Critical Care -- early afternoon

Sometime in the early afternoon, Hyatt was transferred to critical care, and were were all taking turns being in her room to hold her hands and being out of the room to update family and friends. Herman and I were sitting in the room with her, and I had just sent the following email to some close friends:

No idea why, but she LOOKS like she could just sit up anytime. Doesn't LOOK like someone who's never gonna wake up.

Probably two minutes after I sent this email, Hyatt OPENED HER EYES AND WOKE UP (what!?!?!). Herman and I opened our eyes even wider. Hyatt started to vomit a little, so I ran to get a nurse...telling her that Hyatt woke up and is vomiting. The nurse said "ok thanks, woke up and vomiting" and just stood there....looked about ready to sit back down. I said "She is on a respirator, so maybe you could do your job and get the (expletive) in there right now and suck out the vomit, so she doesn't choke on it!" A few heads turned and two nurses ran in to start doing their jobs.

Seven years ago, I broke my femur really badly, and had a lengthy emergency surgery. Troy drove down from northern Virginia as soon as he heard, and was in charge of slapping around the nurses at the hospital. That's what brothers are for.

Back to the story. I ran to find Troy and Jane, and get them in the room. Hyatt was wide awake at this point, somewhat stressed, but was very aware her family was with her. A single tear formed in her left eye and started rolling down her cheek. Many times that amount of tears were flowing from the four of us as Troy held her head and talked to her. She calmed down a bit and eventually went back to sleep...and woke up again maybe 30 minutes later...clearly stressed about her situation. They upped her sedation levels, so she could relax and not fight the respirator.

After a morning that seemed like bad news was building each hour, things shifted the other way and we all had tangible hope.

the next hour was about 5 zillion new phone call updates.

-PN