Saturday (day 65)

Good evening all. I'm starting to feel like a broken record, but if its broken its still good because Shawna continues to improve by God's blessing. She stays awake quite long now, but sometimes is exhausted by long stays in her wheelchair and aggressive physiotherapy. There are many aspects of her treatment we are exploring right now as she moves (or rather tries to move) body parts. She went for an assesment to Chedoke in hamilton for splinting but she moves her feet too much for splints to work correctly without causing skin breakdown. So we go back to progressive casting starting next week. Its too bad the casting didn't work properly (not mentioning reasons) the first time in Hamilton General. The pyhsiotherapist is impressed with her ability to work muscles in her back as she attempts to sit up when he works with her. He is going to bring a neck brace for next times so he can do more aggressive physio. When he is finished the session Shawna is awake for hours. She seems to be energized by that kind of physical work and struggles to perform. He is trying to assist in getting her to Rehab asap so he can use all the equipment that is available for Shawna which Dunnville doesn't have. Today Shawna was given an SLP. Its just a fancy code for swallow assesment. Unfortuneately she failed miserably. She was sleppy from being in her chair and still has trouble opening her mouth on command. That's just another task on our table now. We'll try to feed her small ice chips to stimulate her mouth to open and get used to having something in it again. We are supposed to use good smells like coffee and chocolate etc to awaken her senses to open her mouth. Its been over 8 weeks now without something (besides tubes and a toothbrush) in her mouth. We continue to have a one sided verbal communication with her to which she responds with hand squeezes, smiles, and the occasional eye lid blink depending on how tired she is. Her trache hole is now completely healed and the insertion site is progressively getting smaller. She doesn't cough at all any more (except when I gave her too big an ice chip today). Shawna really enjoys the visits that she is getting. Some people even get smiles when she recognizes their voices. That for us is so beautiful to witness. I remember a few weeks ago when on of the things I was praying for was that I might see our child smile again. Her next day trip is planned for Thursday afternoon just in case you are planning a visit. They have noticed a pressure point developing on her backside last night, so they changed her to an air mattress to head off the possibility of bed sores. Once again we can see our Almighty Father holding fast to his child and leading her along on his path. We continue to pray for her that she may experience His riches and hold firm to her faith that He is working all things to her benefit. God bless you all and may you have a bessed day of praise and worship. Al and Deb

Wednesday (day62)

Good evening all. Shawna again continues to show improvements. Her trache hole is almost completely healed. It was a rather stressful time for those who were watching her as she was producing thicker secretions when it was removed. This may have been because the hole was possibly an infection site. She is doing very well now but hates to cough and avoids it if at all possible. I think it hurts her throat to cough. She went to hamilton for a checkup with her doctors there and they were very pleased with her progress. She went by EMS ambulance with a nurse assigned from Dunnville just in case she needed suctioning. I rode shotgun as her advocate to make sure all the bases were covered with the checkup. Her white blood cell count was up slightly but her platelets were going down which is a good sign the infections are coming under control. There is no longer a pocket of infection behind her lung and the exray showed some streaking of her lower left lung which could still be scarring from the accident. Otherwise she will continue with the antibiotic treatment and they will test her spit and urine to make sure there are no more infections. Shawna rode the trip very well and was not totally exhausted from the trip back and forth as she was when she first came here last week. Today she was outlasting Deb in staying awake as deb started dozing off later this aft but Shawna kept staring away at her surroundings and listening to her music. Shawna got her new glasses today which were replaced from the accident. When Deb put them on Shawna her eyes went wide looking around the room. This morning too she responded to the doctors request to move her toes. Now her responses are not just to our family which is a very good thing. The shawna watch continues with friends and family vounteering to sit with her through the night so she won't wake up in a possibly strange environment. It is becoming increasingly noticeable that she is aware of her surroundings and possibly realizes she is trapped in a body that cannot yet respond to her wishes. I'm sure it is a great source of comfort when we read scriptures to her and pray with her and reflect on God's promises to her and all He has done for her to this point. Tomorrow she will go to chedoke for a splinting apointment to maintain her ankles and hopefully we can have the neuro doctor visit her and maybe even fast-track a swallow assesment(that may be wishfull thinking). Shawna seems to be improving significantly and our physiotherapist would like to see her in rehab asap! So would we! We continue to lay her needs before God's throne of mercy and pray that our great Physician will completely heal her. Thank you for your prayers. God bless you all. Al and Deb

Saturday (day58)

