Brenna update-- PRAYERS NEEDED!!

Saturday Evening 12/19/09

Posted 14 hours ago
In some ways it is harder to see Brenna now than when she was peacefully sleeping in a drug-induced coma. Her breathing is irregular and jerky at times and her eyes twitch and flicker half-open. When we talk to her, she looks like she wants to respond but can't.
We haven't seen much movement today, just some in her legs when the head of her bed was quickly lowered, almost like a startle reflex.
The EEG leads were removed and her hair was able to be washed for the first time in quite a long while. It was so nice to be able to remove the glue stuck in it.
We had a long consultation with one of Brenna's neurologists today. He continues to believe that she is not having clinical seizures although she continues to experience what he calls PLEDs (periodic lateralized epileptiform disharges). These are neurologic disfunctions in the cortex of the brain due to injury suffered from the pressures her brain was subjected to from the bleed and lack of oxygen to it during the event. To what extent her brain has been injured is not known. This is different than the injury suffered to her brain stem. These PLEDs may get better in the future, with time, or they may not. He cautioned us that statistics are not on her side for a "meaningful" recovery.
We know that Brenna's human doctors have done as much as they are able- first to save her life and now to give her the best chance they can for recovery. They admit that it is now mostly out of their hands. Brenna's future is held in the hands of Almighty God, and only He is able to give her the miracle she so needs. We continue to pray that His will would be done, and we surrender Brenna and her future into His hands

Brenna update

This was sent via email from my aunt--Brenna's neurologist again turned down her coma medication by a slight bit this afternoon. We still have a ways to go, but we're heading in the right direction.
We thank the Lord that Brenna's body continues to function well even under the coma medication. Her lungs appear to be healthy even though she's still on full vent support. She continues to tolerate her feedings so she's getting the nutrition she needs. She received a unit of blood today just to give her a boost. Every time they give her a unit (this is her third) she seems to perk up some.
Seizures remain the biggest concern right now. Even though she is not currently having seizures, there are some occassional patterns in brain activity that could potentially turn into seizures as her coma medication is decreased and the brain is less sedated. The doctors continue to closely monitor her EEG and are attempting to find the right kind and dose of anti-seizure medication to prevent them.