UPDATE 6/27

Michele is doing her best to get better. She has good days and a few bad days. On the days she is not feeling very well she says no to sitting in her chair. She just wants to lay in her bed and watch TV. She tried very hard to tell me something today but she just cannot speak yet. I can see her frustration that she just cannot get the words out. She hums quite a bit and points around the room as to what she is thinking of. It could be the TV, a picture on the wall or the window shade she wants drawn. Today it was John John she was pointing at as he was a bit bored so he kept putting Michele’s protective princess crown on his head and I think she did not like it or she was saying look at the idiot with the crown on. I was not quick enough to get a picture of it today but I have added a few pics of Michele so you can see how she looks. We cannot get her to smile yet or maybe it is just me! Michele’s birthday is on the 8th and we plan to have a birthday party for her at the hospital that will last all day long. Our plan it to decorate the room first thing in the morning then family and friends will go by to see her throughout the day at different times to make sure she is not alone a bit the entire day. Im sure she will be worn out by the end of the day. We will make sure to take plenty of pics to share with all. As Michele would want me to announce to all she will be 29 this year. Again!

UPDATE 6/22

It has been long over due but Michele got a chance to have a visit from her puppies. Michele loves her bulldogs and I requested pet therapy which was approved today. Michele can have her dogs in the hospital any time to help her in her recovery. I have attached a few pics of the visit today. Fizzy got the first chance to see Michele and she almost jumped on the bed with her. She could smell her hand and tell who it was even through Michele could not talk to them. Allie the Mother was a little more subtle and did not want to jump on the bed but did smell her hand. Yes Fizzy has a purple circle on her rear from hair dye that all of the tens did to their hair in support of Michele. I mean all of Tana, Alyssa friends and even Jordan. They all have a small amount of purple hair since it is Michele’s favorite color. They have plans to do my hair as well when I am asleep but I am a very light sleeper these days so we will se if they get me involved. Michele still has her trake plugged off and no oxygen and she is doing great. Two weeks ago she stopped breathing and now she is pushing all limits and doing very well. Her therapy is progressing but we are really waiting for her last surgery to replace the bone flap. This should be a major advance in her recovery and we cannot wait. I still do not have a date and when I do it will be quick. We just have to be patient and wait for the time to come. I am currently trying to get Michele a kitchen pass to come home for her birthday o July 8th. We will see if I can pull this one off and if so we will have a small birthday party at our fouse for her to enjoy her family and friends.

John

PUPPY THERAPY!

UPDATE 6/21

Michele had a busy weekend with many visitors as well as continuing her therapy. Michele was taken off of oxygen this weekend and she has done well without it. Yesterday her trake was capped off and she has handled this as well. She is breathing on her own without any help at all. I spoke to the doctor today and she is ready to have the trake taken out this week but I asked to leave it in for her surgery which should be in about 2-3 weeks. I will not have a date until her prosthetic is done being made. Once it is done we will schedule the surgery right away. The doctor feels this will help her tremendously in her rehab. I told Michele tonight all that is going on so that she is not surprised with anything we are doing. I even asked her if she wanted to see any pictures of the last few months of herself and she said no by shaking her head. She understands that she has a head injury but does not want to see it at this time. Below is an email from Michele’s sister Cindy explaining her day with Michele. Also please be reminded that all of my past emails, golf tournament info and saint bracelet ordering info are all posted at http://www.miraclemichele.blogspot.com


“Michele had a great morning! When I arrived at 9, Terry the speech therapist was working with her – Michele was still in her bed. Terry had a cup of ice chips with her, and she put a few on a spoon and began to put it towards Michele’s mouth. Michele opened her mouth and sucked on the ice chips. She even seemed to be chewing on them a bit! She did this three or four times. Then, Terry asked her to hold the cup of ice chips. Michele tried to open her hands to accept the cup. Terry helped her grip it and she held onto it well. Then Terry said, “take a drink, Michele.” Michele moved her head down to look at the cup and tried to move it up, but couldn’t quite do it. So, Terry held the cup up to her mouth and they worked through the motion of taking a drink. Then Terry asked Michele to give her the cup back and Michele released it. Terry said that the releasing motion is a much more complex task than grasping (you know how babies grasp and hold on to everything and then won’t let go?) so that was very good progress.

The best news is that they capped off her trach temporarily to see how she would handle it. It was so awesome! She was breathing on her own – without the aid of oxygen and through her mouth and nose all morning! That is a really good sign as AJ the Respiratory Therapist from this weekend was telling me that they often take the removal of the trach in tiny steps like that to see how she tolerates it.

Michele did vomit a bit when we moved her from bed to chair, but when we moved her back to her bed she did very well! I just kept telling her to relax and think about her breathing. Tracey came in at around noon and Tana was scheduled to arrive around 1. It was a great day!”


