12 hours later

12 hours later and Jane appears to be recovering well. One of the major concerns of the Dr yesterday was that Jane had way too much CO2 (carbon dioxide) build up in her body and he wasnt sure if the machines would be able to support her to blow off that CO2. Sure thing, within hours, they were already weening her from her ventilator settings. In fact, one of the docs came in just now to make more changes to her ventilator because she was blowing off too much CO2, she actually was in a deficit and they needed to keep some on board. Another thing they did yesterday was to switch the type of ventilator Jane was on. They put her on a machine that shakes her lungs and moves them really fast so that it gets rid of the CO2. Some time soon they will probably transition her back to the conventional ventilator. Another number that the docs follow closely is her lactate level. Lactate is a good indication of how her oxygen is absorbing in her tissues. That number was extremely high yesterday and needed to come down. Dr. Zebrack, our doctor for today, said all she wanted was to come back to day shift with a lactate less than 5. Good for her because Jane’s lactate level is already within normal range at 2. In addition to the trauma from CPR it is expected that her kidney and liver function will worsen the next few days and then hopefully start to make a come back within 48 hours or so. She cleared her lactate levels well and so the doc expects that she will be able to recover and bring those high numbers back down, too.

Overall, Jane is paralyzed (intentionally by a paralytic drug) and in a deep sleep. We all want her calm and sedated. She is very swollen, which is to be expected, but that should come down in the next few days. Following CPR (and during) all precautions were taken to  prevent brain damage. Some of the things they do are place a bag of ice on her head, keep her sodium levels high and keep her temperature cooler than normal, ~34 degrees celsius. All of this research is relatively new, but they do all they can for safety.

One of the cutest memories of yesterday is that I kept looking over at Jane and there she was just wiggling her left foot. I kept hearing the doc say,”another dose of Vec.” (vec is the paralytic drug. He was basing the dosage off of her movement) That Jane….she was just letting us know that she is still with it and not ready to go. As heaven and earth is my witness….ALL will give glory to God!!!