Mom is out of ICU!

Today they finally moved mom out of the ICU. She will be on the rehab floor now. She still can't move any limbs other than her right arm, and she still can't talk (part of that is because she has the trachial tube in her throat). She is still very tired and very weak, and seems to be in another world a lot of the time, but she looks so much better.

We've seen a lot of miracles and hope to see many more in the coming days and weeks. Yesterday they sat her up for 2 hours, it wore her out for the rest of the day, but it sure was a big leap forward.

Update on Mom

Mom made a lot of progress over the weekend. She began to respond to us by nodding or shaking her head lightly, she would lift a finger when asked to do so, etc. It was so exciting, and our hopes for her recovery soared.

Yesterday we hit a bump in the road when they decided to take out her breathing tube. They didn't know, but her vocal cords and throat were so swollen that when they took the tube out, the swelling blocked her airways and she began to struggle for air. It was a painful, tramatic experience as she struggled for breath for ten minutes while they tried to re-insert the tube. She had a lot of complications after that which left us really worried.

Today, despite her 104 degree fever, she did remarkably well. She began responding again and even kicked her right leg several times during her physical therapy session. It goes to show what a fighter mom is.

The worry right now is that the threat of vasal spasms (sp?) is high (vasal spasms are when the veins in your brain constrict, not allowing blood to flow through them, causing more strokes). This morning they found some brain wave activity that indicates that there she is in high threat and so not only are they monitering her closely, they are also keeping her blood pressure really high (today they had her diastolic pressure between 160 and 180). This causes the veins to have to open up because of the increased flow of blood running through them. It's scary to have that high blood pressure, but even scarier to think of the effects more strokes would cause her.

Tonight the doctor told my dad that they are afraid to take the ventilator tube out again for fear of her not being able to breathe again, so they have decided to insert a temporary trachial tube tomorrow. They feel that the only way her throat and vocal cords will heal are if they remove the tube. We are praying that this procedure will go smoothly and will help mom continue on her road to recovery.

My mom is still battling for her life, so we still need all the prayers we can get in her behalf. Thank you to all of you who have put her name in the temple and have kept her in your prayers. I truely believe they have helped sustain her through these difficult days.

Mom, we love you!!

My mom (Martha) has been in the hospital since all week. She suffered a massive aneurysm (the nurse explained that it was a type of stroke) on Monday morning. She is in the Neuro-Critical Care Center at the IMC and will be there for quite some time. We don't know how extensive the brain damage is yet since she was just taken off of sedation yesterday and it will take some time to be able to gage her cognitive state, etc.

We had a good day today as the doctor asked me to talk to her to see if she recognized my voice. When I started talking to her, she opened her eyes. I thought my heart would burst with joy as it was the first time we'd had any type of reaction from her all week. I explained to her that she is in the hospital and that we are all there for her and that we love her. She then closed her eyes and a tear ran down her cheek. I thank our Heavely Father for that small moment we shared together today. It was a bright spot to a very tough week. The doctors did remind us, however, that she is very, very sick and that we will have good days followed by bad days. They said she is still in the danger zone and each day they are in a fight to save her life.

I am here in SLC to be with my mom while Emerson and Ana Elisa are still back in AZ. I want to thank all of those wonderful people who have and are sending so much love and support during this extremely difficult time. The Lord has truely blessed us with angels for friends. We could not get through this without you all. Thank you with all of my heart.

Thank you also for your prayers for my mom. They are felt and very appreciated.

Catching Up

Here are a bunch of pictures from the last 4 months...

October 2009

November 2009

December 2009


January 2010

IT'S A BOY!

We found out today that we are having a boy!! We're so excited. Unfortunatly, they just gave us printouts of the ultrasound and we can only scan onto PDF files, so I can't post any pictures of our little boy, but we did get some really cute ones.

Hopefully soon I'll upload our pictures off of our camera and then I can update on what has been going on the last several months.

Christmas Season

Ana Elisa loves everything about the Christmas season--the lights, the music, Christmas trees, all the decorations, candy canes (especially the ones on our tree!), and getting a piece of chocolate every day from her Santa Clause advent calendar.


Christmas this year is so fun because we get to see it through the eyes of a 2 year old!! And to add to the fun, we have the gift of a new baby coming to join our family in June!! This little one is my excuse for slacking off on the blog. Hopefully this morning sickness will be over soon, since I am 12 weeks along now...

I'll try to post some pictures of some of the things I've missed sometime soon.

Our Trip to Brasil

In September, we went to Brasil to visit our family. We got to spend a lot of time with them and loved every minute of it.

We spent some time at the beach the first week we were there. Cida's (Emerson's mom) boss let us use her beach house which was in a beautiful, quiet area where there are hardly any tourists. There weren't a lot of people there, so it was really peaceful and quiet.

There's a mall near Cida's house where they had a play area, Ana Elisa had a blast there.

Ana Elisa loved playing at her Vo's (grandma's) house.

We had a barbecue at Emerson's uncle Marcos house. It was so fun to see everyone.

Four Generations!

We got to go see Emerson's dad, it was a fun afternoon.

Cida put a birthday party together for Ana Elisa. It was so fun, they went all out for it. It was a Shrek theme. Cida bought her a princess dress and made Emerson and I a Shrek and Fiona costumes for it.

We had a cake to celebrate Marco's birthday, he was a great sport and dressed up in Emerson's Shrek costume.

We're so glad to have been able to go. We miss everyone so much and hope to see them again really soon.