Saturday Nov 25 Update

Today's visiting hours were from 1130-1200 and 6-7pm. This morning there was not much change.  Margaret did squeeze our hand a couple of times but for the most part she was sedate.  The positive side is that there was no problems over night and the pressure in her brain remained normal.  She has a pressure monitor installed on the left side and the readings were and have been normal since the surgery (when they installed the monitor).

The evening we had to wait until about 6:45pm to get an update from the doctor.  This doctor was very nice and recapped what had happened.  We liked her manner as she seemed more compassionate and understanding.  She had a nice way of recapping what had happened and what they had done.  She explained again to us that a large part of the right side of her skull was removed to allow room for her brain to swell.  The swelling should stop in a couple of days.  They have said it usually continues to swell for 5-7 days after the stroke.  And it will take weeks or more for the her brain to recover from the swelling.  They are still trying to determine a cause for the stroke and want to find the cause to prevent any future problems.  There is not an apparent and obvious cause.

We then visited with her.  She was not responsive at first until the doctor came in and woke her up.  Then she did respond by squeezing her right hand in response to specific questions.  It was reassuring.  They allowed us extra time after 7pm since we had to wait so long to see the doctor.  Just before we left she did get quite agitated and moved quite a bit.  She still has the breathing tube in but the ventilator is disconnected so she is breathing on her own.  The doctors just need to make sure she can cough and has the proper respiratory responses before they remove the tube.  Hopefully they will remove the tube tomorrow.  She was able to move her body (the right side) and did lift up both her right and left knees.  She was agitated and probably frustrated because her blood pressure did increase and the doctor said she was crying.  The lifting of the left knee was encouraging because they were saying she may not have movement on the left side for a while and likely may not return to normal ever.  While her condition still is not good it has not worsened.  We see little signs of improvement and that is giving us hope and helping to keep us positive.