Yesterday was hard.

I believe in the power of intercessory prayer.

Shortly after I posted, Sarah started getting better.  And not a little better-dramatically better.  She just seemed to wake up!  She was around midnight last night, she was cheerful and alert.  She was pulling on her lines and tubes.  She was signing for Dad.  She was twisting around in her bed.  She was even blowing kisses and waving.  It was precious.  I left to refill my water bottle and when I returned, Sarah was looking at me with sleepy eyes and she raised her hand way up high in the air to wave.  I got excited and then she got excited and the nurse came in and we were all excited together.

I stayed up until about three, chatting with the nurse and playing with a very awake and cheerful Sarah.

I missed neurosurgery rounds- they round really early- but apparently the neurosurgeon was ready to send her home today!  She will absolutely not go home today, or even tomorrow.  All the teams have to be ready, but this is still excellent news as it means that neurosurgery is not considering a surgical intervention for the hematoma anymore.

We are on our way to wellness, with obstacles shrinking.

Sarah is not getting food yet.  They would like to restart, but restarting is always a bit of a gamble after as much tummy trouble as she had yesterday.  I hope and expect that she will tolerate food well, but we cannot plan on it.  Since we cannot plan on it, it has to wait until after the MRI because we cannot have her throwing up and risking aspiration during the MRI.

Which brings me to the MRI.  She is still in a collar.  We still think her spine is OK, but cannot be sure and an MRI is the best way to know for sure.  It is not previously scheduled and it is not an emergency, so we are at the end of the line which means late today- they are saying between five and seven.  So I suspect eight or nine.  The MRI is sedated.

Which brings me to... her blood work.  Sarah is a hard stick.  And it gets harder every time someone misses or loses an IV.  So, after a few particularly difficult days, even drawing blood for labs is hard.  I have asked them to hold off on more blood until she is sedated, since she is going to be sedated.  I am also going to push for better access if they think we are going to be here for more than another day or two.  You would think a little blood work would not be a big deal, but the numbers suck.  She has needed blood work and follow up blood work two or three times ever day and ever time it takes at least two or three (and sometimes more) sticks.  So we are talking about ten sticks a day which is unacceptable.  Why so much blood work?  It is not because they are forgetting things.

One of the tests is for coagulation.  Since this is not a common issue with Sarah, the numbers mean very little to me and so I do not remember them.  She needed FFP (plasma) which is a blood product.  Two hours after it was given, then rechecked and were still unhappy with the result, so they gave more FFP.  Now they have to check again, but after three (three!!!) unsuccessful and painful arterial sticks, I sent the doctor away to figure out something else.

Miss Sarah looks miserable, but darling.  She is still in the trauma collar and she still has the EEG leads all over her head wrapped in a very fancy stocking cap.  (The EEG did not show seizure activity, which is unsurprising wonderful news.)  She is on a vent.  Two IVs are in- one in each foot.  The blood pressure cuff is on, since they are still checking regularly.  Regular leads for heart & respirator rates and a pulse ox.  Sarah looks like a very serious ICU patient, but the truth is, at the moment, she is doing quite well and most of these things should be coming off soon.

Oh!  Rebecca took her bottle last night, finally.  And the letter "i" is working again- so this post was not nearly as frustrating as the last to type.

Prayer works.  Thank you.