Wow, what a busy girl Kelsi was today! She was trying so hard to climb out of her bed. I went to the cafeteria for a bite to eat, when I came back there were 3 nurses in her room totally exhausted. They told me they had just finished a wrestling match with her. They were still trying to decide who won. She rolled to her tummy 3 times today. The last time while she was on her belly she lifted her head about a foot off the bed and held it for about a minute. It was a huge milestone. She really likes to sleep on her tummy and that makes it hard now that she has discovered she can roll over because she gets tangled in her feeding tube.
She is still not recognizing anyone. We just keep hearing the same thing (it takes time for the swelling and bruising to go down, and when it does she will start recognizing us and wondering where she is). It is going to be a long road ahead, line upon line. Thank you so much for all of your love and support, faith and prayers. Please continue to pray for Kelsi! She needs all of us continuously!
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Friday, August 17,2007
Today has pretty much been a repeat of yesterday. Kelsi is still not responding. The doctors told us she has a lot of swelling and bruising that needs to heal. Once that has happened things will start clicking again. We need to just be patient and keep her in our constant prayers. She was moved from I.C.U. today over the unit next door. That was a good thing! Thank you for all of your support! We have enjoyed reading your comments!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Thursday August 16, 2007
Kelsi in the tree just before the fall
When the neuro surgeon turns and gives you an excited hug, you know that something great is happening. All the fasting and prayers that you are doing showed great strides this morning. The doctors had hoped to avoid cutting into Kelsi's neck to install the breathing tube (tracheotomy). They had scheduled that to be done a couple of days ago but decided to hold off until Friday to see what progress she would make. Her progress was so great that they pulled the breathing tubes and shut down the respirator. She took off breathing on her own and has been breathing good all day. Kelsi's mouth is now empty and her beautiful pearly white teeth are shining through. Kelsi is moving her head around and had her eyes open much of the day. Generally she stares blankly ahead, but once in a while she looks around searchingly. At times she stares at her hand as she touches her knee in an attempt to get reaquainted.
Kelsi's mental state is considered by the doctors to be "alert" meaning that she can react to stimulus, but is not concious of much of what is happening. When observing her actions throughout the day, it appears she has very short burst of awareness. Consider them as possible short moments of conciousness. These moments are begining to be more frequent and are a positive indicator that she will become more and more aware very soon.
Just for clarification (some have not understood previous reports when referring to her being asleep versus awake): Kelsi has not been fully concious since the fall. The difference between her being asleep and awake has to do with the amount of activity she has with her body. When she is asleep she is laying very still, not moving arms, legs, fingers or toes. When she is awake, her arms, legs, fingers and toes are moving around and very busy, but she gives little or no indication that she is aware of the presence of others in the room. The closest she comes to being concious is when she will follow a simple command such as "hold up 2 fingers" or "move your toes". Following these commands are indications of a low level of conciousness, but she has only followed these commands a few times for very short periods. Full conciousness will be the next exciting step in her progress. We don't have a good idea of how long that will take.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Kelsi's body is well on its way to complete recovery. The swelling decreased substantially during the night last night. The doctors explained that the body holds onto water very aggressively after a substantial trama has occurred. Once the body realizes that it has a steady supply of food and water, it will release the excess stored water. Most of the observable swelling is gone, with just a few places that need a couple more days to normalize.
She spent about half of the day in a deep sleep. It was a much needed, since she slept only one hour during the night and spent the remaining hours moving arms and legs in an unconcious effort to keep them going. During her waking hours she opened her eyes many minutes at a time and continued to work her arms and legs. She still only moves the right arm very little and the right leg moves much less than the left.
She still needs 2 forms of life support - breathing and feeding. Over the past 48 hours they have started to wean her off the respirator. Her presure setting was at 12 just 2 days ago. It was decreased to 10 yesterday and 8 today and she is still looking good. The hope is that she will be breathing totally on her own by Friday and the respirator will no longer be needed. The feeding tube will take longer because, once concious, she will not be able to eat enough to give her the nutrition she needs. As she is able to eat more, the feeding tube will become less important. The feeding tube is not a great concern because with a simple surgery it can be moved out of her sinuses and into her abdomen. This will clear her throat of obsturctions. She still has mucus left in her lungs, but it is decreasing and expected to completely go away in the hear future.
