Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Update on Rachel

Early this morning they started rewarming Rachel. They had cooled her down to 86 degrees to help prevent any further brain damage, and had her on sedatives and drugs to paralyze her to prevent her from shivering and warming herself back up. They rewarmed her starting at about 2 AM, and then weaned her off her sedatives and paralysis medications, and she woke up. She was definitely responsive, and was trying to talk to Anthony. When he told her that she was in the hospital, that she was ok, that the kids were ok, she calmed down. She was able to move all of her limbs on command, and Anthony said she was almost trying to climb out of the bed.

This is AWESOME and AMAZING!!!! Simply to have her so responsive is so incredibly exciting.

She is still on the ventilator, because she aspirated vomit in the ambulance, which has caused some lung issues and caused pulmonary edema. So until that is resolved, she will stay on the ventilator. That is the main reason that she is still sedated. They resedated her after they woke her up, and then had to switch her to a stronger sedative, when she kept waking up. The one that she is one will definitely keep her "out" until morning, when they will do another "wake-up" trial. The doctors were very encouraged by her responsiveness.

Pray for resolution of the swelling in her lungs. Pray that they can wean her off the ventilator faster than expected. She has also started to run a fever, and they have started her on antibiotics, so pray for that. Rachel is also 8 weeks pregnant. Pray for the protection of the baby also. Some of the effects of her treatments are unknown on unborn children. Their other children are having a great time at their Grandmother's, so pray for strength for all the adults, especially Anthony, as he goes back and forth and deals with emotional and physical exhaustion.

God has shown a lot of provision already in this situation. Things like - a nurse that usually leaves early from their small group had decided to stay longer. Fifteen minutes later, Rachel collapsed. The small group they were in usually never has videos for the kids, but they had decided to put a video on for them, and all of the children had left the room about 2 minutes before Rachel passed out. The EMT's had a very fast response time. Things like that just make everyone so thankful.

There are a lot of people praying for her. Please don't stop. The doctor's have been surprised - let's have them shocked. :)

Praise God for the responsiveness they saw today. Praise God.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for another update, Carrie. I have been thinking about her and praying for her so much. It was so good to hear that there have been some positive signs. We'll keep praying!! Candice

Lynette Polinder said...

We've been praying for her here too. Sounds like some really encouraging things have been happening so far.
Love you,

Anonymous said...

Been praying for her alot up here as well. May God reach out and comfort them and guide Anthony and Rachel thru this valley of trial.