Kate Update - Wednesday November 15, 2017 - 11:30 pm

It is 11:30 pm on Wednesday and we find ourselves again at the end of a long day but thankful beyond words for the continued outpouring of support and encouragement for Katie.    

It is day 4.5 since the accident and the medical staff at Harborview continues to communicate a positive and very hopeful prognosis for Katie.   Statements such as “she is young and strong”, “she seems to be a fighter”, and “she has a whole bunch of support” come from the amazing staff that make up her care team.

As we continue to learn, Katie’s overall physical status is more complicated than just a simple “she is doing better” or “doing worse” type of scale.   First, what has been most urgent has been her brain injury.  The doctors shared that her EEG scan (brain activity) looked very good and is showing no signs of stress or seizures.  The CAT scans are not showing any additional bleeding or swelling so that is very positive. 

The doctors and nurses continue to monitor her speech, hand and leg movements, memory etc. by coming in throughout the day and trying to wake her up and proceed to ask questions like do you know where you, when were you born, etc.   She has given some very precise and correct answers as well as some very unique and even humorous.   One response to the question of; Do you know where you are;  resulted in,  “I am in a building, I think the YMCA, it is made of bricks”.  Another response to Where are you? came back…. “Mississippi, Washington”.    Earlier in the day, a friend was sharing how beautiful she looked and she quickly came back with…. “prom ready!”    There were others throughout the day, some bright and clear and others mumbled and incoherent.  Some hopeful and others not so much, but all pointing to a brain that seems busy “rebooting” and recalibrating bits and pieces of Katie’s thoughts, dreams, convictions and most importantly relationships.  Not always, but sometimes when people come in and whisper in her ear, a smile simply comes across her face, happy that they are in the room.

There are specifically two emerging issues that Katie is facing.  First, her bowels seem to be having a hard time “waking up” resulting in what could be considered a bowel obstruction.   This has caused her to feel nauseas and today resulted in her vomiting on multiple occasions.  Let’s cut to the chase, she needs to start pooping!   

Secondly, her left arm and leg are behind her right side in terms of movement.   The rehabilitation doctor came today to get some baseline levels for where she is at and gave us some tips on little things we can be doing to keep her left ankle and wrist stretched out.  

Another thing we are continuing to learn is related to the rhythm of the day for Katie.  We know that sleep and rest is critical for her brain to heal and that we need to monitor her stimulation in a way that allows her the best mix of rest and visitors.   We are hoping to have Katie out of the ICU in the next day or two but until her gut is back to working that won’t happen.   Be looking for a post that will provide a schedule for weekdays and weekends related to visiting Kate. 

We thank you for your prayers already verbalized and  humbly ask for you to continue to pray for courage, healing and perhaps more than anything that she would know she is not alone on this new journey.