Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Today was a very relaxed day for Kjerstin. Her temperature is up some, so they upped her antibiotics. She opened her eyes several times today, moved her eyeballs and closed them again. We are trying to get over the pneumonia so that they can transfer her to Nebraska.

There were a lot of hard realities today. Jerimiah called me today and said, "Sis, do you realize that the kids will be losing their Grandma?" Anyone that knows our family knows how involved mom is with her grandchildren. It may sound a bit selfish on our part, but the kids are used to Grammy & Kjerstin being at every event and they are at her house at least once a week. This will be a huge adjustment for them and Mom. We decided that we will find a laptop for mom with a camera on it so the family can use Skype to communicate and she can see her grandkids and we can see her & Kjerstin. Moving Mom and Kjerstin to Nebraska, while Dad and the rest of us stay here to work is going to be very hard for all of us, but we have to do what is best for Kjerstin. If anyone likes road trips, Mom would love to have people visit when she moves to Nebraska, especially during the week, because we kids won't be able to go up there until the weekends.

All of us had to go back to work today & that was hard. I am still sitting at the hospital now. We are working on organizing the family and close friends so that we have someone here all night with Kjerstin to help monitor her and make sure someone she knows is here when she wakes up.

We are learning how to care for her tracheotomy. The family is expected to maintain her tracheotomy when Kjerstin is in the rehab facility. Mom is doing good. She is suctioning the liquid from her lungs, taking care of the tracheotomy, changing her diapers, and giving IV meds. She was very unsure at first. We are talking about the woman who freaks in these situations. But she has stepped up and been awesome. She puts on those blue gloves and goes into nurse mode. She stuck her finger in Kjerstin's mouth trying to brush her teeth and Kjerstin bit her! Imagine that! The nurse's gave mom the "employee of the day" award! She was soooo excited. They are now getting mom her own box of blue gloves! Man have our priorities been changed! The little things that make us happy.

Please continue to pray. Pray for Kjerstin and pray for Mom. Mom is going to need strength to do this on her own. Thank you so much for all your support.

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm Gail Kelly, Kjerstin's 3rd Grade teacher. I can see Linda going into "nurse mode" and I have no doubt she's the best nurse ever! Let me know if I can help out next week to give Linda a break. Also, please tell Kjerstin Ms. Kelly and Mr. Ed (my horse) are looking forward to her waking up. In fact, please tell her Mr. Ed would love for her to come out for a ride. Maybe that will speed up her recovery. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gail,
    Mom would love for you to come up and visit. I will pass on the message. We are at Wesley in the Pedicatric Intensive care Unit. We are right down the hall in the Ronald McDonald Room.

    ReplyDelete