Good evening all. Shawna is enjoying all the attention lavished on her by the diligent doctors and nurses here at Haldimand War Memorial Hospital in Dunnville. Its great that members of our congregations here can visit for her stimulation. Keep up the good work! Visiting is 8 am to 8 pm(you can stay a little later, they don't get too excited). The most important thing which happened over the last few days regards her trache. I called the discharge nurse from Hamilton to say how much we enjoyed coming here but also to query her about having the trache removed. It had been corked for 120 hrs plus. Normally they remove traches after 48 hrs corked but Hamilton didn't want to send her away in a possibly unstable condition so they wanted Dunnville to pull it. The doctors and nurses were unable to do that here right away as they don't hardly know her yet. Once Hamilton realized, after my persistance, they gave the order for it to be removed so they were responsible for the order. As a result the trache was successfully removed at 144 hrs. Since I felt responsible for this order I have stayed here so far 23 out of 30 hrs to make sure there is no complications. They do not stich anything closed they just cover the skin and trachea hole with a dressing. When she coughed up some secretions she blew the dressing almost off. I have to keep my hand on the dressing to assist her coughing. She is quite stressed during these episodes fortunately she only had 4 of them in the first 24 hrs. They are becoming less frequent and now her trache is almost closed making it easier to cough and clear secretions. We are pretty sure the secretions were caused by the trache tube as her lungs are pretty clear according to her doctor. In a few days everything will be closed up. It will only take 24 hrs to close the trache . Everything else continues to progress. Communication is starting to be more apparent with hand squeezes and smiles and eye blinks for affirmative answers. This has been a real blessing. Requests from us for her to move body parts and help work against range of motion exercises are responded to a little quicker now. She seems to have good connections to some muscle groups. She will be travelling to Hamilton on Tuesday for her appointments with her doctors. Last night we we suddenly visited by some of the Slaa family. Apparently Fraser Slaa came in for an emergency apendectomy and now he's on the same floor as Shawna. When Shawna went for her wheelchair ride she went to visit him. He's doing pretty good but has to stay for a few days due to infection.

Thanks be to our heavenly Father who continues to uphold his children and give them healing. We continue to pray for Shawna's breathing to stabilize and her brain to make connections. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support and may God bless you with a beautiful Sunday of Praise and worship as we remember the blessed resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Al and Deb

Wednesday (day55)

Good evening all. Shawna's had an uneventful trip. She is presently settled into a private room here in Dunnville (room 221). At first they had her in a ward next to the nurses station, but once they saw how many visitors she was having from just family and the fact that we are determined and allowed to stay with her 24/7 they quickly moved her to this beautiful room. They are very diligent in taking care of her and check in on the Shawna sitters frequently to make sure they're not napping. She is awake most of the day hrs and rests frequently after long periods of wakefullness. Her trahe has been corked now for over 100 hrs and she continues to cough and swallow the secretions. Hamilton said our doctor would make the descision to remove the trache but he would rather Hamilton take care of it (a bit of buck passing). It looks like its up to us to force Hamilton to take care of it when she returns on Tuesday for a bunch of appointments. She continues to smile more and more now and quicker response when asked. She also continues to work against me when I work her muscles. Especially her Left side is getting quite strong. That side was at first unresponsive. She has good muscle action in her arms wrists and shoulders. Today for the first time also her legs. She moves her feet a tiny bit on command. The phsiotherapist who comes to Dunnville to supervise her physio was very impressed with her muscle tone and when they "dangled" her on the edge of the bed her back was still very strong and straight. He wants to get her on a tilt table asap and was wondering how shortly she would be going to rehab because he felt she is ready. She has to first be stable with no infections

When we look back even one week there is so much progress. We are so thankful to God for his healing of Shawna. We continue to pray for Shawna that her brain continues to make the connections. The physiotherapist said her reactions are like trying to find your way in a fog. As the fog lifts she will be able to find her way. Shawna enjoys the time we spend reading God's Word to her and praying with her. She goes peacefully to sleep when we are finished. She seems also to have a good nights rest and doesn't slip too deeply into sleep anymore. Thank you all for your prayers and messages. We continue to be uplifted by them and strengthened for our task as parents. Al and Deb

Monday (day53)

Just a quick post for visitors. Shawna is going to Dunnville tomorrow at noon. See you there!

