http://twitpic.com/smlkt – Check out the spike in site traffic on Emily’s day of surgery. Wow. Thanks all (we assume this meant more prayer)!

Emily got her breathing tube removed this morning and looks much more comfortable. She also got a nourishment tube put in through her nose, and the docs are hoping nourishment will help her heal more quickly.

She’s able to open her eyes and say “hi” very quietly, but is having trouble moving her left hand / arm on command.

She is making great progress!

This is a (slightly mangled to be up to date) email from Dan.

The surgeon came in to check on Emily. Just before he did I noticed Emily had a kung fu death grip on her breathing tube. It took a couple minutes but I did get her arm and hand back down to her waist. She’s now in restraints. But I guess it’s a good thing that she’s waking up and getting some awareness and motor function back.

The blood pressure from last night was under control almost immediately. The new task at hand is that she has a temperature. All night her temp was from 101.6-102.2 degrees F. It’s now at 100.58 and has been slowly coming down since 4am. She’s wrapped up in a cooling blanket and her hands and feet are FREEZING but the nurses say it’s okay. All of the heat is in her chest and head. Which isn’t great. The increased temperature in her head will make her blood vessels and brain swell. The surgeon wants to keep her temp no higher than 101.5 so it still needs to come down slightly.

She had another CT scan this morning and it showed no bleeds, no increase in swelling and everything was still good. So he’s happy with that.

He’s ordering a test this morning called an EEG. The results from that test showed no sign of seizures during the night.

He wants her to be in a state of discomfort to help pull her out of the coma, which is hard for us to watch.

All great progress updates, but many things to keep in prayer.

The surgeon was just in and he said Emily is doing great. The CT scan this morning was perfect – no bleeding, looking good. They are going to wean her off the long-term sedation medicine, but will leave her on the short term meds. They will monitor her and see if/when they should cut it off completely. It will probably take until Sunday for her to be completely off the meds and then they can take out the breathing tube.

Going to visit family in ICU. Not OR! Progress!

Emily is in an induced coma, and the doctor is happy with her status. CT scan in the morning.

She looks great. Praise God!