Sorry for the Delayed Post - Seeing Some Improvement

I did not realize it has been so long since I posted.  Please accept my apologies.  Amelia has remained under sedation for the last few days.  She was able to go about 40 hours with no platelets, as she maintained counts between 10 and 40 during that time.  However, last night, after a slow but steady decline, she dropped below 10 and they transfused again.  This morning she is back up into the 30s.
Because she has been intubated, we have kept her pretty sedated.  From time to time, she wakes up very disorientated and confused, flailing her arms and legs.  Some times it takes a few minutes to calm her down.  They moved her to a new medicine yesterday and since then, she has been pretty calm.

Today, we are starting to ween the ventilate settings in preparation of extubating tomorrow.  This will be great for Kim and I as that will allow us to reduce the sedation and give us the chance to interact with her again.  It has been a number of days since we have been able to talk to her and we miss our times of walking the unit.

The cultures from her bronchoscopy have started to show some slight bug growths.  Nothing really extreme, but the bug they found is one that could cause enough agitation of her lungs to lead to bleeding when enough of a presence.  At this time, the docs do not feel there is enough of a presence to cause the bleeding, but with her low platelet counts, it could be a factor.  Her platelet counts could have been the cause alone.  We will be watching the cultures over the following week and a half still because bugs grow the quickest, followed by viruses and finally fungi, taking a week to two weeks to grow.

The doctors were really optimistic this morning in rounds with the improvements we have seen in the last 24 hours, especially with the platelet retention we have seen.  We still foresee some time before we are able to head home, but we are also encouraged by the movement in the right direction.

While we continue to look for answers for Amelia's difficulties, we are greatful for the improvements we are seeing.  We also pray the extubation process will proceed with no complications over the next 24-36 hours.

Blessings

The Moody Family