Update on Haley - 05/07/10 Evening

Sorry for a late night update, but it is well worth the wait.

Haley is getting much better. There were seven of us at the hospital to visit tonight, so we took turns. Trent, his daughter Abby, and her great pal Liz from IL went in first. Liz said when Haley realized it was her, she started kicking her feet under the cover. Liz is an expert interpreter for Haley's hand signals. Trent said he needed her to stay and translate full time.

Brad, Haley's aunt and cousin from GA, and I went in for the second half of the visit (FYI - visitation times are 9am, 1pm, 5pm, 9pm and last 40 - 60 minutes each). Trent told her we all were there and she signed "I love you". At first none of us caught on to the sign and thought she was telling us "Rock on"....Trent had to give us a little sign language lesson. I thought, "whoa, she is feeling awesome on the medicine."

So here is a run down of how she looks at this phase. She has a buzz cut from the hair line to behind her ears on the right side of her face from the last surgery. Her eyes are still covered with bandages and gauze. The ventilator is still in but the nurses have been turning it off in increments. When they turn it off, Haley is breathing on her on. The swelling has gone down in her arms, hands, etc. which makes her look so much better in itself. When Trent goes in now, he removes her hands from the restraints, so she can move them more freely. The main reason they are restrained is to keep her from touching the ventilator. When waking up, the natural think a person wants to do is grab for the ventilator and pull it.

As for her attitude she was very responsive. She actually "fired" a nurse today who gave her pain medicine after she motioned no. Later, she asked someone to find out if she received pain medicine and found she did. She asked they change her nurse. When Trent was telling the story while we were in her room, she motioned her hand as in a "shew, get out motion" to assist Trent in telling the story. The reason she didn't want to take the pain medicine is so she can be more alert when she has visitors. Other than this, she is receiving great care. Also, my dear friend's husband is a fourth year neurosurgeon resident at The Med. He didn't operate on her because he and Leslie were in Philadelphia for a seminar this week. Soooo, I proceeded to name drop Dr. Broadway around that hospital left and right. Leslie told me, he talked/emailed with the attending resident for Haley's big surgery on Wednesday. Tonight, Trent asked if my friend's husband is Dr. Broadway, because the nurses told him they are still keeping Dr. Broadway updated on her status. See there, name dropping does pay off!

Here's something funny, Haley motioned for the dry erase board. Trent gave her a hard time about writing letters like the random jumbled security letters for passwords on the internet. I was so excited to read what she wanted us to know and was hanging on to every letter. Finally, we realized it said, "Where is the fan?" I was standing in front of it and blocking her air! Of course, I was waiting on some dramatic message, and it was about air. She also asked for a tissue and wiped her nose on her own.

Haley's step-son Colton is really worried and he asks about Haley's eye. The next thing he asks is if she will have Autism, so he is really confused. Abby the teenage older sister is so put off by this and asks, "Where does he get this stuff?"

We got a few more details about how the accident happened. Abby told Liz, they all were going through a trail on the woods. There was a part that climbed up, so Trent took Colton up the hill on his ATV and was going to come back to get them. While waiting for Trent to come back, Haley just moved the ATV and somehow it flipped back. Abby was thrown off and Haley held on to the handle bars. That's how it fell on her face. Haley and Abby were not attempting to go up the hill but just gassed the ATV. They were about five miles from the road, so that is how far Trent had to drive all four of them after the accident. This is a pieced together conversation from Abby to Liz and Aunt Joanie to me. Again, Liz and I place disclaimers on this.

Haley's brother, Jacob, graduates from Ole Miss tomorrow, so her parents are going to be there tomorrow and back in Memphis on Sunday, as far as I know.
Continue praying for Haley's recovery, Trent and her family. They are now at the tired phase. We can tell they are exhausted and have approximately 3-4 more weeks at The Med (as far as we know now).

I must go so Liz and I can continue telling funny stories of Haley and us.

Good night,
Christie