Raena Update 3/9/16

E Chow

8 hours agoDetails
Today, was more of a recovery day for Raena from the MRI yesterday, so no tests.

She hasn’t initiated as many breaths as yesterday. When they brushed her teeth last night, she moved down the bed, away from the toothbrush and her knees moved up. She moved her arms and legs when they wiped her down also. Yay for movement!

The most exciting news for the day was at 4:45pm, she opened her eyes for 30 seconds and turned them towards Nikki. Then 5 minutes later, she opened them for 20 seconds, which Nikki characterized as a blank stare. Wahoo! These efforts also jumped up her numbers they are trying to keep low.

Steven’s bosses gf is friends with a top neurosurgeon (Alexander Khalessi) at UCSD and Steven has overnighted her MRI to him.

The plan for tomorrow is to get an angiogram to hopefully find the source. They need her to be stable enough to do this test. Ideally, she is at a 30° angle to maintain her intracranial pressure and drainage. The test requires her to lay flat for 30 minutes, plus the transport.

Lastly, one of their friends started a gofundme page for them. Please share this link as you feel comfortable. I’ll be posting it on my Facebook page.

https://de.gofund.me/sftar8jw&rcid=7fb61e9ae63911e584d0bc764e05901c

After I wrote this, we were sitting with Raena again and the nurse was cleaning her eyes and mouth. She became agitated, moved around, and then we (Steven, Dad, and Josh) were able to see her open her eyes two times!!!