ChloeWatts.com

Dec 5, 2009 – Early

Chloe had a very restful night with the right meds. Dana and Sandy were also able to get some sleep due to being able to sign up for a bed in the Quiet Room.

This morning, however, Chloe was pretty frustrated and agitated not being able to make herself clear to Dana and everyone. She knows what will go on today and is pretty scared. I can only imagine. I’m scared for her as well.

So, what will happen today, is that at 12:30 noon she will be brought to the operating room. At some point they will relax her to just above sleep and remove the tube and insert a scope to look at her vocal chords. The chords are left and right, activated separately by the brain, and control the opening and closing to breath and swallow. What they want to see is that there is movement in both sides, in which case they will leave the tubes out.

If, by some chance, there is some paralysis in either side they will intubate her again and give that area more time to recover from the stroke she had. Again, this is as far as I’m going to project.

To recap her problems: She is on the ventilator because the first attempt to extubate failed when she couldn’t continue to get good breaths. She did breath twice and coughed once before she began to ingest mucus and they had to re-intibate her.

The stroke she had was small but in a very significant part of the brainstem. This area in adults takes longer to recover from than in children, however, neither is a quick fix and the extent of recovery is unknown. We are hoping for 100% and leave it at that.

The stroke makes it so she can’t keep her eyelids open. Her eyes, although getting better quickly, tend to shake so she is unable to focus well. This is also associated with her sensory problems. The stroke was right side and the swelling is left side. So her left arm and leg have mobility without feeling and her right side is limited mobility with feeling.

What this means is there is a lot of therapy in her future. How much and how long is anybody’s guess at this point. Our first priority now is to make sure she can breath on her own without the tube inserted.

Today is another big hurdle to clear so let’s get the energy flowing and make this happen for Chloe. She is our light and you all are her switch. She knows the support that is out there and loves everyone for being with her.

Blessings,
Ron