Kathleen sat in the cardiac chair for 2 hours- the longest yet.
Last night Kathleen had low blood pressure so doctors are considering dropping her high blood pressure medicine.
Doctors are still considering Vinpocetine .
Unfortunately, the Stanford anoxic was prognosis study for the acute phase (1st 3 days after injury) and not a treatment trial.
The family had a good talk with Kaiser regarding amore consistent doctor rotation and in addition, a possible research liaison.
Doctors are administering cranberry juice to help with infection.
Kaiser is ordering a leg brace for her left leg.
Kathleen’s EEG was negative for seizures but doctors have not told family what else the tightening (muscle contracting) could be from.
Kathleen is going in to get an EEG today to determine seizure activity.
Some promising news: Mike received information that the Stanford Stroke Center is doing anoxic coma studies. Family and friends are looking into today.
Here is another kind letter the family would like to share. Letter #2
Kathleen had another mild
seizure, clonus or dystonia occurence. She was give a shot of Ativan [a sedative/hypnotic or antianxiety
medication that is often the first line of drugs (along with
phenobarbital) to stop seizure activity]
Both seizures are related to stuff done to her mouth (suctioning or brushing her teeth)
Besides her Ativan shot she had more eye movement.
Dr. Englander now has the approval to apply to Kaiser to evaluate Kathleen.
Special thanks goes to Sandy Bignardi from Kaiser’s House Information Management who tracked down all of Kathleen’s medical files from 6 different rooms in the hospital.
These files were faxed over to Dr. Gary Steinberg of Stanford so he can evaluate Kathleen.
Doctors this week, Dr. Sandhu and Dr. Sung, have been very helpful analyzing and expanding upon research submitted from the Davey Research Group.
Kaiser doctors are currently checking on a proposal by the Davey’s to add Vinpocetine to her regimine. (helps oxygenate the brain and crosses the blood-brain barrier).
Kathleen had either mild seizure, clonus or dystonia so she was given oxygen.
Kathleen has been very emotional today- mainly exhibiting facial expressions of sadness.
Yesterday she went 18 hours with the trach plugged.
The Davey family would again like to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and support. These letters have touched the hearts of the family and have helped them through these rocky times. The Davey’s have asked to link some of these letters so others can share in the joy and kind and positive thoughts concerning Kathleen. With permission, we will be starting to post some of these letters. Here is one: Letter #1
Doctors are trying to get Kathleen to go 20 hours on the plugged trach.
Kathleen is exhibiting more eye movement (although this may not be considered eye tracking)
Just a reminder: For those interested in attending or helping in the silent auction being held May 28 at Santa Clara University, please see click here.
Kathleen went 14
hours Saturday & 16 hours on Sunday with the trach plugged.
The Davey family would again like to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and support. These letters have touched the hearts of the family and have helped them through these rocky times. The Davey’s have asked to link some of these letters so others can share in the joy and kind and positive thoughts concerning Kathleen. With permission, we will be starting to post some of these letters. Here is one: Letter #1
Kathleen has been on oxygen for the past few nights because of Wed.’s event. She will be off of oxygen tonight.
Kaiser gave the go ahead for Dr. Englander from Valley Medical to submit an application to see if he can evaluate Kathleen to see if she can participate in Valley Medical’s Journey to Recovery Program mentioned earlier. Although Kaiser gave the green light to evaluate, unfortunately they will not fund Kathleen’s stay if she is approved and the family will have to pay for all costs.
Still no word on FGF-2 and BFGF (basically protein molecules) which play a part in neurogenisis.
The Davey family received the official letter of denial for usage of the Median Brain Stimulator (not the Median Nerve Stimulator that the Davey’s asked for)
The 1st decision concerning the Median Nerve Stimulator was promptly made even before some of the information the family researched was faxed to the hospital.
Just a reminder to all: if you would like to write an email to Kathleen please email it to thinkingofyoukathleen@yahoo.com Mike reads the letters to her when they come in. Also, let Mike know if you would mind having it posted on this update website.
Kathleen has been
moved to Room 624 where there is a monitor that reads her O2, heart rate and
recognizes her
respiratory (# of times she breathes per minute) in the ICU.
Linda Ridder came by
and checked Kathleen’s teeth.
The family’s FGF-2
request is still being decided upon by the doctor. Here
is some information on it.
Kathleen started moving her individual digits in her hand today
The Davey family has experienced their first scheduling snafu. For the first time since Kathleen has
been in the hospital there was an unfilled gap in the normal visitation time between 7:45 a.m. and
10:30pm. A family friend had to leave at 5p.m for
class and Joe was unable to arrive until 5:30pm.
