THANKSGIVING!

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we're changing shifts at the hospital.

This was another good day. More solid progress, with no setbacks.

Significant lung improvement. Shea has been on a special “oscillator” ventilator that has effectively filled her lungs with one continuous stream of oxygen—so that the lungs do not fill and then collapse, fill and collapse, as when we normally breathe. This has helped her lungs heal, and it has gotten her to 100% oxygenation.

But this ventilator is a big machine—and while she’s on it they cannot move her to get a CT scan or MRI. So tomorrow or Friday they should be moving her onto a conventional ventilator. Then she can be moved. Also, she can start breathing with the ventilator so that she can be slowly weaned off of it. Shea should be off all breathing support in a week or ten days.

Shea has been seen by a maxilofacial surgeon, assessing her needs for reconstructive surgery on her face and jaw. This does not need to be done for 2-3 weeks, so we have time. For now, we are looking to find the best surgeon for this critical task.

Shea is on lasix—to remove fluid from her body. So a lot of the swelling in her arms and legs—and her whole body—will reduce.

Shea now has three thoracic drains—draining fluid out of her lungs and thoracic cavity. One will probably come out tomorrow and the other two in a few more days. More good signs of progress.

Her blood pressure is steady. She was on three meds and high doses—but now she’s down to two and one of the two is very low dosage. Again, Shea is getting stronger on her own.

They have started a feeding tube to deliver nutrition to her small intestine. This tube still needs to move a bit into just the right place, but that should happen naturally in the next day or so.

We met with a neurologist about the possibility of damage to her brain. At issue is—we know that the oxygen saturation was low for a period of time. We don’t know how low or how long. But the Dr said, “Her exam has been more positive than we would expect.” Every day they reduce her sedation slightly to guage her more normal neuro responses. If you pinch her, does she respond—etc. So far the response has been good. She has tried to open her eyes on command, etc. But it’s very hard to know anything conclusively since she is still quite sedated when they’re doing this test. It won’t be until she is off the vent and able to come out of sedation fully that they’ll be able to tell.

The Dr said that in the next day or so they’ll get a CT scan, and that can tell them some things. If they see major, obvious areas of damage, that would give us a portent. But even if the scan is clear, he cautioned us, there may still be areas of damage too small to be picked up. So, again, the only true test is a patient waking up.

But waking up is not an instantaneous thing. It will take most of a week to get Shea fully awake from her long sedation—even if there is no damage at all. And, if there is damage, Shea may still make a complete recovery. It would just take months and months of rehab.

We have many good reasons to hope—including the fact that the kidneys did not suffer (which they would have if there had been a general oxygen deprivation), so it is less likely that the brain was seriously deprived. But that is only an indicator, he cautioned; the brain may still have been affected. Nevertheless, as I say, we have many reasons to hope. We are just sharing with you all the news we’re getting to try and manage our expectations.

We spoke to an orthopedic surgeon. The clavical fracture will heal itself. The knee is more of an issue. There is clear damage to the medial collateral ligaments (on the sides). He suspects, as well, that the front and rear cruciate ligaments—the ACL and the PCL—may also be damaged. (Only an MRI will tell, and that cannot happen for a while.) But we have time. That doesn’t need attention for 2-3 weeks. In the meantime they will apply ice and immobilize the knee.

Luke and Jesse have talked with counselors at the hospital just to see how they’re doing, and they are managing well. The emotional trauma is heavy, of course, but we believe they have the resources to deal with the issue.

Susan and Steve are also doing well. Wednesday was a hard day at the hospital—The Jones family (of Michael, Shea’s boyfriend, who died) came to the hospital to see Shea. Their children were with them, and the rest of the kids who were in the accident were also there, so it was very emotional. But Susan and Steve got through it. They are taking care of themselves, getting away at night to sleep. (They got a double room at the Ronald McDonald House, which is great—they were on a wait list.) Susan and Steve have enormous