I have started a new email since this one is getting too long. This will be the start of the 3rd email chain.

John

UPDATE 6/14

I was not able to see Michele today so I am going to let Billy and Jordan explain their visit to you all.

John


Today was another good day for Michele. When Billy and I arrived she was wide awake and watching TV. Michele wiggled her right toes for us as well as moved her left arm quite a bit as we talked to her. You could tell that Michele was extremely happy to see Billy as she could not take her eyes off of him and when she did she would frequently check that he was still right by her side. She held his hand very firmly and would move her fingers and arm as if she was reaching for Billy’s hand again each time he let go. Michele was very talkative, humming a lot, and clearly has SO much she wants to tell us. As we are working on Michele’s tongue and mouth movements to get her talking again, we asked her to wiggle her tongue a few times which she did slightly but definitely to the best of her ability. She continues to amaze me with her daily improvements and even though it is little by little each thing is a large step towards her complete recovery.

UPDATE 6/13 - PM

Michele has been on a fast track now for the last few days. She is wide awake during the day and tracks everyone in her room to see what is going on. She can now watch TV and she is starting to move more and more each day. Her Father arrived today and said hello as he walked through the door and Michele said hi back. This was a good sign as she did not even have her speaking valve in. Michele lifted her entire left arm up this evening and waved goodbye to me with 2 of her fingers. Her right toes move on command and she is working on her left leg. I can tell that this week will be a week of a lot of movement. Michele should be able to accomplish a lot this week with the help of the rehab staff. Michele tried to talk this evening as well but she needs some help with her tongue and mouth movements. She should have speech therapy early this week and I think she will be talking soon. She is able to lift her head and turn it in both directions. She enjoys looking at pictures and listening to emails that have been sent to her. I will start taking more pictures this week so everyone can see her progress.

UPDATE 6/13

It has been a long week trying to get answers to what happened on Sunday and what is our next step. The best I can describe is that Michele had too much fluid “flem” in her chest and it grew to a point to infection. We can call it bronchitis or pneumonia but both are not really confirmed. It was a slight case but enough to stop her breathing. The good news is that this episode does not stop us from proceeding on her bone flap operation. Today Michele had another ride by ambulance to Swedish Medical Center for 2 CT Scans and 2 MRI’s. The 1st CT scan is to look at her brain to see how her shunt adjustment went. Well Dr John has the disk and from what I can tell it looks good. Don’t hold your breath on me though as it only took me 40 days to get her adjustment that I fought for and I may not be right! After all it took her 2 hours to wake up after the adjustment that took me 40 days to get done. The second CT scan was to measure her for the bone flap for a prosthetic. I also have this scan but it is from a male person with the same last name. Go figure a hospital will make a mistake. I was told they never do for the last 4 months. Michele had an MRI and an MRA and this is out of my league but I can tell you it was an experience and I was in a chair rubbing Michele’s feet so she knew I was at her side at all times. The MRI’s took about 45 minutes where the CT’s took about 45 seconds.

Michele is very aware of her surroundings right now and can track people in the room. She answers questions with her eyes blinking. She can wiggle her right toes and move both of her fingers a little. I have updated her on the most important issues lately with the children and of course the most important person her husband! I hope and pray she understands and can handle our upcoming struggles we both have to go through to get her well. I still plan to have her home after her bone flap operation which should be at the end of the month.

Within the next week I will be sending emails from a new account for Michele so that each person that reply’s will go directly to Michele. I have already saved every email regarding Michele and have over 2000 pages in a book. Michele was recently donated a new I-Pad so I am in the process of setting it up and soon all new emails will come from her account so when you reply it will go directly to her email even though I have saved all other emails to date. My goal is to have her able to see, hear and read either by herself or by the help of the people around her each day. Eventually she will have full control and start emailing each of you in response. Her new email is miko@pinnaclelease.com

I would like to ask each of you all to take the extra time to send a quick email over the next 2 days to Michele’s new email account miko@pinnaclelease.com just so I can save your contact info to her new computer since I cannot transfer the emails very easily. A simple email will help greatly and avoid having to input each and every person.

Thank you
John

A LETTER

This letter was mailed to Michele at the hospital. There was no return address, although it was postmarked in Colorado. A note on the back informed John to read the letter to Michele when he thought the time was right…


To Miracle Michele:

I don’t know you,

But I know of you.

I am a Mom, like you.

With four children, whom I cherish more than myself.

I am a wife, like you.

Who has a husband that loves me more than himself.

For now, I give you my strength –

The one that is deep in the soul,

That only you can touch.

The strength that we both can feel.

