oned out. Both lungs are now strong and healthy and she is breathing very well. I always say the less tubes you have stickin' inside you the better life is. 🙂 In addition, all the gestures and reactions she made yesterday continue to be made today but with even more vigor and intensity. This is wonderful news. She is still unresponsive to commands and in all likelihood will not recognize any of us for several more days or longer. But she is improving. In fact, they took her off the last of the sedatives. Because she is not being sedated, Anne-Monique needs to rest now on her own. Even though she is not technically conscious in her responses, she still can be over stimulated. Because of this we are restricting visiting hours so she can have down time. She needs her beauty sleep. 🙂 Please visit Anne-Monique between the hours of 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. Thank you! Hey, we have reached a new stage in Anne Monique's healing so we have a new category to report: Songs You Really Don't Want to Hear When You Are Driving A Car, Especially When You Are Driving A Car to See A Loved one Suffering a Traumatic Injury: 1. Butterfly Kisses (especially if the loved one is a daughter and especially if you are a father and 2. Tim McGraw's "Don't Take the Girl" It's actually possible (but not probable) to stay emotionally in tack hearing this song's first verse and chorus. You may even be able to still drive the car through the second verse. But there is no possible way you will be able to function listening to this song's third verse. OMG pull over and turn the channel. WE LOVE YOU GUYS! ANNE-MONIQUE IS OFFICIALLY IN A "TYPICAL PATTERN OF HEALING"!! WE DON"T KNOW HOW LONG THIS PATTERN WILL LAST BUT FOR RIGHT NOW… LIFE IS GOOD!!!
TUESDAY UPDATE Day #11, 8:00 pm. Well, after two emotional days of improvement, our little G.I. Jane has decided to chill out for a while. Her fever did spike to 103 but the doctors and nurses worked with her and it dropped to 102. They are testing where the infection is coming from and then they will have a "specific antibiotic for that spectrum." (we don't know what a "spectrum" is, but we hope
it is good). In the meantime they are cooling her body with ice bags and and a high-tech cooler that looks like a plastic floaty. When you visit Anne-Monique (Annie), you quickly notice her eyes–they are roaming around her eye socket as if she is trying to find her bearings. For the past 10 days she has had a goupy clear ointment applied to her eyes to keep them moist. Because she was not able to blink, she couldn't self-lubricate. The ointment has caused her eyes for the past 10 days to looked like fish eyes packed under ice. But now she is able to blink more so the lubricant is thinning out. If you look closely, you can finally see her beautiful brown eyes, the windows to her beautiful soul. If you look closely past the ointment, life has been breathe back into her brown eyes and they are somehow still amazingly aligned. And focused. If you look even closer, her brown eyes seem to communicate, "I'm here! I"m okay! What the heck happened?" And then they trick you. For a moment the eyes seem to track your command, but that is only wishful thinking. So you look again, even further past the goupy ointment and what you see gives you goosebumps. She is inside. She's alive. She is trying desparately to break out. Like a baby chick that is pecking, pecking, pecking to find a way out of its dark shell, Anne-Monique is fighting. She is so close. She is right under the shell of consciousness. Her true soul is pecking and fighting and searching for light. FIGHT BABY! WE'RE HERE! WE'RE WAITING! WE LOVE YOU! YOU CAN DO THIS! BREAK THROUGH!!!!! BREAK THROUGH THE SHELL!!! YOU GOT THIS!!!
WEDNESDAY (10/24/12) UPDATE Day #12, 9:00 pm: Today was bad. Kick the gut bad. My hands are shaking as I write this. Anne-Monique's (Annie) case was reviewed by a neurologist. His news confirmed the fears we were told about over the weekend. After reviewing the MRI, physical exam, CAT scan and other information, the Doctor concluded there is "extensive bilateral damage," that means both sides of h
er brain are badly damaged. Her progress from a neurological position is "guarded" as she remains in a "vegatative state." The doctor concluded she has real chance of remaining in a "persistent vegatative state" for at least "6 weeks and possibly for life." Her chances of "significant recovery are low." The only good news is that he reported the only people who climb out of her current condition are young people, like Anne-Monique who is 20. Good gracious. I don't know what to say or tell you. All the internal improvements the past several days appears now to have been just window dressing. I am in complete shock. Basically, the state she is in right now is the plateau she will be at for a long time, possibly for life. I'm shaking my head is disbelief. This is almost too much to take and I don't know how to process this. The illusions of progress have put us all on a high, which only makes this news that much harder to take.
Dear God, we bow our heads in humble fear and gratitude. Please be with Anne-Monique. Please comfort her. Please give her strength. Please, Please, give her the ability to over come this. We pray for a miracle. A miracle. Please………………………… But if it is Thy will that she doesn't recover, let her not suffer. Let her not hurt. Let her somehow feel our love. Give us strength to deal with her condition. Give us the strength to endure this test. Give us the wisdom to know what to do. To accept Thy will. We pray for a miracle. A true miracle. Guide the physicians hands and the nurses' hands so they can heal Anne-Monique. We accept thy will. But we pray for a miracle. We know it is in Thy hands. We pray for these things, for these blessings, for this miracle in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
I am in complete shock. I feel we have been led down a path of illusion. I feel I have accurately tried to report what has been happening. But I guess I never talked to the boss man, the decision maker, the neurologist. ANNE-MONIQUE, I LOVE YOU! FOREVER and FOREVER I WILL LOVE YOU. FAMILIES ARE FOREVER. YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD. I LOVE YOU MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF. IF IT'S POSSIBLE TO GET OUT OF THIS, YOU WILL FIND A WAY. YOU WILL FIND A WAY. YOU WILL FIND A WAY.
Please pray for Annie and her family, the POWER OF PRAYER is very powerful!
I love you all!
