Sunday Night

WOW! What a day. Molly, the overachiever she is, does nothing but continue to surprise us and her doctors, nurses and other caregivers. After she transitioned to the traditional ventilator, she then continued make additional progress today. 1st, they were able to reduce the amount of oxygen provider to her by the vent down to 35%. This a great as it means she is requiring less oxygen. 2nd, they set the ventilator to provide so many breaths per minute, but the ventilator also recognizes when she tries to take a breath on her own and then supports that breath. She is regularly trying to take 3-5 additional breaths on her own beyond what the ventilator provides. This means that she it in a sense "fighting" the ventilator, which will greatly reduce her dependency on it and that her body wants to breath on its own. 3rd, THIS IS THE BIG NEWS for the day, she started to respond to our voices, and responded appropriately. when I asked her if she could hear me, she nodded her head up and down. We continued to ask her a lot of questions through out the day and she would nod yes or no appropriately. Also, her childhood friend Debby (Shamberg) Garland visited from Chicago today and asked Molly to open her eyes and she opened them 1/2 to 2/3 and looked at Debby. This is wonderful news because it indicates that her brain function is ok. Now, the reality check, Molly is still in critical condition and has a long long way to go. We are probably looking at 2-3 months for her to even return to Ohio, but she has moved past the life threatening stages. Please keep praying as she still has many areas that need healing:

• Kidney & liver function
• Legs (do to the sepsis, her legs are very similar to a severe burn victim and being treated the same) She may need skin grafts, etc
• Skin condition all over due to being in bed, her skin is fragile and breaks down easily.
• Thumb and index finger on her left hand, due to reduce blood flow, these fingers have moderate to severe tissue damage and there is a good chance of loosing them
• Lungs to continue to clear of pneumonia and bacteria
• Wound care, the fasiotomy that was performed to help with the compartment syndrome in her legs have left large deep incisions on her calfs that are left open to drain, these are severe wounds and always the fear of infection with them being open.

As you can see the list of things needing prayer is lengthy and as the days and weeks continue there will be additional prayer needs. Keep checking daily or more often to see how Molly is doing and to see what needs she specifically needs prayer for.

Also keep my Mom and Dad and me in your prayers as I will be driving home tomorrow to take care of things and get clean clothes and other errands and then will drive back to Ann Arbor tomorrow evening. Mom and dad will stay during the day to be with Molly and leave for home tomorrow afternoon.

Prayer update: We know for sure that there are prayer chains in Ohio, Illinois, Florida, Texas, Michigan, Washington, California, Ontario Canada, New York, and South Africa. In addition to the locations we also know that the Jewish Community in Chicago is praying for Molly. "Toda raba"

Again, keep them coming and making comments as I share them with Molly and now that she is responding to our voices, this is great to share with her.

Lastly, cards are welcome and encouraged, send them to: MollyFrench, SICU 1500 East Medical Center Drive Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

I would have never thought i would be saying these words, but THANK GOD for The University of Michigan!!!!!!!