July 30 (Monday) - 1050pm

Jeannette's news is positive tonight; for more than a few reasons.   She woke up enough today that the nurse was able to ask her to "wiggle her toes" and she did.   That means several things; she is awake enough to hear, and to process information, and it also means that here is no nerve damage preventing her from moving her toes.   With both legs broken and with a fracture in her neck that's an especially good thing.  All of her numbers continue to look good, and she has the "A-Team" of doctors working to get her better.   

Even though it is getting late it is early for Jeannette.   They are actually planning to move her into surgery this evening, to check on her abdominal issues, fix or adjust a 'gastric tube', and to change out a 'wound pack' she has had in place now for several days.  They are just waiting for an operating room to open up (it's the Alaskan summer as you know) and they want to take advantage of the quieter evening time to get this all done.   It may be that they also will remove some of her leg hardware, to allow for an MRI to be done at a future point in time.  All in all its been a busy day already, and with good news, and so from my non-medical perspective things seem to be moving forward and in a good direction.   

Rich is stable, and we are glad to have him in the same hospital as Jeannette.    Today they did say that he does have a confirmed case of pneumonia, and he apparently arrived at Providence with it.    They are treating him with a broad spectrum of antibiotics, and his fever has been reduced over the course of today from a little over 102 to just over 100 tonight.   So that is measurable progress.  To me this new team of doctores appear to be going after his care in a full blown effort to get things where they want them to be; for one thing the medical staff has been replacing the tubes and dressings that were used at the other hospital, just to make 'double sure' that any source of infection has been eliminated.  They have been getting 'cultures' too, to run through the lab to try and pinpoint any source of infection. Much of today and this evening he has been sedated, and the ventilator has been set now to help him with deeper breathing, doing its part in the effort to combat his pneumonia.     Other than the infection, which they seem to have well in hand, his numbers are good, and his liver function is improving.  

A final interesting thing to note tonight, is that Rich's primary nurse, Ryan, just happens to be the fiance of Jeannette's primary nurse Ciji.    Ciji was one of the initial nurses who worked on Jeannette when she came into the hospital, and was there in those initial critical hours.    Sam likes her.   Tonight, Ciji and Ryan just happened to be scheduled to work the same shift and in the same location.   In a very real way it is one couple taking care of another couple, their lives all interjoined tonight in a strange mix of high tech medicine that is linked with the steadfast love that defines the best of the human spirit.  Life partners taking care of life partners.    It is a good thing to note and to end the day. - John