Jamie Got Extubated - We Rented a House for Jamie and Roni

Good evening everyone!

Here are the updates from the past day or so:
1) Jamie was extubated yesterday, which means that her ventilation and feeding tubes were removed from her mouth. As you can imagine, her throat is all torn up from the tubes being down her throat, so her voice is very scratchy and low, almost to a whisper. As for her breathing, she relies on a much less invasive breathing machine when she sleeps and when she gets tired... though I should add that she doesn't like the new machine at all. She's been communicating with everyone, almost too much. In fact, we'd probably like it if she wouldn't get so worked up when people come around, but what can you do? In this regard, her next small hurdles are (A) passing a certain stomach/eating test, wherein she shows that when she swallows food, it goes down the right tube, (B) getting her breathing back stabilized, with as little help from the ventilator-mask and the other, even less intrusive method they've been using as well. (C) Also, now that she can have visitors and speak with them, she gets a bit worked up, and we'd like it if she could have visitors without becoming agitated or otherwise excited. Still, its a big improvement over where we were a few days ago... if the ventilator needed to be in for more than a few additional days, she'd have had to get her breathing tubes through an incision in her thrachea (its a trachectomy, or tracheotomy or something similar).

2) Now that we're talking about Jamie's increased awareness and consciousness, our next major obstacle is the necrosis (dying tissue, skin) on Jamie's fingers and toes/feet. Overall, this condition is affecting her extremities because of the shock that her body went into upon arriving at the hospital last Thursday. Due to the shock and the condition known as DIC (which clogs small micro-vesicles in the circulatory system) her microscopic blood vessels became clogged with mini-clots and circulation stopped reaching those extremities. Now, weeks later, bloodflow has returned to some portions of her fingers and feet, but not to others. Those are the areas that look black and dying... because they actually are. It appears that blood, warmth and function are not going to return to those parts of her body that look black. These include her fingertips, from her first joint (the smallest knuckle) to her tips, including her thumbs. As for her feet, she has the same necrosis on her toes, but the doctors have alluded to a possible amputation of her foot, in the entirety. The term is a Below the Knee Amputation (or BK Amp, if you're cool). So, we all freaked out about that for a while today, but we're optimistic that her feet, which have good color to them, will continue to warm and recover. That will be something to watch.

3) Finally, we rented a house for Roni and Jamie. It's a 3 bedroom place and is a perfect place for Jamie to recover. It has a big backyard for Jamie to walk around in. It also has a horseshoe throwing pit that will encourage her to be more active. It'll be a great place for people to gather and play with Jamie and Roni and the animals. It is right next to the bus stop too, so she won't have to walk too far to get school. Anyway, Papa Gene, if you're reading this... THANKS!!!!

That's all for now. I'll send another (shorter) update soon. Thanks for the love and support for Jamie.
-Nick