Before the family friend left, she alerted the nurse twice about Kathleen’s O2
SATS dropping under
90%. They stated that she was dreaming and it was OK and they suctioned only her mouth (normally
they suction her trach area, too) As the family friend left, the nurse was asked to pay special attention
because there was going to be a small gap of time when there was not going to be a family member present.
When Joe walked down the corridor he heard alarms going off. He walked past 3
nurses sitting in the corridor and turned into Kathleen's room to see her gasping for air. Her oxygen
saturation had dipped from her normal high 90% range into the mid 20s. He rushed back in the hall to
tell the nurses. They said that they would be there in a minute. He said you will come now. When the
nurse saw what was happening, (after apparently ignoring the alarms for several minutes) she
rushed to bag Kathleen with oxygen. Unfortunately she
neglected to remove Kathleen's trach
cap. Joe pointed this out just as a nurse from ICU (who went to school
with Kathleen and who
often comes to visit her) rushed in to help. Kathleen, who had turned blue, slowly recovered.
She shook for almost an hour after the event before calming down with the help of a new family
friend Keith. The doctor then came in and communicated
with the nurses. She returned to
tell us that Kathleen was on 2 hour trials without oxygen support and that the
nurses alarm didn't
go off for some reason. The first part is inaccurate as Kathleen has been on 14 hour tests. The second
part is unconfirmed, but an alarm was heard in the halls. We do not know whether this event caused
more damage to Kathleen, but apparently she had coughed up some phlegm which blocked her airway.
Thanks to Suzie from ICU who helped save the day
Due to today's events Kathleen has been put back on oxygen temporarily.
Kaiser has still not responded to the request by Dr. Englander of Valley Med to come evaluate Kathleen.
Doctors are still considering family requests to add creatine and fgf-2 to Kathleen's daily meds.
Tue.
4/20
Doctors restarted Kathleen on Amantadine.
Joan did Reiki for 3 hours
Kaiser started allowing
Davey family to provide Blueberry juice as of today as per yesterday's request
Rationale:
http://hdlighthouse.org/treatment-care/care/hdltriad/diet/updates/0044blueberries.phtml
(and)
http://hdlighthouse.org/treatment-care/care/hdltriad/diet/updates/0049bberry.phtml
Davey family is still waiting for results from Monday's request to give
Kathleen FGF-2
Rationale:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-10/joci-ftt101203.php
Davey family also asked about Kathleen's statins.
Kathleen has been breathing well (16 hours on her own through her nose
Monday-Tuesday)
She has continued to remain loose and is showing more emotion on her face..but
still hasnt shown her smile
Family renewed request for creatine that was previously denied but this
time got the go ahead from the nutritionist. The family is now waiting on
the doctor’s approval.
Rationale for the use of creatine: The Annals of Neurology has found
that creatine, a common food supplement administered to
rats after traumatic brain injury, increased the repair of cortical
tissue by 30% to 50%. Here are some links describing creatine and its effect on
the brain:
article
I article
II article
III article IV article V
Here is an article that was in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Those scheduled to visit Kathleen please see above for the new visitor information link.
Mon.
Evening 4/19
Kathleen was very loose in her left arm. Her neck seems to be tight and was thoroughly massaged which seemed to help with her over-all tightness.
On Monday evening, after an hour long talk with a doctor, Kaiser refused an expedited request for the usage of the Median Nerve Stimulator (mentioned below 4/12-4/15) Not having enough information and not being familiar with its usage were cited as reasons.
Here are some other issues discussed at the meeting:
*An EEG showed slowed brain function and that there was significant brain damage (diffuse).
*The doctor would reevaluate the MRI and the first CT scan (Dec. 21) to determine the differences.
*He did say that using the size of the brain as a prognosticator is not
a good tool. There are plenty of people
walking around fine with brains that have atrophied.
*It had been awhile since he looked at the MRI so he would try and tell
the family more specifics later in the week. He stated that the hippocampus
took the injury hard (memory center).
*The doctor said she responds well to "doll's eye" test and
that it appears her brainstem is doing well and cerebellum is functioning okay, too.
* He stated that he would look in to statins, blueberries, and FGF-2 to
help salvage her damaged cells and regenerate new ones and we were welcome to
bring
him other articles.
In response to the letter the Davey family wrote to Kaiser (see yesterday’s update), Kaiser asked for the family to outline their goals. Here is the family’s response to the request in the form of an addendum to their original letter: Goals
Sun.
4/18- Mon. afternoon 4/19
This morning (Mon.) Kathleen became very emotional (and even cried) every time it was mentioned that it was Samie’s birthday.
Kathleen was much more responsive than normal to
auditory stimulation
Kathleen was looser in her limbs.
She had her lungs cleared yesterday and is breathing for 14 + hours off the plug.
She did have a slight fever of 100.1 but it went down.
