~7:30AM – We woke up and Kim texted with Cyndie. The night was not good. We got a little bit of a briefing, but got ready quickly and headed in.
~8:30AM -Kim and I arrived to relive an exhausted Cyndie and Wade. We got a more thorough update from them and then they headed home to get some real sleep. The night nurse was Nurse A. Apparently around 10:00PM, Sue got very agitated and angry. The respiratory therapist came in and checked her and she was not breathing well and had fluid build up in her lungs. In addition, there were some concerns with additional brain swelling. (This was not uncommon. Brain swelling from a brain stem injuries can continue to swell for 3-5 days after the incident.)
Around 2:00AM, her blood pressure was raising dramatically and she basically threw Cyndie and Wade out of the room. Her clearest spoken line to that point came out that night when she was scolding Cyndie. With a dirty look and a pointing finger, Sue loudly and clearly exclaimed to Cyndie, “I AM YOUR MOTHER!” Point made. Cyndie and Wade spent the rest of the night in the family waiting room just down the hall from Sue’s room.
Later that evening, they put Sue on a sodium bicarbonate mixture to help with the possible brain swelling, as well as some pain meds and something to help with her erratic heart beat. Because of the new meds and the recent problems, they moved her back to the ICU from the CCU to keep a better eye on her.
~10:00AM – Dr. Z came in to talk to us after round (during rounds?) and apparently the CT scan that they did showed no change in the brain, so swelling was not necessarily the problem. (It wasn’t *fine*, it just wasn’t the problem that they thought it was. There was still swelling and minor bleeding in the brain, but it was not worse.)
Much of this day was a blur for me, so I am missing a lot of information. Please check back as I will check with everyone for their memories and I will try to update it soon.