Full Update

Hey everyone. Thanks for continuing to pray and care for this sweet family. Emily is holding steady in the HTICU @ UAB in Birmingham and there will probably not be a lot of changes in her status for the next 24-48hrs. The team or doctors and nurses are keeping her comfortable and sedated and feel that it is best right now to just let her rest.

As I expected, it was bittersweet to see Emily. Of course it is difficult to see someone you care about so much in circumstances like that, but at the same time, it was SO wonderful to get to see my precious friend, hold her hand, and tell her I love her face to face. She is basically non-responsive because of her meds but it is good to know and remember that it is drug induced and not reflective of how she is actually doing overall.

The results did come back positive for swine flu but she is almost complete with her rounds of antibiotics. Since the media has done a very good job of making us all very scared of the swine flu, just remember that it is a flu, just a different strand, and that Emily is getting the care that she needs. More than likely, the others in the family that had the flu also had swine flu but since she is more susceptible to respiratory illnesses, it has a different manifestation in her body. Dr. Young, who apparently is very careful with his words, did say that he believes that she will pull through this but that it is just going to take some time.

Emily's vent settings were better today and although her respirations per minute, heart rate, and PEEP numbers still need to come down, they are doing a good job of keeping her stable. She has still had a few "episodes" where she will get a little panicky and her heart rate goes up, her respirations go up, and her oxygen saturation goes down. It does seem to me that it is now not as difficult to get her to stabilize as it has been and I believe it still tends to happen when her sedation meds are running low. The doctor said this morning that it will be a very quiet day for her as they are purposefully just wanting her to sleep and rest and will continue to move her vent dependence down after another day or so.

We were able to get Jason out of the hospital for some BBQ last night and Emily's Dad, her sister Callie and brother-in-law Hayden should get there later tonight. Faith is missing her parents, of course, but is doing well overall. They moved Emily out of the acute level ICU so Jason can stay with her overnight now and he now has a place in the UAB Townhouses so he can switch out with Tim and get some sleep.

I think that is it for an update. For the next 24 hours, I think the best prayer would be for Emily to rest, stay calm, and for her body to be preparing itself to come off the vent.

Thanks~Emily T