ICU sequel, day 3

Today Susan’s status remained about the same overall, although her blood pressure has normalized, so evidently the proper steroid dose helped. Even so, the attending physician said her seizure activity continues. The ICU staff is focused on stabilizing her with a batch of meds and continues to watch for improvement. Under different circumstances, they might use a procedure with deep sedation for several days to break the seizure cycle; but in Susan’s case they’re concerned she might lapse into a coma.

Dental hygiene

She’s still sleeping much of the day and is sometimes more responsive than others during her few waking phases. One highlight of the day today was having the nurse brush Susan’s teeth. I’m sure it felt good; and the nurse used a special toothbrush attached to a suction tube that reminded me of Susan’s dental hygiene practice.

We’ve been reading daily from “Streams in the Desert,” the remarkable century-old collection of devotionals written by people who’ve gone through stuff knowing God’s grace. Ken and Lisa Korver blessed us greatly with it nearly six years ago as our journey began. I’ve seldom read anything like it that can touch a tender area related to our trials and soothe it at the same time.

Today's reading is based on Matthew 10:27 and says what God tells us in the darkness we should speak in the light. The darkness of our trials affords a unique opportunity for God to speak comfort and peace directly into our circumstances, whispered from his heart into our ears. Proclaiming that comfort to others not only helps them, it helps us, and it means our suffering is not wasted. I guess that’s why I write.

Steroid reset

Seizure activity continued today as Susan cycled through a couple of brief, waking periods and otherwise slept deeply. She’s on four anti-epileptic meds to stabilize her, which the attending neurosurgeon believes are starting to work.

A lucid moment.

Last night when I asked about her steroid dose, I was alarmed to learn she was on just 2mg of Decadron instead of the expected 16mg to 24mg – I’m not sure how far down her taper schedule had gotten in Long Beach. But for Decadron, that’s a big drop. We don’t know at which point the error occurred, at her transfer to from rehab to ICU in Long Beach or from Long Beach to UCLA, but the drastic change likely contributed to some of the brain swelling, seizures and low blood pressure we’ve been seeing.

Even so, I wouldn’t attribute all of her symptoms to the steroid drop since her status had been declining earlier. The plan now is to wait 48 hours from starting her proper dose to re-evaluate her status. Her MRI results showed that her bleed has indeed resolved nicely and her tumor is mostly stable. We’ll wait a few days before making decisions about her treatment options.