Kirk was too unstable to go to MRI last night. He can't lay flat for any length of time, certainly not the hour needed to do the MRI. When he lays flat his ICP spikes. It spiked several times last night and he gets more medications every time. He is also still on the alternate vent setting to keep his O2 saturation up. He is down to 50% O2 mixed with air to maintain his saturation. I hope maybe they can change the settings later today. He also had a CT this morning. They brought a portable machine to his room. It took 4 people to turn his bed to get the machine in the room with all the lines, monitors and ventilator. They did not feed him last night because of the continued concerns of aspirating stuff into his lungs. He is staying on strong antibiotics. His nurse this morning is Analisa. He is starting to look more like my Kirk. The swelling in his face is reduced and his black eyes are showing a hint of fading.
I saw the doctors this morning. The cultures on the infection in his lungs came back and it is a staph infection. It is improving. His fever is down and his shivers are gone so it is responding to the antibiotic. His arterial blood gases also show his saturation is improving. The doctors also said that between day 3 and 5 we should be at the peak of the brain swelling. They are considering doing surgery to remove part of the back of the skull to relieve pressure. The specialists are discussing that now. He has what appear to be two large clots on the back of his brain, kind of behind his ears, from fractures there. He has two fractures at the base of the skull on the back I addition to facial fractures. They still really want to do an MRI and MR Angio but can't until his ICP is stable. He will remain in a drug induced coma until the ICP is stable and acceptable and then there will be the long process of trying to wake him up.
Even though when I am at the hospital if feels like the world has ground to a halt, it hasn't outside. Our beautiful daughter continues to live her fairly normal life. Many of you have asked how she is doing and she is doing fine. She has not seen Kirk so I don't think she fully understands what is happening. She realizes dad isn't here but she is also getting tons of goodies. Visit from Grandma, spending several nights at some ones house with a pool. Unfortunately at some point this will become reality. She will eventually have to see him and we can't predict when that will happen, what he will be like or how she will react.
She does love her mom a lot. She is as concerned about me as anything. She quizzes me on what I eat and rubs my back with love.
Last night when I was tucking her into bed she told me about her dream. She starts with the fact that she has this dream about 2 times per year. She calls it her Madagascar dream. It is about the animals from the movie. They are on rafts and they trade the rafts for a bigger boat and continue trading up. In a big storm the boat is destroyed and they end up with rafts again. Then they meet a baby seal who takes them home. But the Madagascar animals are to big to fit in the small ice house of the mother seal. Then Sidney says that the dream is so long she has never gotten to the end before she wakes up. I needed that love and laugh in my life. What a sweet and wonderful baby girl we have.
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