Day 16 Today has been a good day for us. They removed the EVD (external ventricular drain) and took her off sedation completely this morning. When I visited her, she seemed to be doing okay. She still hasn't woken up yet - that will take a while. However, they said that she has shown some signs of waking up. At about 6 pm this evening, I actually saw her jerk her arms and shoulders in an attempt to cough when the nurse did a tracheal aspirate. She even shed a tear. She continued to move a little after that, but she soon fell asleep again. It is possible that she may wake tomorrow morning.. but it could also take a while longer. Her lung infection is still there, but it is under control. It is possible that it may clear up by tomorrow. So, overall, it's been a very good day.
Day 17 Part 1 Okay, a minor setback today. Her blood pressure and pulse went up pretty high after they took her off sedation, so they put her on oral sedation last night to be tapered off over the next 3 days. They expect her to slowly wake up anytime during those three days, if not after that. But they hope it will be over the next 3 days as she has been intubated for almost 3 weeks now. If she doesn't wake and breathe by herself in 3 days, they will have to do a tracheostomy - basically cutting a hole into her throat. While we were there just now, we saw her move both her arms a few times. No idea if she can actually hear us, or was just moving randomly, but it's still a good sign.
Was at the hospital late tonight. Saw her cough a few times and her eyes move a little. We will see how she is in the morning.
Day 18 It's already Day 18. Today, she showed more signs of waking up but she's still not awake. They did a CT scan in the afternoon. The old clot is now very small while the new clot is slightly smaller. The midline shift of the brain is virtually gone, so that's a very good sign. There's still cerebral swelling, but it's noticeably reduced. Overall, the picture looks good. Now, if only she would wake up....
Day 19 Jenny is awake! She spontaneously opened her eyes today, and seemed to respond to me. She can't fully open her eyes yet, and she has more movement in the left arm than the right, but overall, that's an improvement over yesterday. Although I cannot be 100% sure, I feel she can understand what I tell her. She cried a few times, especially when I showed her videos of Ryan. They are planning to extubate her (remove the tube that's ventilating her lungs) tonight, and they cut her dose of oral diazepam by 1/3 today. So I hope we will see more improvement tomorrow.