Nurses Make the World Go Round

Dear World (our blog is being read in Alaska so this is an appropriate greeting),

Medical update first, then we'll get to the fun stuff. The Queen is off of all the pressors (thank you Jan for the correction on the spelling!). This is a-w-e-s-o-m-e. She is still peeing and all of her "vitals" look good. Her heart rate and blood pressure also look great. She was being a bit bossy today and managed to nonverbally ask the nurse if she (my mom) could suction out her mouth by herself. Seriously Mother? She made an attempt, but got her heart rate and blood pressure going a little too high so the nurse gave her some "happy medicine" to calm down and go back to sleep. They also came in today to do an echocardiogram which is essentially an ultrasound of her heart. When she came in on Friday her heart was only functioning at 20%, which is basically heart failure. We want it to be anything near or around 60%. Tonight we ran into one of our favorite nurses Brandon (who is in charge of all the nurses) and he told us that he looked at the echo and it was at 66%. He warned us that it was not signed off by a DR yet, but it was his professional opinion that it was at 66% after he read the information. I would literally trust this man with my life, so I believe him. So, needless to say...it is SUPER important that this all continues! All of your prayers and good vibes are working thus far, so if you're wondering what's next and what you can do....it would be to pray/send good vibrations for a continuation of the good that is happening.

Now. I am a bit superstitious (another trait from the Queen) and typing things on my blog could be too superstitious for me. But...I will let you all know that there is TALK of taking out the ventilator in the next couple days. TALK. She's still in ICU people, let's not get too overly excited (I am really typing this to reassure myself of this). BUT...superstition aside, this is all really, really, really great news and she is definitely beating every odd that was put against her. I'll tell you the statistic on a day when I'm not quite as superstitious as I am right now. Until tonight, she has been pretty sleepy overall and her nurses recommended that we let her rest, so we told her that her jumping jacks and lunge exercises could wait until tomorrow. Only if she keeps being a good patient.

Daniella, Lisa, Ann, Ken, Petrena, Brandon, Emily and Annette.

These are the names of the most fabulous nurses in the universe. I feel like I've gained 8 friends just from getting to know them. And let me tell you...nurses really do make the world go round. Or at least the world that is the ICU at Northside. These nurses are fabulous and are always very good about keeping us updated on what is going on with the Queen. They all take time aside from their complicated work to put things into "dummy terms" so that we can understand what is going on. Each one of these nurses has earned their fair share of hot dogs for life. Thank you times a million again to anyone who is a nurse, who is thinking of becoming a nurse (KtMo!), or anyone who was a nurse (Jan and Nan Fran). I will say that the job of a nurse is similar to that of a teacher. Very important but often very under appreciated. I hate that we're all learning it in this situation, but I'm glad that I can now recognize the importance of nurses.

I wanted to show you a special sneak peek of the room we have taken over. Literally. Taken it over. No one else has walked into this "family support" room since we staged the takeover on Friday. I'm sure people are probably thinking, "wow...those people need A LOT of support." Haha. Below is a picture of my bed. I waited to post this until today because I knew people would tell me I needed to go home. Well, tonight I am going home so now nobody can say anything. This lovely bed is made up of two love seats pushed together to form a square. Cutting edge technology and the wave of the future for beds. Just wait. Luckily, I had my sleeping bag in my trunk from a lesson at school (the kids pretended it was a mitten, climbed in, jumped out...it was precious) so it has worked perfectly. I'm thinking about recreating this situation at home. The past two nights I've slept for almost 7 hours with no interruptions. Sometimes I don't even sleep that well in a real bed.

Now, for your entertainment....I've taken some pictures of the calendar Nancy made for my mom's birthday. We had planned on giving it to her this weekend when we celebrated her birthday. We kept our plan...but had some (minor...) changes in the weekend. We did in fact give her the calendar on Saturday. Nancy will probably kill me for this one, but here she is sitting like a big girl and taking some time reading. How cute.
And another classic/favorite picture is one of my parents on their wedding day. Be sure to take note of my dad's glasses. Oh wait...you can't miss them. We always try to do a madre/padre picture for August because that is their Anniversary month.

And last but not least, I took a little visit away from the hospital today to see one of my favorite furry friends, Sam (shout out to Davis and Colby- miss you puppies). He was so excited to have company that he was jumping and squirming all over the place (although, if you know Sam this isn't abnormal behavior for him...). I'm attempting to upload a video for the first time. If it doesn't work, sorry in advance. I don't know how to fix it.

Here's what my mom had to say when we told her we would be back later:

OK Mother, I guess we won't bring Sam to the ICU ;)

And here is what my mom sees when we visit her. At first we weren't sure if she knew who we all were because you can't see our faces. You know you've spent too much time in a hospital when you have a "favorite" type of mask. We all like these yellow ones better than the blue ones that you have to tie behind your head. Lame, I know. What's more lame is that I thought I should smile for this picture.

Thanks again for everything. You are all beyond amazing and we could not ask for a better support system.

Hugs from Northside,

The Queen's Royal Court

From Nancy: Hi everyone. I know that Abby has been in charge of the blog and she takes a lot of pride in this thing. It took some convincing to just get the computer out of her hands for me to type this. I wonder who she gets this need to be in control from?? Take a guess....Anyways. I just wanted to personally thank you all for the thoughts/prayers. My mom is the strongest person I know. So even though this progress is so surprising, it really doesn't surprise me that she could do it.

Love you all!

--Nancy