The biggest difficulty facing Kelsi is the progress toward conciousness. She seems to increase in awareness each day, but conciousness is difficult to measure. Yesterday she seemed to follow commands better than today, but there is some thought that she has grown tired of the "Move your fingers and toes" and "Squeeze my hand" types of commands, but isn't able to do much else until the life support tubes are cleared from her throat. It seems that more time is needed fixing the things that are damaged on the inside before she will be able to work on communication.
The faith and prayers of all have been the biggest asset to helping Kelsi's recovery. We are absolutely convinced, that though slow, her progress from day to day has been greatly enhanced by the faith, prayers and service that all have rendered by all.
She spent about half of the day in a deep sleep. It was a much needed, since she slept only one hour during the night and spent the remaining hours moving arms and legs in an unconcious effort to keep them going. During her waking hours she opened her eyes many minutes at a time and continued to work her arms and legs. She still only moves the right arm very little and the right leg moves much less than the left.
She still needs 2 forms of life support - breathing and feeding. Over the past 48 hours they have started to wean her off the respirator. Her presure setting was at 12 just 2 days ago. It was decreased to 10 yesterday and 8 today and she is still looking good. The hope is that she will be breathing totally on her own by Friday and the respirator will no longer be needed. The feeding tube will take longer because, once concious, she will not be able to eat enough to give her the nutrition she needs. As she is able to eat more, the feeding tube will become less important. The feeding tube is not a great concern because with a simple surgery it can be moved out of her sinuses and into her abdomen. This will clear her throat of obsturctions. She still has mucus left in her lungs, but it is decreasing and expected to completely go away in the hear future.
The biggest difficulty facing Kelsi is the progress toward conciousness. She seems to increase in awareness each day, but conciousness is difficult to measure. Yesterday she seemed to follow commands better than today, but there is some thought that she has grown tired of the "Move your fingers and toes" and "Squeeze my hand" types of commands, but isn't able to do much else until the life support tubes are cleared from her throat. It seems that more time is needed fixing the things that are damaged on the inside before she will be able to work on communication.
The faith and prayers of all have been the biggest asset to helping Kelsi's recovery. We are absolutely convinced, that though slow, her progress from day to day has been greatly enhanced by the faith, prayers and service that all have rendered by all.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Today's highlight - Kelsi opened her eyes, sometimes for minutes at a time. When she looked at her mother, it seemed as though she smiled. It is impossible to tell what, if anything, she is thinking about, but her whole face seemed to be smiling. She hasn't been concious at any time, but she sure seems close. We hope it will happen in the next couple days. The physical therapist sat Kelsi up and tried to get her to wake up, but she wasn't with it. They tried to get her to hold her head up. It seemed like some effort was made by her, but it was too hard to really tell. She is moving all of her body parts including her head. She has started to sweat when she moves around. They say that is a sign of coming too. The medical staff are all optimistic, but no time frame can be established for each step of progress. Any progress each day is a thrill to her family.
For all who are praying for her, we greatly appreciate your faith. We know that all of the faith that is being exerted on her behalf is speeding up her recovery.
For all who are praying for her, we greatly appreciate your faith. We know that all of the faith that is being exerted on her behalf is speeding up her recovery.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007 P.S.
P.S. Thanks again for all your prayers of faith. They are much needed and helping Kelsi and her family very much. Keep in mind that all blessing are predicated on faith, so please continue to combine your faith with ours is pleading with the Lord for a complete recovery.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Today was another day of progress for Kelsi. The progress, from her parents point of view, was that she is a little more active, aware and for short periods of time she is able to follow simple voice commands. For the doctors, this day was considered extremely significant. At the start of the day they indicated that all chemically induced anesthesia should have already worn off and that she should have woken up at least enough to follow simple commands. They did not believe this had happened. After forming a plan as to the next steps to take: MRI, Tracheotomy and
percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG), they went into the room to work directly with Kesli. This is the first time any of the medical staff were able to observe and actually believe that she is close enough to consiousness to follow simple commands. When parents told them she has been able to follow commands for very short periods of time for the last 2 days, they always indicated that is was reflex action and over optimistic parents. Now they know. They completely abandoned the plans set up in the morning and began a more agressive plan to remove all unneeded life support (ICP Pressure BOLT, Pick line, etc.). The remaining life support items are: assisted breathing (only needed at her deepest levels of sleep - very mild assistance that they hope to wean her of), feeding tube (she needs to be concious and able to eat full meals before this is removed) and blood pressure assistance (not sure how much longer this is needed).
