But today it's not just her eyes doing the work. Her expressions have begun to come back little by little, and that's why I'm writing right now. Just moments ago, she smiled. It wasn't a big smile, and it took considerable effort on her part, but she smiled. I told her that I was proud of her and she said she was proud of herself. You and I smile hundreds of times in a day, so to us it seems like nothing, but Emily has not been able to smile in over three weeks. It's amazing how important and victorious a smile can be.
There are other small improvements in her arm strength today that are also signs of hope. Her grip continues to strengthen and she can almost wave her left hand.
Also, as an update to yesterday's post, it seems that I jumped the gun a bit with the pneumonia. Yesterday the doctors were worried she might have pneumonia, and so started her on antibiotics. It turns out that she did have a minor infection causing her symptoms, but completely unrelated to her lungs. Today, she is breathing just a bit better, and her NIF (which I have since learned stands for "negative inspiratory force") that you will remember from earlier posts as a measurement of some importance, is a -8. Yesterday it was a -5. The respiratory therapist said she needs to be in the -20 range for them to test her off of the vent for an extended time. Emily has been inspired by the challenge, and we look forward to more improvement.
Well, it's been a good day.
