Sat 12 noon

Bev remains stable,  there is still no response for us.  The breathing tube has not been inserted yet. Physically she looks better each day. A lot of the bruising and swelling is slowly fading.  She looks a lot more like Bev now. We have not heard any date for the operation on her fractures. Perhaps we will know more this afternoon.

I know there is more than one nurse following this blog so the following technical stuff is for you.

Heart rate:  80
Glucose:  120
Blood Pressure:  122/50
CPP:  68
Respirator setting:  f set 17     f total 20

This morning Bev received Vancomycin (a form of penicilin I think) to combat infection. Bev also received a low dose of blood thinner to help with the poor circulation in her legs.

Her ongoing medication consists of the following 4 things

Fenatyl (pain killer)  2.5 mL/hour   we have been told this is a low dosage
Vasopressin  2.4 mL/hour, we have been told this is to keep Bev's blood pressure high enough
Magnesium 6.3 mL/hour   we have been told this is to help control the shivers that Bev sometimes gets.
Sodium Chloride 3%   25 mL/hour   Bev's sodium level was low and this helps maintain the proper Sodium level in her body.

We understand from the staff that none of these drugs are being administered in large doses and they are only being used until Bev's body is more capable of regulating itself without them.  She was receiving small amounts of insulin from time to time but that has almost ceased now.  The drain to her brain has been clamped off for some time now although they did unclamp it for 15 minutes this morning and then clamped it off again.  It appears that the fluids being produced around her brain are being absorbed by the body as they normally would be.