Mrs M update

After being taken off the ventilator on 13 January and being made ready for a step down room and discharge, severe reactions to breathing treatments led to Mrs. M being emergency reintubated on 17 January. It was horrible. Fixed stare and unresponsive.

After bringing her back and stabilizing her, a new approach focused on thinning of lung secretions and aggressive suction of those secretions. Fairly heavy sedation at night for rest, reduced or no sedation by day combined with daily attempts, each longer than the previous, at allowing her to attempt to breathe on her own with only minimal assistance from the ventilator. Finally after passing the breathing “test” with good numbers on the monitor confirmed by arterial blood numbers the ventilator was removed the second time on 25 January. A dangerous dramatic bout with throat swelling arose, was addressed, and resolved on day two after exubation. She was moved from ICU to a regular room on Friday 28 January and discharged on 1 February. Weak, barely able to speak, beat up, but alive, in great spirits, and getting better and stronger every day.

She kept her sense of humor throughout her ordeal. Being weighed in her bed and told the number the last day in ICU, Mrs. M told her nurse, “My youngest daughter is 37. I’m so happy. I’ve finally lost the weight I gained with that pregnancy!”

I know I fell of the radar and quit communicating but the second time on the ventilator was life and death and I had to focus on Mrs. M and engaging with her caregivers.

I write all of this to brief y’all of what happened shortly after 13 January when things looked so positive but turned dire so quickly. Also to thank all of y’all for your continued prayers, but mostly to give Mrs. M the opportunity speak to TD on her own behalf.

To my Tiger Dropping friends and prayer support team: When the ambulance dropped me at the Lane Regional Medical Center ER January 4, I was hypoxic, had double pneumonia and, I have been told my blood oxygen was near 50. The ER staff stabilized me and l realized the gravity of my situation. I asked my husband to post my condition to Tiger Droppings knowing our family needed support and prayers.

I can’t remember much of the next week, but as I drifted in and out of consciousness, my husband would often read me your postings. One, from Europe, even mentioned their family was lighting candles in church that evening. They all were a source of great comfort to us both.

I wound up having to be intubated twice, due to serious complications following the first attempt at removing the ventilator. The second intubation lasted until January 25, during which time my husband also read your prayers and good wishes to me.

When my second ventilator was removed, my lungs were clear, and I did not require oxygen or breathing assistance. In the words of my discharging doctor, “You don’t understand; we send people home who were not anywhere near as sick as you were, and almost require oxygen. Your lungs are virtually pristine. You arrived here at the point of death, nearly died a second time, and you’re leaving breathing on your own without assistance.”

That can only be attributed to Divine Intervention. I owe my life to your prayers and the prayers of others. God bless you all for your prayers.

With profound heartfelt gratitude.

Mrs M.