Erika had a big setback last night. They told us nobody get through this without them, but this one seems kinda scary. 

There were two arterial lines which they use to most accurately measure her blood pressure as well as her blood gases (those indicate how well she’s breathing in oxygen and breathing off CO2). Yesterday one of the lines stopped working so they pulled the line out. Last night the other one stopped working so they had to call in a doctor to place it. That doctor had to call in another doctor and neither of them were able to successfully get it placed because her arteries and veins were spasming. I don’t exactly know what that part means but I don’t think that in itself is an indication of anything bad- perhaps just trauma from everything her body has gone through. 

But then she started to become distressed. Her O2 was dropping and she wasn’t responding how they needed her to. They had to decrease her pain meds to keep her note awake. This also required them to give her high pressure oxygen through a really big nasal cannula. Her O2 sats did recover and she started to respond appropriately. They said her body was just working too hard and they needed to give her a break. She just kept saying how sorry she was because she’s trying so hard. The doctor told her she isn’t doing anything wrong but her body needs a break so they had to intubate her again and put her back to sleep. *thats the setback* When they did that her vital signs stayed stable. She was able to sleep last night due to the addition pain medications they can give her when she has the breathing tube in place. This is good, but also a really big setback because her time in the ICU and the work she did yesterday essentially starts over. She also had a blood pressure drop last night so that was a little concerning but seems better at the moment. The worst part is that she had to be awake for the intubation part but she held Mom and Hunters hands and did very well. Praying so hard she doesn’t remember any of this! They woke her up a little this morning and she was writing on the white board. She wrote Out, how long, I love you, Mom, Apollo. Then Ow so they are trying to give her more pain meds but they have to do it really slowly because of her blood pressure drop last night. Everything is going to move much more slowly today than it did yesterday but it sounds like the plan is to try to get the breathing tube out around the 24 hour mark if her body seems ready for that. 

*Things we are thankful for: never had any bleeding, she’s getting rid of fluid, they were able to get the arterial line back in, her bp is stable, and her heart and lungs seem to be functioning well together.