Night One - ICU

It is about 9 pm on night one in the ICU and we are aiming at a 10 pm lift off for extubation and her to wake up.  We have been anticipating this all day...  Been great to be with her in the ICU, but she is still asleep, so makes it tough.  She has nice color in her face and all her vitals look great.

So, they will cut her propaphal (sp?) feed (sleep meds) at 10 pm and she should wake up within 5-10 minutes.  This is when it will get a bit confusing and scary from here.  We will try to keep her calm, breath and try not to worry about the darn tube in her throat.  Once she is relatively calm and breathing OK, we will work on getting the tube out...

It is midnight and the breathing tube is gone - whew!  That was no fun.  Was about a 2 hours process from the time they cut the sleep meds to getting the tube out.  Took her about 20 minutes to start to wake up - she wan't doing anything, so I got up grabber her had, and just said "Sarah, wake up...".  And she did!  I was shocked, so from there it was a long process to get her awake enough and breathing well enough to work on the breathing tube.  The few minutes of getting that out, was tough, but over with!

I took first shift over night in ICU, and Judi headed back to the hotel to get some real sleep at about 12:45 am.  I made a make-shift bed on the sleeping area of the back of the ICU, and lay down for some unsettled rest.

Good night March 25th, 2013 - a day we will never forget.