Progress!!!

 Stan Here:

I finally get to report some good stuff.  Mieke has reported to me all day that Deb was having a day where each hour you could see things coming back.  They changed her pain meds. I seemed that the stuff they were using was giving her problems. She was having hallucinations and all sorts of other confusion problems but after they changed drugs things started to get better.  She asked Mieke if I could drive in tonight. When I arrived I found most of Deb back and much more normal. They had moved her from the bed to sort of a "bed chair" and she was sitting up.  Normal conversations are starting to take place.  Her voice is stronger and once in a while her smile shows up.  At the same time any exertion toward the normal seems to take lots of energy and she quite quickly will fall off to sleep.  During these times she seems to hear the conversation in the room and her eyes will open and she will offer some sort of opinion on what is going on.

I am still not quite sure she is able to process all the things that have happened to her in these last days.  When I think about it there have been three large surgeries in the last week and it is hard for me to even process what she must be feeling.  I do know one thing.  She wants one of those trapeze type devices on her bed and I think she wants to picture herself pulling herself up in bed and starting the process of getting all the muscles working again.  She said to the nurse to get stuff unhooked and she is going for a walk in the hall.  When I heard this I kind of knew I had my wife back!  I am told that for every day she had to be in the medically induced coma it takes about two days to restore the muscles needed to walk. Doing the math I think we are looking at about 8 days before there are any laps around the hall.

Mieke did spend a great deal of time reading to her all of the very nice comments you posted on the blog.  Thank you so very much.  She nods her head after each one.  I am thinking she is not able to take them in right now in total but I sure she will spend hours reading them in the next week.  Right now she still has a tube going down her throat to her stomach and she is plenty anxious to get that sucker out.  So we go forward here in baby steps. One thing at a time and it seems to me progress is  starting to happen.  For the first time in 8 days she is being fed. Not solid food yet. This stuff comes in a bag and is pumped to her body and I do not even know how to spell the word good enough to have it pass the spell checker.  It starts with inter.  I think it ends with with the fact that she is now being fed.  I was starting to worry about that.  I was not aware the human body could go that long with out some food source.

OK, with all of this let me tell you something amazing.  Mieke told me to walk through the ICU unit. I am going to say about 40 rooms.  As I did so I came to an surprising conclusion.  As tough as this has all been on us I think it is possible that Deb is in the best condition on the floor.  I know we all have a lot of stuff to worry about. As I observed the situation I thought it might be smart to let you all know that as you you see something like this you become aware that many people do not have support group like we do. Additionally,  I feel right now that our situation resides on a scale that has deeper and even more serious conditions for many.  I think it might be smart for us to think about this on this weekend.  It is going to be a different Easter for us.  Ross is going to play at a big GR church.  Easter sermons will be preached.  But the fact remains that many will lay in a place were life hangs in the balance in a very serious way.   On Sunday I am going to take a moment to reflect on this.  This entire event has brought those facts clear to me in a way that I had not thought of before.  I sense it is going to be a memorable Easter for me.  Hope it is for you also. Thanks again for all of your many thoughts, prayers and expression.  And Deb, welcome back!!!

Stan