A good day overall

Dear Friends,

It is evening now here in Boston and the sun set on a decent day. We have visited Nan several times, been updated by Andy, her nurse for the past 12 hours and most recently by Tracy her nurse this evening. During the day many of the different IV drips have been removed. The monitor that was actually extending from her heart has been removed, her creatins are beginning to level off but are still extremely high at 3.3, her heart is doing a better job of pumping, kidneys are still not able to keep up with the fluids they have to process so about now they are adding dialysis (sp) to assist in clearing out the toxins in her body. They tried to shock the kidneys into working with a 240 mg shot of lasix. It did not have much of an effect so was a noble try but without success. They are gradually weaning her off the sleeping meds and want to do a test of her brain, to ask, can you move your feet, your hands, etc. A full brain test has not been done yet so they think it is time. They woke her enough when she first came from surgery and ask her to move feet, arms and she responded well at that time.

As of this evening her heart is in better shape with almost no press, meds that stimulate the heart, her lungs are in good shape with fluid being drained off at a rate of about 500 cc during the day. Various drains are removing some of the extra fluids she no longer needs. Her platelettes (sp) are holding their own and even slightly increasing over the past 24 hours finally. Several times we have heard today that her overall condition is slightly better and when one looks at the huge play page they log everything they do hour by hour it is much clearer tonight, they are having to do much less to maintain her than even 24 hours ago. This day and tomorrow are considered very important and it is our hope that with dialysis being added to the equation she will make even more progress tomorrow.

We are deeply touched by the many emails and messages we have received today from people all over the country. GISTers have written expressing things about Nan that I didn't even know, people have sent poems, comfort texts, reports of continual prayer and expressions of love for Nan. Please rest assured that all of us here are touched and lifted by the messages of strength and faith. I am deeply grateful to Sharon, Nan's sister in law, who flew here yesterday, spent the day and this morning and then had to fly back home. She helped with a second room so Keanna and Nikki have a less crowded place to sleep tonight. Her coming was a great statement of faith and her deep love for Nan. Nikki and Keanna flew all night to be here this morning at 7 and together with Dana and Jason we have had a meaningful family day with excellent visits to Nans room. It is humbling to realize how wonderful the love of family and friends really is and to feel the intensity of the expressions of love seep into ones soul.

We have decided to save all the comments that have been sent so Nan can see them when she wakes and begins the weeks and months of recovery. She will gain great strength from them.

So we are heading to bed with anticipation of a good day tomorrow with another little push forward. We have learned to rejoice in tiny improvements and we do rejoice tonight.

All day today we have been touched by Keanna. Her simple joy in the plane trip coming out, her desire to see Grammie, her sweet little songs she sings, the fun of watching her play in the room, her patience with all of us. She sure showed us once again why her Grammie loves her so much, she is precious.

We send our love and appreciation,

Tim, Jason, Dana, Keanna and Nikki