DAY 47: Unchanged
Mom is almost exactly the way she was Wednesday and yesterday. She's still on antibiotics to fight a budding case of bronchitis, she's still in the 50-70 oxygen percentage range on her ventilator, and her PEEP setting is still at 15. The short-term goal is to get her down to a steady 50% oxygen and a PEEP of 8.
Earlier in the week, Dr. Sipple said that an optimist would see small bits of improvement, but a realist would note the lack of a trend. I asked him this morning if he's willing to say that we have a gently improving trend, and he said yes. "It's not time to jump for joy yet, but there's a very slight trend of improvement."
That's where we stand.
Our aunts returned to their homes in California and Idaho yesterday. One of my favorite moments of their visit happened yesterday morning. We all sat together in Mom's room and the three sisters reminisced about growing up with Mom on Park Avenue in Arcadia, Calif. They told stories about how bad they'd been as teenagers, particularly Mom, and about how their mother and father interacted. We were surprised to find pieces of family history from their childhoods that we could also find in our respective families.
I loved hearing the little details, and I know that Mom loves strolling down Memory Lane with her sisters, so our conversation next to her must have been fun on some level. My aunts talked about summers in Catalina, old boyfriends, their schools, fights with each other, fights with their parents (our grandparents), and music that was popular back then.
One of the funniest anecdotes was that sometimes when Nana was angry, Aunts Laurie and Barbara would hide in a hole they'd dug in the bamboo thicket in their backyard. The image of them cowering in the hole, peeking over the rim for signs of an angry Nana on the way had me laughing.
I'm glad they came. I look forward to a visit in the future when Mom can add her own stories to the conversation, and there's as much future in the air as there is past. I have a strong feeling that the story of Liz Kelly is not over yet, and that this ordeal will provide just another gnarled knot on the still-branching tree of her life.
Earlier in the week, Dr. Sipple said that an optimist would see small bits of improvement, but a realist would note the lack of a trend. I asked him this morning if he's willing to say that we have a gently improving trend, and he said yes. "It's not time to jump for joy yet, but there's a very slight trend of improvement."
That's where we stand.
Our aunts returned to their homes in California and Idaho yesterday. One of my favorite moments of their visit happened yesterday morning. We all sat together in Mom's room and the three sisters reminisced about growing up with Mom on Park Avenue in Arcadia, Calif. They told stories about how bad they'd been as teenagers, particularly Mom, and about how their mother and father interacted. We were surprised to find pieces of family history from their childhoods that we could also find in our respective families.
I loved hearing the little details, and I know that Mom loves strolling down Memory Lane with her sisters, so our conversation next to her must have been fun on some level. My aunts talked about summers in Catalina, old boyfriends, their schools, fights with each other, fights with their parents (our grandparents), and music that was popular back then.
One of the funniest anecdotes was that sometimes when Nana was angry, Aunts Laurie and Barbara would hide in a hole they'd dug in the bamboo thicket in their backyard. The image of them cowering in the hole, peeking over the rim for signs of an angry Nana on the way had me laughing.
I'm glad they came. I look forward to a visit in the future when Mom can add her own stories to the conversation, and there's as much future in the air as there is past. I have a strong feeling that the story of Liz Kelly is not over yet, and that this ordeal will provide just another gnarled knot on the still-branching tree of her life.
Posted by Jason Kelly | 11:17 AM
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