We are on the important day 8. We have made it one week past the accident and if Kirk is consistent with other severe traumatic brain injury patients we will start to see improvement. It will be an arduous long road though.
This update is late because there is a new doctor today and I never actually got to see a doc and it has just been hectic for me. The Neurological Intensivists change each week between 3 doctors. So rounds took longer today. Kirk has been stable though with the pentobarbital. Now we just need to wean that off. That is a baby step process right now. He has been lowered from 2.75 mg of pentobarbital per Kilogram of body weight per hour back to 1.5 through the day. ICP is still good with nice wave forms. He will likely stay at 1.5 overnight. All of the other treatments I mentioned previously are also continuing like cooling, etc. he is also trying to over breathe then ventilator meaning he is trying at least some to breathe on his own. Yeah!
His heart rate is rather low but it is probably nothing to worry about. Our goal over the next few days will be to transition from pentobarbital to a pain management and sedation strategy from this one. When we get there we will start to get a picture of what recovery will look like.
Kirk's parents made it safely home and my parents are safely in San Antonio. I caught up with them this afternoon. They will be here for a week.
I have set myself up a little office in the corner of Kirk's room. I can keep my eye on him and fill the hours with work. Last week felt like an eternity watching the clock tick off each hour. I also took care of a lot of business with his insurance and benefits today. One thing I learned is his new plan year started September 1. So at least the timing on that is good.
Sidney and I are settling into a routine. We don't see eye to eye on everything (like getting up in the morning and practicing piano) but that is normal.
If Kirk stays stable we will go to one post a day. I will try to get it closer to mid-day though.
Kimber
Kimber, this is very promising news! I am a longtime friend of Susan and David and our church and family have been praying continuously for you, Sidney, Kirk and all of yall's family. God is good and He has His arms around y'all through all of this. You are an amazing person to take time, in all that is going on, to keep everyone updated. For that you deserve a huge Thank You! We will continue sending our prayers and our love.
ReplyDelete-Bianca