Signs of Improvement

Well, Lorelei has been in the hospital for a whole week now. That means she has been hooked up to the respirator and all the countless other things for a week because in that respect nothing changed. That is, she is off her sleeping medication, so she is now sleeping on her own so to speak. That is one sign of improvement that was started yesterday.

That was started to accomplish the second sign of improvement, her breathing policy. So far the machine was breathing for her, determining the pressure, the rhythm and the intake of oxygen. As of today she is determining the rythm herself. This is actually quite a big step towards being able to breathe on her own again... The pressure and amount of oxygen are still determined by the machine and the tube is still in her nose, but hey, we like to hear any sign of improvement at this point.... Anything at all!!!

The third sign of improvement is in the blood. It is the CRP value (C-reaction protein). That apparently is an indication of the amount of infectuous activity in the blood. Well, this value was 89 mg/l on friday, 44 mg/l yesterday and 22 mg/l today. 10 mg/l or less is "normal", a value above 100 usually indicates a bacterial infection, a value above 40 is indicative of a viral infection, I think. Anyway, her value is going down which is improvement. Also it reduces our worry of her catching something else before she gets better....

So, in many ways she is doing very well at fighting off the RS-virus. This picture was taken by a nurse last friday. It was the first time we got to hold her after her hospitalization. The nurse thought we looked so "in love" (which of cours we are :-)).


For news on Lorelei's brother Tobias visit: Tobias Quinn.