FEBRUARY

 

2/1 Sun.

 

Kathleen opened her eyes briefly!

 

2/2-Mon.

 

Kathleen continues to have seizures (including touch seizures- seizures triggered by someone touching her) and her doctors have increased her seizure medicine.

 

Her fever has come down a bit.

 

2/3- Tue.

On Monday, Kaiser, to the surprise of family, friends, and some of Valley Medical’s staff working with Kathleen, attempted to have Kathleen moved from Valley Medical to Kaiser’s facility.  Kathleen’s medical staff did not allow this to happen.  Family, friends and doctors are concerned with a possible move in light of Kathleen’s unstable condition. A transfer of hospitals at this point, with the physical repositioning of Kathleen, could set-off more seizures unnecessarily. In addition, Kaiser’s closest specialist in the field that could help Kathleen is located in San Rafael. Mike and the Davey family are pursuing action that will hopefully prevent the move.

 

Kathleen’s medication has been increased due to the continuing seizures.  The level of medication is now at the highest level since she has been in the hospital. Doctors may switch medications.

 

2/4-Wed

 

Good news- It looks like the move has been put off until another time.

 

Please read this note from Mike and the Davey family

Kathleen’s medicine dropped down to a level of 75 but raised it to 85 after she had a touch seizure. Yesterday her level was 150 so the level is significantly lower.

Doctors stated that seizures are like a computer being rebooted but there is a bug with the code.

Kathleen’s seizures may be caused by a number of factors including: blood on the brain, lack of oxygen to the brain, brain swelling, and others.

No new news as to whether Kathleen’s brain swelling has come down but it’s expected that it is occurring in a slow progression. She has not had a recent scan.

2/5- Thu.

Kathleen’s medication was dropped to 40.

Doctors are preparing to switch medications to address the seizures.

There was a CAT to be performed Thu. morning. The results will be posted as soon as it is known.

 

 

 

2/6-Fri.

One of the main anti-seizure/sedative drugs is now down to zero.

 

Kathleen yawned and she is moving her feet. She also sucked on the suction ventilator device.

 

She is taking a few breaths on her own.

 

 

2/7- Sat.

 

The CAT scan taken on Thu.  scan showed that her brain is healing normally. Dispelled was the fear of no reduction in pressure and too much reduction.

 

Kathleen is breathing more her own and is also moving her limbs more and more.

 

Kathleen also is trying to open her eyes.

 

A blood clot in Kathleen’s arm has been found and she is being treated for it.

A move to Kaiser was planned after the CAT scan result but now is delayed due to the blood clot discovery.

2/8- Sun.

Anti-coagulants were given to address the blood clot.

Kathleen may move to Kaiser tomorrow as Valley Medical has determined that she is stable.

Kathleen is breathing more on her own.

 

2/9- Mon.

Kathleen was moved to Kaiser Hospital of Santa Clara today.

Kathleen was more responsive to the touch and is moving her legs.

The blood clot is still present but is shrinking.

 

 

2/10-2/11- Tue.-Wed.

 

Unfortunately, Kaiser doctors delivered bad news today. After 26 hours of analysis, the doctors think that the likelihood of Kathleen regaining her faculties and understanding her surroundings is unlikely. With cases such as these nothing can be for certain. Kathleen is a fighter and has beaten the odds throughout this ordeal. Doctors stated that she had a 90% chance that she would die before she got to the hospital. They also gave her a 98% chance that she wouldn’t make it that night along with 99% chance of not making it by the 3rd day and she beat those odds. Mike, the Davey family, and friends are not giving up and continue to hope for the best.

 

2/12- Thu

 

Kathleen is breathing almost completely on her own. Doctors say that there is a 50% chance that Kathleen will be completely free of help with her breathing in 5-9 days.

 

 

 2/13- Fri.

 

Kathleen is still on the ventilator but will hopefully be off of it in a few days.

 

2/14-2/15- Sun.

 

Doctors have decided not to remove the breathing tube even though Kathleen has reached the level of breathing not to require it. 