And we begin to rebuild, from inside

Bit by bit

Piece by piece.

Block by block.

Every step I take,

Will be a breath of yours.

Every mile I run,

Will be a step of yours.

Someday, I will come to you.

And we will smile,

And laugh,

And hug.

For now, I am you,

And you are me.



A Friend.




* Please read below for yesterday's update

UPDATE 6/6

I received a call from the hospital at 5am this morning informing me that Michele had stopped breathing again. This is the 7th time she has had to be revived. Apparently she had a lot of mucus in her lungs. She is currently back on a respirator and I had to give permission to do another pic line so that she can get the 3 antibiotics she needs to clear this up. Her veins in her arms are just not strong enough to handle a large amount of antibiotics therefore we cannot do a simply IV. We do not have a clear understanding what happened yet but we are having tests done over the next few days to figure it out. Although this occurred she was very alert today and fighting a fever. After church I took all the kids to see her today and spend time. This is the first time in over a month that we were all there at the same time and she was awake and aware. Each of the kids sat next to her bed and told their Mom what was going on and what they had planned for the summer. Michele just listened to each of them and would not take her eyes off of each of them when they were talking to her. She continues to close her eyes to answer yes and currently this is the only way we can communicate. I asked her today to work very hard to speak and move her left hand so she can communicate better with us. Every time we get on track moving forward we have something happen that sets us back. Im not sure yet but last nights episode will probably set us back up to 3 months to get her bone flap put back on. She is supposed to be infection free for 3 months before the operation and I have a feeling that her current infection will not allow us to proceed. I will be talking to the Doctors this week to determine this.

UPDATE 6/4

Michele had another busy day today. This afternoon I was informed by the Hospital that her feeding tube was plugged and needed to be replaced. For the first time I was able to get action done on a Friday afternoon. Within 30 minutes they had an ambulance waiting for Michele and off she went to the Swedish Medical Center for the procedure. I could not get to her in time but Amy was with her and made the trip with her. I was able to meet both of them at the hospital before she had the procedure done. When I arrived she was wide awake and I could tell she was scared. She has been sleeping for so long and now she is awake and has no clue what is going on. I tried to comfort her by letting her know what was happening. I asked a few questions and asked her to close her eyes to let me know if she understood. Michele do you understand me? Michele do you love me? Michele do you trust me when I tell you that your going to be ok? She closed her eyes to each question and kept them closed until I said ok. She definitely understood everything. I also asked her to start working hard to move any part of her body. I asked if she could move her toes and she moved her right toes on command. Im sure tomorrow will bring even more results to her recovery. Michele’s feeding tube was done in 20 minutes and we headed back to Kindred.

John

UPDATE 6/3

Well it took 38 days but I finally was able to get Michele’s shunt adjusted. We took another ambulance ride this morning at 8am to the Brain and Spinal Center. John John was able to ride with his Mother in the ambulance and actually watch the nurse and myself assisting to make the adjustment. The Doctor was not even in the room. It was a five minute procedure taking a probe that lays on her back were the shunt is and a computer makes the adjustment under the skin. It is a magnetized dial that is lifted by the probe then turned to the predetermined setting. We had to run the program 4 times to get it right but after 5 minutes we had it done. We took her from an 80 setting to a 120 setting. This is a big jump and may even make her head swell again. We will watch her closely over the next week to see any visual signs of swelling and if she does we will simply make an adjustment down to account for it. The verdict is not out yet if this will work as I have stated many times to the Doctors however Tana visited her Mother today at 3pm and she was alert, tracking with her eyes and squeezed Tana’s hand. This has not occurred since we left Miami and I hope this is a sign of continued progress over the next week. Michele is scheduled for two CT Scans next Thursday, one to check on the fluid in her Brain and the other to measure her for her prosthetic bone plate. The plan is to have the bone plate manufactured in about two weeks then an MRI and MRA to check her brain to make sure she can handle the last surgery. If all is good she should be able to have her bone plate put back in by the end of the month. We are now rushing this process as it will help her maintain her CSF fluid easier and should increase her recovery time. There is a 4% chance that her body will not accept it and could cause infections. Although I do not want to take any chances this is a small risk and I feel that not doing the procedure has more risk associated to her recovery. I do expect to see improvements daily and if I do I will be emailing out the daily progress. I have started the process to bring Michele home. I will be making our dinning room in to a hospital room fully stocked with a hospital bed, oxygen, IV, monitors for vitals, hospital chair, body lift and many more Im not aware of yet. The hospital will train the family to take care of Michele and I will have a full time nurse availably at the house. My goal is to have Michele home for her birthday on July 8th and if all goes well that will be right after her surgery.

I continue to do everything I can to bring her back “Day by Day”

John