Tonight will be again a single update for the day because we picked up Margaret's sister from the airport between visiting times.
Today we were one of the first people called for the information updates. Her doctor is one of the directors of the ICU and has his own office so we had our consult in his office with I think was a student doctor. Basically everything is going well was what the student doctor said. They spoke Spanish so we got the translation from Kim and Juan (Margaret's friends that live in Madrid). They said they were going to keep her in the ICU for a few more days. They have also been unable to adequately evaluate her condition for a variety of reasons. The first and obvious is the language barrier. Margaret has not opened her eyes so they are unable to know if she is unresponsive to them because she is asleep or not. She also has not talked so this makes it impossible for them to make an accurate assessment of her condition. The doctors do not want to move her from the ICU without an accurate assessment of her condition and being sure that her recovery will continue to progress when she is moved to a regular room. We were given instructions to try to get her to talk and open her eyes. No new bad news, and that was good.
Margaret was as awake and as responsive as she has been for us. We did ask several questions and were able to get responses from her by asking yes and no questions. The doctors like that we were stimulating her and let us stay longer. Actually insisted that we stay longer. We were able to keep her thinking and stimulated in a way that the hospital staff has not been able to do because of the language barrier. We told her about everyone that obviously cares about her and about the comments that you have left. I should mention that she did say 2 words, quietly but she said them. She did not open her eyes but we did see her eyelids move as she was trying to open them. We did see her move her left arm and legs a little.
We picked up Margaret's sister at the airport and headed back for the evening visiting hour. Margaret was quite calm and not very responsive. It seemed that she was sleeping or resting. I guess we tired her out earlier. She would squeeze our hand but not much else. She had the pressure monitor removed that was monitoring the pressure in the left side of her brain removed. The pressure has been normal and decreasing and apparently they felt it was no longer needed. After about 30 minutes another patient in the ICU was having problems as evidenced by the steady alarm tone. There was a lot of commotion and we were told to leave. We were hoping that we might be able to go back and see Margaret but after a half an hour they said that we could not.
Basically it was a good day. Progress will be slow at times.
I want to tell you a little bit about the hospital she is in. Spain has socialized medicine. Yesterday was the first time that any mention of insurance or repayment was mentioned. The hospital is different that what we are used to in the states. They spend their money on treatment and not so much on the facility. The ICU is nice and we like her there. The regular patient rooms have 2 beds, 2 chairs, and a dividing curtain. Nothing else and there really isn't room for anything else. There is no television or phone or dresser. The waiting rooms are sparse with only chairs. The care is very good and Margaret is in one of the best hospitals in Madrid. We have heard even the King goes there. We have had requests for the hospital address for cards and such. The hospital I don't think is set up for that. The best way is to send cards to her friend at the embassy (a US address so normal postage):
Kim DeBlauw
PSC 61, Box 2503
APO AE 09642
Basically it was a good day
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