Doctors took Kathleen off of the Amantadine trial.
A Plea to Kaiser: The Davey family sent this letter to Kaiser.
Fri.
4/16-Sat. 4/17
Kathleen breathed 14 1/2 hrs last two days breathing on her
own but she struggled breathing on her own this morning
Kathleen has been diagnosed with a new Urinary tract
infection
She had her x-rays taken and first EEG since she was in ICU and the EEG showed
her Coma Alpha waves (not so good)
X-Rays were negative
This article appeared in this week’s Campbell Times
Wed.
4/14- Thu. 4/15
Kathleen breathed on her own for 14 hours on Wednesday night and doctors hope that she does the same for Thu.
The family requested (in writing) the hospital to allow the use of a Median Nerve Stimulator .
Kathleen was a little stiff in her right arm today (Thu.).
Kathleen is working on going over 12 hours on the trach plug
She groans and sighs.
She has had more eye movement and blinking but still does not track.
Unfortunately, Kaiser did not allow a Median Nerve Stimulator to be administered to Kathleen. Read about the Median Nerve Stimulator (and you can watch the video, too)
The family also asked for a Blue Dye Test in which dye is administered orally to see where it goes (lungs or stomach) so they can determine if taste stimulation should be administered.
Valley Medical is asking Kaiser for a referral so that they can evaluate Kathleen for the Journey to Recovery Program. This program helps patients with neurological injuries.
For all of those interested: There will be a Fundraiser Silent Auction on May 28th at Santa Clara University to help raise funds for the Davey Fund. Click here for more information.
Research page- for those wanting to help us research ways
to help Kathleen get better and for those who want to see what the current
scientific research is on issues regarding
brain recovery please click here.
Sat.
4/10 - Sun 4/11
Doctors are administering Amantadine in the same dosage as mentioned in this article (pg. 6).
Kathleen is continuing to breath with the trach plugged for 8 + hours.
Fri.
4/9
Kathleen has been off the trach (trach plugged) for the longest period of time so far- over 8 hours.
She is receiving acupuncture 5 days a week.
Hopefully some promising news (you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader because it’s a .pdf file) The article is entitled, “Improved Neurological Function with Amantadine Treatment” on page 6. Although Kathleen’s doctors are not hopeful, they are considering this. The treatment has minimal side effects.
Thu.
4/8
Kathleen is now breathing 8-10 hours with the trach plugged.
Kathleen looked active today.
Reiki was administered by a kind volunteer.
There is a fundraiser at Fresh Choice today (Thu.) after 4 p.m. at Westgate. Here is the flier that must be presented in order for Fresh Choice to donate the proceeds.
Wed.
4/7
Kathleen is working on a 6 hour on trach and 6 hour off trach schedule.
She sat in the cardiac chair for an hour (which is a workout) and slept well afterwards.
Mon.-Tue.
4/5-4/6
Kathleen breathed with the trach plugged for 6 hours on Tue.
Daveys asked about moving her to the Kaiser Vallejo rehab facility but was not approved since Kathleen was not considered “active”.
There is a fundraiser at Chevy’s today- all day at the Westgate Chevy’s. Proceeds will go to the Davey Fund. Here is the flier that must be presented in order for Chevy’s to donate the proceeds.
Sat.-
Sun 4/3-4/4
Doctors have Kathleen on a schedule of 4 hours with the trach plugged and 4 hours on the trach.
Kathleen was taken off of Baclofen that seemed to reduce her shaking.
Kathleen’s diet intake has now been adjusted.
Fri.
4/2
Kathleen is shaking more and the family believes it might be due to the side effects of the muscle relaxant Baclofen.
The family has been concerned about Kathleen’s diet and weight loss asking the hospital for more protein, water, and to talk with a nutritionist over three weeks ago. After numerous additional requests to the hospital, a nutritionist did come to see Kathleen two days ago and was amazed that she had lost 20 lbs.
After asking the hospital for a plan 2 weeks ago, the
hospital has replied and stated that Kathleen will stay in the hospital until
the trach is removed.
Thu.
4/1
Kathleen breathed with the trach plugged for 8 hours!
Kathleen is now being administered a muscle relaxant to help with the clenching of her hands and feet.
Please Read: The Davey family would like to know if anybody in the community has information about Neural Brain Stem Cell, Cord Blood research, and brain recovery therapy. At this point, apparently the research in these areas are very recent and are all experimental right now. The Davey’s are interested in perhaps leaving this option (of considering Kathleen for experimental procedure) open. Apparently studies are now being done on stroke victims and Parkinson’s patient, yet studies on anoxia are not ongoing. If anyone knows how this process may be initiated please let the webmaster know. If any doctors would like to view a summary of her condition they can view it here.