 

The sedative Phenobarbital, the replacement sedative and anti-seizure medication,  is being reduced to zero.

 

Kathleen is on Versed, another sedative, due to an inflamed tongue but the level of medication is being reduced (currently at 2.0- she started at 2.5) and she should soon be off of it.

With the reduction of medications, the hope is that Kathleen will come out of her coma. 

 

On Wednesday or Thursday Kathleen’s feeding tube will be relocated to her stomach to reduce the risk of infection.

 

2/17-2/18 Tue-Wed.

 

Kathleen is responding to more stimulus.

 

Doctors have taken Kathleen off of Versed.

 

Kathleen had surgery today to undergo a tracheotomy. The surgery went well. Although Kathleen was breathing almost completely on her own yesterday, doctors felt that the tracheotomy was necessary because they believed that Kathleen could have had some difficulties coughing and clearing any fluids.

 

 

2/19- Thu.

 

Kathleen was recovering from surgery regarding the successful relocation of the feeding tube.

 

Kathleen’s temperature fluctuated to up to 102.5 degree, however,  by the end of the day it was down to 100 degrees. Doctors believe the fluctuation could be due to the surgery. Blood tests were taken and results won’t be back for a couple of days.

 

The ventilator was upped to assist Kathleen and reduce the stress resulting from tracheotomy surgery.

 

Kathleen continues to open her eyes, however, doctors believe that, at this point, it’s mainly a reflex response. Mike is seeking a second opinion.

 

2/20- Fri.

 

Kathleen’s temperature went down today.

 

She is moving around again.

 

2/21-Sat.

 

Kathleen was opening her eyes a lot today.

 

She is responding to more stimulus

 

2/23-2/24-Mon.-Tue.

 

Kathleen had an EEG, her first since she’s been off of medication. It showed that there is brain damage  but the extent is yet unknown.

 

Kathleen breathed on her own for 12 hours yesterday.

 

The doctors are tying to wean Kathleen off of the respirator so she is doing more breathing on her own. Also, tonight, Kathleen was breathing “room air” rather than the air provided by the machine.

 

Mike is hoping to get Kaiser to perform a PET (Positron Emission Tomography) which may be a better way assess Kathleen’s brain activity.  Here is a link that describes a PET scan.

 

 

2/25 to 2/26 Wed.-Thu.

 

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Doctors took Kathleen off of one of the last 2 anti-seizure medications (this particular one being a very mild anti-seizure medication)

 

 

A second opinion by Dr. Douville, a former Good Sam Neurologist,  was given on Wed. He mentioned these issues:

 

         - Kathleen is showing a few signs of purposeful movement

         - it takes 2-3 months to determine if some of her brains cells repaired themselves so time is still needed

         - Kathleen wouldn’t just wake up after an incident such as this so, again, time is needed

         - Kathleen’s seizures were not good but the extent of damage is not known

         - a PET scan (which Kaiser didn’t allow) was not absolutely needed now as time could determine just as much as the scan

         - what’s important now is determining what caused and why it happened so it doesn’t happen again

         - Intense physical therapy is strongly recommended (so far Kathleen has received one day of therapy from the hospital

               and daily therapy from the family)

         - Kathleen’s condition will be known for sure in 6 months

 

Today, the EEG showed no signs of seizure activity.

 

Kathleen seemed to be focusing more yesterday

 

 

 

Fri.- 2/27

 

Doctors are continuing to wean Kathleen off the ventilator.

She went for up to 5 hours continuously without the ventilator today. Because of this, doctors want Kathleen to rest.

 

Sun.-2/29

 

Kathleen will be enjoying the Oscars with family today. Due to the visitor policies and limited waiting room of Kaiser, a schedule will be posted for those wishing to visit Kathleen. The schedule will show when family members will be present and also show the hospital’s non-visiting hours. The schedule can be found here and for future days it will be posted at the bottom of the updates page.

 

Doctors believe that Kathleen may be experiencing seizures and re-administered a mild anti-seizure medication.

Kathleen will be given an EEG on Monday. This will be her 2nd scan since arriving at Kaiser.