Tuesday, 4 days and counting

Well, here is the latest on Maddi.

They have taken her off all of the sedation and she is becoming more and more active. She doing more and more purposeful actions like trying to grab her IV and the breathing tube.

Last night John and I were telling her that we were going to leave for a little while and she turned her head towards the sound of our voices. She turned first when I spoke and so John had to see if she would do the same thing if he spoke to her. She repeated the same action. That was the first time she has responded to voice. We were so excited!!!

This morning we wanted to neurology team to there seeing what we were seeing. Lots of movement. In fact they warned me when I left for the mandatory 7-8 a.m. "boot", as I call it, (we can't be in the room during that time) that if she continues when I return she might have her hands restrained. YEAH! I hope to see her strapped down, only under these circumstances.

Until the team comes in we really don't know anything else. Her cranial levels are staying really low except when she coughs. It is really too bad that she had a bit of a cold/cough before the accident. It is making this a little more uncomfortable. She really doesn't like it when they have to clean the tubes for secretions (snot/mucus tube for the layman). I keep saying to Maddi, "you keep on giving those nurses that sass!" If I were to try to diagram that sentence it would be placed in the "need remediation" pile but it comes off the tongue with such fun.

We have been teasing the nurses at the front desk that they need to come up with a password to let us in so we don't have to faced the "I have a critically ill child, please let me in." every time we go into the unit.

We chose our own Hogwarts password yesterday, "lemon drops". Today we are thinking it should be "chocolate frogs" or something. It gives us a giggle, which is infinitely better than the dread, to pick up the phone and say something other than, "Maddi's mom". The nurses either find it kind of fun or are good at humoring us. Really, we know they have a camera and we have been here long enough that they recognize our voice and what we look like but it is fun to pretend we are entering Griffindor tower.

That is all we know. Thanks for all you love,support and prayers. We are definitely strengthened from an outside source.

Fighting is so much better than still.

Today

Here is what we know right now.

Maddi's cranial pressure is looking good. It has gone up a little bit from this morning but they have completely turned off the sedation so we expect those levels to raise a bit as she tries to wake.

She is reactive to stimulation by flexing her feet and moving her arms a bit. Yesterday she "crossed Mid-line". What that means is that she purposefully moved her arm across her chest to reach the area of stimulation. This is a great sign.

They have start feeding her through the tube in teeny tiny amounts. If she was tiny before she might stay there for a while.

She shown that she can cough which is one of the prerequisites of getting the breathing tube taken out.

She looks good and is slowly waking up.
She gets pissed when they try to clean her teeth and reacts a lot when they mess with her. All of this is a great thing!

They say that "being spitting mad" is a good thing right now. That means her brain is working.

We are hoping to get a good Neurological exam today to get a baseline idea of what we have to deal with as she get better.

The have also taken the neck brace off so she is looking more and more comfortable.

So now you know what I know.

Background Info

For you to really understand what is going on there are a couple of things you need to know. Everything they do at first is to reduce cranial pressure. The damage that has been done is done, but if the brain swells with no place to go then more damage occurs. So they have put a drain in her head to relieve the pressure and the medications they are giving her are to keep her still so her brain doesn't have to work.

People will say, "Well, is she in a coma?" The answer is sort of. They have given her medication that keeps her asleep and still. So, yes, she is unconscious but only because that is the way they want it.

So, everything depends on her cranial pressure numbers. I liked math before but now I am obsessed with the teen numbers. And ecstatic with numbers under 10. They want those numbers to be under 20. So as they do things they are looking for the numbers to stay pretty consistent and that are for sure under 20.

The other thing they are watching closely is her blood pressure and she is on medication to regulate that as well. They don't want her blood pressure to raise because it will increase the cranial pressure. Big Ol" circle there.

She is on a ventilator,not because she "can't" breathe on her own but so the brain doesn't have to do the work of breathing right now. Hopefully she will be able to wake enough to do that for her self.

She has a feeding tube that gives her nutrition. She has wires and tubes going everywhere. If you go look behind your computer it is kind of the same type of rats nest, only she is way cuter than any computer and the technology connected to these tubes are way more important right now than anything I have ever done on a computer.

So that is the need to know to understand part.

Recap and Purpose

First I will recap what happened and then tell you what we know. The purpose of this blog is to get the word out about what is going on for all of those who love Maddi. We want to get the information out but sometimes can't call everyone. If you haven't gotten a personal phone call please do not think it is because we don't love you. We do. Sometimes it is just too hard to tell the story even one more time!

On Friday about 6:30 Maddi, Brooke and I were in a car accident in Logan. Turning left at the intersection I was hit by a mini van attempting to race the yellow light. I had waited the entire "green cycle" of the light and most of the way through the yellow, when the oncoming cars began stopping. There was sufficient time and distance for me to clear the intersection while the other vehicle stopped. Instead of stopping the other vehicle accelerated to beat the light.

I had almost cleared the intersection when the other car entered he intersection going really fast and impacted the right rear of the car. That is where Maddi was sitting.

Luckily, the car had side, curtain airbags. If not this would be a different story. Because of those airbags Maddi looks like herself with not cuts at all. Things could have been so different.

Needless to say, Maddi ended up at Primary Children's Hospital. Brooke and I got a special ride to Logan Regional Hospital. We were checked out and let go with minor bumps and bruises. I have a couple of cracked ribs and bruised organs but I would rather be here hurting than there being taken care of. So that is it for the recap.