Day 5 without sleep

This is Karen, Susan's sister, reporting. I arrived yesterday afternoon, and how wonderful to finally see Shea! With so much of the facial swelling gone down, she looked much more like our sweet Shea--just beautiful!

For Susan, this has been one of the hardest days so far as Shea continues to go through the difficult process of drug withdrawal. She has gone four days and nights without sleep, and now we are in day five. It's heart wrenching to see Shea so frustrated, frantic, and agitated, knowing that she is so tired but can't sleep. Shea is trying to communicate by writing, and sometimes it is very clear while other times she starts sentences like "I want you to ..." and then isn't able to finish. At other times she writes letters on top of each other. She is partly lucid and partly like in a dream. All of this is a normal pattern for someone coming off drugs, but it is still so hard because we feel so helpless.

This morning Shea had light therapy to help with depression and to get her body clock back on track after being in a sleep state for so long and then being awake the past four days. We are praying that this therapy will be effective.

The ear, nose & throat doctor came by today and reported that Shea has a blood clot on her right ear drum. They will sedate her for five minutes tomorrow to extract it. Then, while she is still sedated, they are going to put in a smaller trach that will allow her to talk.

Prayer Request:
Please pray for the restoration of the nerves in the left side of Shea's face. The doctors don't know if she sustained nerve damage at the time of the accident, so they are planning to do a cat scan to determine if the nerve damage is temporary or permanent.

It is a privilege to be here in Macon. A special moment for me last night was when Shea reached up and put both arms around me and hugged me. Kathy and I are taking shifts today and through the night so Steve and Susan can get some much-needed sleep. Steve especially needs extra rest as he is fighting the flu.

We can't thank you enough for your prayers. Steve and Susan both expressed how they have felt "lifted up" during this very emotional and difficult time.

Some of you have asked about Shea's CD, and we will be getting you information about this very soon.

Karen Grassmick