Monday, August 28th

Hi Team,

So today has been a rough day for Maria. Since she woke up and was so aware last night, we decided to have someone in her room the whole night with her in case she woke up again. Barb and Dave stayed until 10:30, at which point Albee and I relieved them so that they could attempt to get a good night's sleep. Willem traded off with Alb and I until about 2:00 am, at which point he went home and Alb and I stayed with Ree until 5. She slept for most of the night, but was awake for short periods of time a few times and wrote us a couple notes ("I want to breathe and take a nap"). We helped the nurse give her a bath, and when the nurse looked at her legs she remarked that she won't have any problems in terms of rehab for her muscles,etc. She also said that when she saw the picture of Maria she thought, "Oh, this girl is so beautiful, and from New York," as if they wouldn't have anything in common, but then saw Ree's black, calloused feet and realized she is a "barefoot girl" and that they would have more in common than she thought. Anyhoo, Barb arrived at the hospital at 5 am to relieve us, followed closely by my mom (Marybeth) and Dave, while I took a nap and poor Albee had to do some work.

She was awake a lot this morning, very agitated and tired. They can manage her pain pretty well, but she is very uncomfortable. My mom left this morning, and when she said goodbye to Maria she said "I know you wish you could leave here, too," and Ree squeezed her hand and gave the thumbs up. She received a lot of mail today - Barb and Albee read it all to her and she loved to hear how everyone is thinking about her.

They moved Maria into a normal bed around noon, which is great because she is not constantly in motion. She is in the neck brace and a "turtle" (body cast/back brace sort of thing) so that she is pretty immobile and her neck fracture can heal, but she's not strapped down anymore. However, around 4 pm they diagnosed her with pneumonia - she has a fever, and the docs are doing a lot of tests (blood, urine, lungs, etc) to find out if she has any other infections which are causing the fever, or if it is just the pneumonia. She remains on the vent, but is capable of breathing on her own - they just want to wait to extubate (sp?) her until the risk of infection has gone down. Once she's off the vent, they can move her out of ICU, so long as everything else is going OK.

Anyway, that's about all the news from Billings today - we have made friends with another ICU family, there is a 24-year-old girl who is a noncompliant diabetic who almost died yesterday, and she has two sisters who are pretty sad and quiet, but they each have husbands and little babies that we've been talking to - Maddox (9 months) and Talia (7 months) - they are pretty cute, and the dads are pulling for Maria just like we are for their sister-in-law.

Last thing - an anonymous benefactor wants to buy Maria a present - he was thinking an iPod but then wondered if she would prefer a hand-held DVD player instead. Albee wants me to make a poll - but I can't figure out how - so if anyone has an opinion please feel free to post it (and if your vote is for the iPod, please specify nano or video).

Thanks again, everyone, for all of your thoughts and prayers! Keep them coming - now that she is awake, she is going to need a lot of strength and patience in the coming days!