No blog done today. Hospital records show….
At 3am, one of the doctors recorded….

Chest infection – enterococcus, unstable trachy tube, plan to do chest x-ray and may wake up today

One of the most exciting times for us as a family was when they woke Karen up. For over 11 days, we had talked and talked and talked to Karen about every silly little thing that would come in to our mind. We had all told her how much we loved her, how strong her fight would have to be, what the weather outside was, any family news, what the nurses were up to. The nurses often sniggered at us as we talked crap to Karen, because it was quite comical at some of the stuff we came out with. I recall one particular conversation I had with her………..and yes, you DO get this desperate for conversation………..

“Well, this bed your on is great Karen. It’s costing 5,000 quid a week to hire. It’s amazing. You’re clamped in so you can’t move at all. There is some work gone in to it’s design. I wonder how much it would be to buy. Heh, what would happen if there was a power cut. Do you think you’d be stuck……………..Etc etc…..”

Absolute tosh !

But, today there were lightening the sedation. They weren’t bringing her fully round, but she would be more likely able to hear us. Exciting times. I can’t recall the timings, but later in the day, we were able to shout things at Karen and we knew she was awake because she would respond.

dp:- Karen, Squeeze your right hand.

Karen squeezed my hand.

dp (with the BIGGEST grin on my face) :- Jane, Jane, come over here, she’s squeezed my hand

dp:- Karen, Squeeze my hand again.

Jane (nearly crying with joy) :- Oh, f+cking hell, that’s amazing. Well done Mrs P. You’re doing brilliantly.

Words can’t really describe how good it feels to get something back from the person you have been caring for. Another trick, we’d get her to do is…

dp:- Purse your lips love.

And she would – Fan-bloody-tastic !

Later on that day, an Ear, Nose and Throat chappy came and sorted the trachy problem out…..

Trachy repositioned, was stable but orginally placed upside down hence instability. Turned on correct orientation, held in position by sutures.

Click on photo to enlarge
Arms and legs are very flaccid, apparently she does squeeze hands with family but I can detect no active movement. Sesation difficult to assess because of effects of sedation. Note CT of neck shows normal, but have we excluded any other spinal fractures. XRay spine tomorrow, continue with log rolling

Click on photo to enlarge