Breathing is the deep rhythm within creation itself. When the ancient Hebrews were trying to retell the story of creation, they described the first and most basic interaction between God and humans as the breath of the creator filling and animating the created being.
A deep breath is at once wondrous and inevitably overlooked. So, to increase your appreciation for this next bit, you should stop and take a deep breath. No really. Take a deep breath.
Emily has been on a ventilator for just over a month. I am deeply grateful to the good folks at Nellcor Puritan Bennett who made this machine that has kept Emily alive through this sickness, but it is an undesirable substitute for breathing on ones own. The air pulsing to and from this mechanical metronome is only inspiration in the technical sense, and yet it has also been a blessing in its turn.
Yesterday Emily scored a -21 on her NIF test. Today, when I got here, her therapist stopped me in the hall, and told me to ask Emily about her big news. The big news was that this morning, before I had gotten here, the respiratory therapist had disconnected her from the ventilator to assess whether or not she could breathe on her own - and she did for 30 minutes. Later in the day she did the same thing for another 30 minutes.
That makes 1 hour total that she was off of the ventilator today, and 23 to go. That might not seem like much, but the respiratory therapist said she was hoping to have her off of the vent for 15 minutes, but Emily was able to do more than she expected. Tomorrow, she expects her to do an hour and a half.
Emily has been greatly encouraged by her achievement today, and I must say that I myself am breathing easier tonight as well.