Saturday (day 51)

Good day everyone. Shawna continues to have progress. Although its not very fast we continue to see many things which point toward a positive recovery. She is beginning to flex and make some use of her left arm. We've also seen her stretch which moved both of her arms, hands, and legs. This proves the connections to the brain are there for involuntary movement now she has to learn how to move them vountarily. All her bone fractures are healed and as a result she has been cleared to be able to use a special reclining wheelchair. She is able to be pushed around in a wheelchair instead of a bulky neuro chair/bed. Its been fun pushing her around on level 6 chasing the sun from room to room. They have not progressed far with removing her trache as she has a small lung infection possibly causing secretions. The nurses do "cork" her trache while we are there to monitor her breathing. As a result Shawna can make small vocal noises and sighs while she is corked. She tries very hard by this method to communicate with us. In regards to the infection, they are fighting it with antibiotics and her white blood cell count is coming steadily down. They have removed the filter for blood clots which was in her pulminary vein, because they can use blood thinners to eliminate clots at this point. Her heart rate is steadily decreasing they have removed one of the two heart medications. As the brain swelling continues to go down her heart rate is becoming stable. Her eyes are almost normal and reacting properly by constricting with light. The pupils are almost the right size. She continues to be awake most of the day and spent 3 hrs in the wheelchair. They put her last casts on her feet yesterday which will be cut in half and used as splints for a while till they deteriorate and then she will be fitted for splints. Shawna will be moving either Monday Mar 17 in the afternoon or Tuesday(18) to Dunnville. Everything is supposedly in place and they have trained us how to use a lift to get Shawna from her bed into a wheelchair. When the weather gets better maybe we can "wheel" her to Grampa and Grandmas house just down from the hospital(I'm very optimistic). Any of her followup treatments ie CT scans and checkups will be grouped into one day to minimize the amount of trips she will have to make with OPT. A physiotherapist is teching us how to do her physio so we can do it daily without their assistance and then he will visit Dunnville for assesments and to further train us regularly. Last Wednesday the neurologist and her assistant assesed her and asked for an EEG of her brian to check for areas of activity. We will learn more about that on monday. They will continue to follow her and will place her in the appropriate rehab program when she is ready. We do look forward to Shawna moving to Dunnville, not just because its closer to home but also because there may be less exposure to infections

God has richly blessed us by guiding the doctors and nurses hands here at the General. Although we are sad to leave a comfort zone we are happy that He has strengthened her to the point she is stable enough to be treated and taken care of in a smaller hospital. We continue to trust in His faithfullness because morning by morning new mercies we have seen. Have a blessed Sunday of praise and worship. God bless you all. Al and Deb

Wednesday (day48)

Good evening all. Shawna continues to improve by God's grace. She was moved out of the stepdown unit onto a ward on Sunday. They have been trying to "cork"(a process leading to the eventual removal) her trache a couple of times but she is just not aware enough to cough and swallow secretions. So we wait for her to be more conscious. Shawna has had some very long times of awarenes. For instance, just last night she kept her eyes open from about 500 to 800. Usually this is followed by a day of sleepiness the next. Today though she has had her eyes open for quite a bit. A neurologist and her assistant did an assesment today on Shawna to determine where she would fit in the rehabilitation process. They are waiting for some more awareness and her white blood count to be lower. Yes again she is possibly fighting another bug as her white count goes up and down. They have taken a few swabs of possible sites and will do another chest ultrasound tomorrow. They have casted her feet again and they almost have the proper angle for her ankles. The original intern neuro surgeon soke with us. Compared to his first poor assesment he was now very optimisitic and said her brain is healing quite well. He warned us of things to watch for in case the brain ventricles continue to swell with fluid. From her reactions we are sure though that they are continuing to shrink even without the benefit of another CTscan. Her eyes, specifically her pupils continue to go closer to normal with size and reactivity. Her eyes now open almost equally while she is awake and she does move them to the right to follow sound but not to the left yet. We did meet with the trauma floor doctor, discharge nurse and social service rep on Monday afternoon to discuss Shawnas poetential move to Dunnville hospital. We were assured that all Shawnas needs would be addressed and completely provided for and that Dunnville would have all of this in place before she would be allowed to move. There are several advantages for this move but our main concern is that her progress will not be setback especially in regards to the trache and vehicle transfers. I would prefer that she could stay here but this is an acute care facility and even if there are empty beds on the floor it looks like she has to go. I could write more on this subject but I continue to leave these matters in the Lord's hands as he is ultimately in charge here. We have been so blessed by Shawnas progress and so uplifted by the communion of saints that we can continue on the walk of faith knowing all things come not by chance but by His fatherly hand. God bless you all. Al and Deb.

Ps next post on Saturday unless something really important comes up ie. Her move to Dunnville