Hi all, This was posted by Harley Thornton on Mal's Facebook page, and was written by Mal's mother, Vickie:
Thursday night update: Today was a quiet day for Mallory. She is doing a little better. No brain pressure spikes last night and today until 4 p.m. They were thinking about removing the tube that drains her brain that has a sensor in it to tell brain pressure, but the spike changed that feeling. I was a little alarmed at that because I wondered how you could tell I she had a spike. But if you go 24 hours without a spike, that means your brain is toning down on the swelling. You don't want to keep tubes in any longer than necessary because of the chance of infection. But after watching that number for so many days, I feel like I just really need to know. It is something concrete for me. Now granted they had told us the swelling is worst the first 48-72 hours and then diminishes. We are almost 12 days and still fighting the swelling. I definitely want it where they are not worried about brain pressure. The nurses are going to start moving her around such as putting her on her side and see how she fares with the brain pressure. They will know more from that. The doctors are still giving the antibiotics for the infection and pneumonia. These two are complicating things but they are managing this. They have her on a cooling blanket that is 44 degrees for her fever. This is a different type of cooling than she did before. They assure me that when she shivers, it's OK, it's not affecting her brain pressure and I can see the numbers, but the momma in me wants to cover her. I feel like she is miserable. She does have the ventilator but she is breathing on her own, too. They set the machine for 20 breaths per minute. yesterday she was doing 40 because she wanted to breath fast for various reasons. Today, she was down to 26-30 breaths so that is good. Her fever was down a little. But they had given her some morphine and as he nurse said, she liked that. It helped all her numbers. So Ok I have learned about the Michael Jackson drug. Now I learned about another drug they are giving her, It is also a sedative, commonly known out on the street as "Super K". It's real name is ketamine. Before he found out I taught Pre-K, the doctor told me my students would know about it. Anyway, I am getting an education in drugs. Mallory's friend who was in the accident with her had to have a second surgery. They fixed his leg in Houston, and said his shoulder would heal on his own. When he saw the doctor in Baton Rouge, they said he needed to get his shoulder operated on. He had his surgery yesterday. It went well and he definitely wants to go home. Little Ashami, Mal's hamster and I are becoming friends. She is very grateful I cleaned her cage last night. Never did that before. I continue my quest of learning new things. Definitely, have not wanted to learn most of the things I have, but hey, maybe this is stretching my brain, and I will have more brain cells when I am older. One can only hope. Have a good night or day if you read this in the daytime. Patience, patience, patience is the motto. Love you all, Vickie
