Saturday 6/19 - The Win Column

ICU Day #6 / Hospital Day #39

Today has been another "better" day for Kathleen. Improvements are slight: she is still severely ill. But every step forward, no matter how small, means getting closer to her goal of returning home to us. She is still heavily medicated and requires extensive usage of the ventilator. But there are some small signs of improvement. We'll take that for the day. I spent a lot of time with her today making sure she knew we were there for her and letting her catch up on the latest news. I hope that she is able to hear and understand all of this. Mark today in the "win" column.

You just never know where or when someone can give you that extra lift during the day. Yesterday while getting the boys their haircuts (it's been such a long 5 weeks that I had neglected this), we met a new (to us) beautician. The boys explained that their mother was in the hospital. She shared with them that in 1985, she was the first patient at the same hospital who had the neuralmuscular blockade that Kathy is now using as standard treatment. This women shared that she could remember every time someone came in and touched her and often could recall the goings on around her. The beautician was also a former student of Kathy's brother who is a teacher. The boys were thrilled to hear such good news. So with her cousin Carolyn's help, I went back to the hospital to tell Kathy that she had rallied for the day, that there were so many people pulling for her and that we all really wanted her back.