Amazing Madelyn Grace: Every breath you take, every move you make, I’ll be watching you.

Welcome back folks! Here’s what’s happening, hot stuff:

Madelyn had a rougher night last night and they flipped on the ventilator around midnight, but started back on spontaneous around 7 this morning.

Today was a BIG day for her because she got to use the trach collar! They put it on around 11:45 a.m. and respiratory said they would keep it on for at least 30 minutes, but Madelyn felt like showing off and stayed on it all afternoon! Whoop whoop! She was still on it when visiting hours ended but they planned on putting her back on the ventilator at 8 p.m. to let her rest.

The burn team came in and took the gauze off of her hands and were letting them get some air. They said that they look really good and are healing well. It’s really crazy to finally see her hands again. Her new and improved hands! Fancy hands! And her nail polish is still in tact. She’s looking good! She still has gauze on her face, but they got to take off her mummy mask so we can now see her whole face again.

PT and OT came in to work with her and she was able to get up and sit in a chair today. I hope that with these new steps towards getting her off of the ventilator that soon she will be able to take actual, physical steps and get out of the bed more. She’s always done really well with sitting up on the side of the bed and doing her little side steps, so we know she can do it!

She did good on her “what-do-ya-know” quiz and knew her name, birthday and even what year and month it was which she hasn’t been able to do yet. She still has some moments of delirium, but everyone has told us that should be the least of our worries and that’s just how being in the hospital for a long time works.

We hope that tonight she has a more restful evening tonight and is able to continue doing well on the trach collar tomorrow so that the ventilator can GET OUTTA HERE. She has made so much progress today and we can see a light at the end of the tunnel (and hopefully a light at the end of the hallway that leads us out of the hospital. To her nurses, love y’all but it’s time to go.)

That’s pretty much it! Today, I wanted to add a quote from the great Martin Luther King Jr. to go along with tonight’s verse as a way to commemorate his life and the powerful words he always spoke about resilience.

“Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” - MLK

Thanks for everything! Much love always!

Psalm 130:5 - I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.