At the end of the day, Kelsi was agressively moving her left arm and leg. The right side has some movement, but the doctors indicated that their testing indicates that the part of the brain that controls these movements is damaged and that the neural networks that control the left side will need to re-map themselves before she will be able to use this side in a normal fashion.
percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG), they went into the room to work directly with Kesli. This is the first time any of the medical staff were able to observe and actually believe that she is close enough to consiousness to follow simple commands. When parents told them she has been able to follow commands for very short periods of time for the last 2 days, they always indicated that is was reflex action and over optimistic parents. Now they know. They completely abandoned the plans set up in the morning and began a more agressive plan to remove all unneeded life support (ICP Pressure BOLT, Pick line, etc.). The remaining life support items are: assisted breathing (only needed at her deepest levels of sleep - very mild assistance that they hope to wean her of), feeding tube (she needs to be concious and able to eat full meals before this is removed) and blood pressure assistance (not sure how much longer this is needed).
At the end of the day, Kelsi was agressively moving her left arm and leg. The right side has some movement, but the doctors indicated that their testing indicates that the part of the brain that controls these movements is damaged and that the neural networks that control the left side will need to re-map themselves before she will be able to use this side in a normal fashion.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Most of the life support has been removed to allow Kelsi to take control. Having been on life support for quite some time, she has found taking back control to be a challenge. Today was full of ups and downs, but she has generally been stable. For her to progress in recovery her brain has to take back all life support functions. When she is sleeping (most of the time), she needs some assitance with breathing. Her pneumonia is subsiding, but the doctors estimate that it will impede her progress for at least 6 more days.
She is moving more and more. Her left side is very active. She has used her right leg more today than any other day. Her right arm remains a concern because she moves it so little.
When it relates to movement, her status has changed from "random" movements to "purposeful" movements. This means that she is now moving her limbs with an objective. Her primary objective is to tear the breathing apparatus away from her mouth. She has worked very hard at meeting this objective. Anyone who knows Kelsi knows that you don't tell her "NO". She has now clearly shown that her determination is deeply ingrained into her phychie. She fought so hard to get to her breathing tube that the nurse decided to tighten her constaints all the way down to the corner of the bed. It wasn't a comfortable sight to see her so constained. She fought and fought to regain some freedom. She finally found that she could pull her entire body to the side of the bed and get her arm down the side of the bed, reach under the bed and find the distant end of the constaint. She managed to untie the distant end and release her arm. As soon as her arm was free, her hand shot straight for her face to rip out the ventilator tube. Dad happened to be watching and intercepted the hand - she was noticable agitated at having been stopped. She did all this while still unconscious.
Once again we would like to thank all of you for your continued faith and prayers. Kelsi needs all of us to help pull her through this trial. We feel our Heavenly Fathers love continuosly and are so grateful for the knowledge we have that he truely knows and loves each one of us individually.
She is moving more and more. Her left side is very active. She has used her right leg more today than any other day. Her right arm remains a concern because she moves it so little.
When it relates to movement, her status has changed from "random" movements to "purposeful" movements. This means that she is now moving her limbs with an objective. Her primary objective is to tear the breathing apparatus away from her mouth. She has worked very hard at meeting this objective. Anyone who knows Kelsi knows that you don't tell her "NO". She has now clearly shown that her determination is deeply ingrained into her phychie. She fought so hard to get to her breathing tube that the nurse decided to tighten her constaints all the way down to the corner of the bed. It wasn't a comfortable sight to see her so constained. She fought and fought to regain some freedom. She finally found that she could pull her entire body to the side of the bed and get her arm down the side of the bed, reach under the bed and find the distant end of the constaint. She managed to untie the distant end and release her arm. As soon as her arm was free, her hand shot straight for her face to rip out the ventilator tube. Dad happened to be watching and intercepted the hand - she was noticable agitated at having been stopped. She did all this while still unconscious.
Once again we would like to thank all of you for your continued faith and prayers. Kelsi needs all of us to help pull her through this trial. We feel our Heavenly Fathers love continuosly and are so grateful for the knowledge we have that he truely knows and loves each one of us individually.
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