On 8 Jul 2003 12:12:36 -0700, (Katie Jaques)
wrote:

Thank you all so much for your kind thoughts and wishes. I knew you
would all want to know about Barbara's condition.

When I left the hospital about 10:30 this morning she was still asleep
under sedation, but they were just waiting for an order from the
doctor to wake her up and remove the ventilator tubes. She had a
reasonably restful night, but when the nurses came to change her
position in the bed, take blood, etc. she roused easily and was
responsive, and she knew I was there.

It appears we are out of the woods, although we came terrifyingly
close to losing her. In the emergency room early yesterday morning
she was in complete pulmonary and cardiac arrest for about 5 minutes.
Her own initiative in getting up and calling 911 probably saved her
life. Had she not done that before rousing Michael, she might not
have made it, or at best she might have had serious brain damage. As
it is, everyone tells us she should have no permanent effects.

Barbara has had asthma since she was 2-1/2 years old. Her father
suffered from it all his life, and her sister's son, Parker, also has
it. I have lived with asthmatics for more than 40 years and have seen
some fairly rough times, but never anything like this. It was a huge
shock to me. We made a few midnight runs to the emergency room in her
childhood, but not after we got the home breathing machine so we could
do the albuterol treatments ourselves. When she recovers from this
episode I hope we can find a specialist who will put her on a
maintenance protocol that will prevent future events. She has just
been treating it symptomatically, and obviously that is not working
now.

How scary! I have asthma too and it is very scary to have that happen.
I'm glad she's going to be alright and I really hope she can get on a
maintenance program. It has helped me a ton. If I was just treating
sympomatically, I'd probably be in the hospital several times a year.
As it is, I haven't been to the emergency room in years.


Jennifer from Colorado (99% lurker)