the equipment) yesterday but has settled down to 50% as of now. The anti-seizure meds are working now...there has been no seizure activity recently. Will receive dialysis either today or tomorrow.

Ang remains in a comatose state without sedation and only the occasional pain med when she becomes agitated. Unfortunately, that is all the news we have right now. Hoping that the coming week will bring some news. The Neuro doc said that if/when she responds to anything/anyone, its likely to be a family member first so we will continue the daily trips to the hospital to bug her ;)

Angela Feb 25/11 @ 2000 hrs

Well we had another Family meeting with the Head of Neuro and unfortunately, not much "new" news. On the neurological side of things, they are still hoping that the white matter damage seen on the MRI is reversible but only time will tell. Ang had dialysis this afternoon and they drained some fluid off her lungs. Her blood pressure is still up and down and still unresponsive.

The Neuro Doctor said that if we are to see any improvement, it should come within the next 7 days.

Angela Feb 25/11 @ 0845hrs

Just off the phone for the morning update.....The blood problem in the bowel seems to be better at this time. Angela will undergo more dialysis today and also an ultrasound to check for blood clots in her legs. Neurologically, there has been no change. Yesterday they had to add an additional tube to go into her lungs.The poor thing has a million tubes going into her :(

Family meeting time to be confirmed later today.

Again, we all truly are grateful for everyone's thoughts and prayers. Your support is amazing.

Angela Feb 25/11 @ 0730hrs

I will update more this morning after the nurses complete their shift change but last night, Ang was unfortunately losing blood through her bowels so they had to give her a blood transfusion. They have also asked that we try not to talk to her too much at this time because her blood pressure is continuing to be unstable. We have another family meeting with thte Neuro Team later today.