Sunday, November 1

This morning, Maria was responding to the nurse's questions. She asked her if she knew where she was, and she shook her head no. She told her she was in the hospital and was telling her about the baby and asked her if she had seen the baby, and maria nodded. Maria is doing well, but they need to get her off the oxygen...or at least down to the mid 30's or low 40's. They told us that if she wasn't fighting the mouthpiece so much they could lower her sedation. But she thrashes around when they bring her down. I came out here to send you the report, and before I got this much written, Cornel came to the door and motioned me to come quickly.

Maria was responding to his questions as well. She had tried to sit up. He asked her if she had seen the baby and she nodded. She started to thrash around, so I told her stuff about how she was doing well and that she needed the tube in her mouth, etc. etc. and that if she could remain calm, they could let her stay awake more. She seemed to calm, and we reassured her about herself and about the baby, etc.etc.

When she wakes up like that, her oxygen goes down, but it stayed above 90 this time. However her blood pressure went up. She was going back to sleep, so I came out to write this. She is on what is called a bivent (for Esther)...and if I understand it correctly she needs to be on a different type before they are ready to consider removing the tube thing. The nurse told me that down the road a bit, they could be talking about doing a trach tube and that it should not scare us, cause that would be easier for her and will heal up easily when she doesn't need it any more. She said that some people can have the bivent like Maria has and remain awake and watch TV etc without any problem, but others just can't do it. So we'll see if as Maria becomes more and more responsive if she can keep from panicing or not. The nurse said "I couldn't do it, I'd have to be out". I think I would, too.