End of day update

STEPS HAVE BEEN TAKEN PEOPLE!

Which is to say Kim did a little walking today on her own power! HUGE MILESTONE! It was really, really hard but she grit her teeth and pushed through it. The physical therapist, Brandon, gave her just the right amount of encouragement, pressure, and praise, and when Kim made it back to her bed there was a lot of cheering from everyone.  Her oxygen levels remained perfect the entire time, and getting her body moving felt great in a “hurts so good” sort of way.  The work wiped her out and she was out for an hour or two of solid napping afterwards.

And then, because simply WALKING for the first time in THREE WEEKS wasn’t enough for our Kim, she decided to impress us further by getting out of bed again and sitting in a regular old chair for a good hour.  This is also a first and shows how much stronger her abdominal muscles are becoming and how much control (i.e., balance) she’s gained.  Sitting in the chair was also a perfect opportunity for a nice hair wash and scalp massage, and while it’s entirely possible that was her primary motivation, it was a huge success regardless! Then the nurse did up her hair in some French braids, and Kim, cute as a button, went back for another little nap.

Kim was off of the vent support for long, long time today and the doctors were super impressed with how great her pulmonary numbers are looking. They say if she shows she can maintain this kind of stamina through the weekend, it’s very likely they can pull the vent once and for all on Monday. As you know, we’ve gotten our hopes up on this before, but she’s showing more consistency, strength, and resolve and I certainly wouldn’t advise betting against her.

Continued improvement through the weekend would also mean no biopsy next week. If she’s not making progress they’re going to want to get back into her lungs and do some more analysis, which is not a huge deal but obviously we prefer skipping procedures when possible over taking tissue samples and the like. So the plan for the weekend really boils down to not messing with any therapies and just letting Kim do her thing. Sounds good to me.