day 7

One of Sarah's all time favorite movies is "While You Were Sleeping." She loves it. I love it. We laugh and laugh about all the great one liners, facial expressions, dialogue, and the characters. Like Elsie...."I don't drink any more...then again I don't drink any less." Or when Jack says..."first I knocked the squirrels out of a tree..then I saved them"...Or when they find out Peter only had one testicle "on the brightside he has more room in his jockey shorts". And the whole "leaning" conversation with Joe Jr. It's such a great movie. I made sure I put it in the bag of stuff when Sarah first was admitted to help her pass the time.

Only she didn't get to watch it...instead she's been the one sleeping....sleeping these last 5 days. The good news is our sleeping beauty is waking up! Today was a good day and she had a good night last night. Her FiO2 was down to 40%....they did bump it back up to 45% when they decreased her PEEP to 10. Her WBC was stable at 8. Her creatinine went up a smidge so they adjusted what IV fluids she was getting and then also increased the rate to flush those kidneys. They dc'd one of her PICC lines. The plan was to maybe dc her art line too. Her blood pressures have been stable on her own. They also started PT (phyical therapy). She is very weak. Today they had her sitting at the side of her bed. Her nurse even said she was trying to help them by bracing herself with her hands. PT will come twice a day to work with her. The plan is to get her up to standing tomorrow.

She just has her fentanyl now to help with pain. The Ativan is wearing off and she is becoming more aware. She responds to her name and will follow commands. Being intubated is not pleasant...but hopefully they will be able to continue to wean her PEEP and get her off it soon. Again...who knows, but she is really headed in the right direction. We are so happy! It feels so nice to be able to hear good news. The past week has been a downward spiral and it's nice to see some progress in the other direction. Sarah is one tough cookie. She can do it and we know she will.

Sarah is the 3rd 20-something patient they have had in the ICU at McKay with H1N1 complications. At any given time, they usually have 2-3 patients with H1N1. All have had to be intubated. I know that everyone that hears about Sarah is shocked. I was. I still can't believe my sister is in the ICU on a ventilator. It feels like a bad dream and everything is in slow motion at times. I work at PCMC and the whole Intermountain system has been gearing up for huge influxes of the swine flu. We had to sign up for extra mandatory on-call shifts if it got bad...and they predicted it would. Only it didn't. I chalked up all the hype to a lot of media attention and being a little over zealous. Well, after my family had it (and I only was really sick for a day because I had the vaccination, but my little boy and husband had high fevers for 5 days) and now seeing Sarah's course, it has scared the crap out of me. The intensivists say this is the second surge of H1N1 and they expect another in a few months and think it will be even more virulent. The virus is changing and mutating making it more difficult to treat, but even more scary is how devastating it is to young, healthy adults. My message is to get vaccinated. Get your family vaccinated. If you are sick and feel guilty about missing work, church, or a family get together...think of Sarah. I would never have in a million years guessed this would happen to anyone I knew...let alone my baby sister. This may just be a winter where we don't go out a lot and watch a lot of our favorite chick flicks. And you know "While You Were Sleeping" will rank heavy on the playlist.

Thanks again for all your prayers, well-wishes, for fasting, and for putting Sarah's name on the prayer rolls at the temple. I cry when I hear all of this. We have heard of temples all across the country with Sarah Jarman added to the prayer roll. Thank you so very much.