Isita’s condition has improved marginally over the past 24 hours. She needs less oxygen, the chest x-ray shows improvement from yesterday to today, and her other numbers are stable.

But it is still too early to say what the outlook may be. The very first results suggest it is probably a bacterial rather than fungal infection. We won’t know what the bacteria is for a day or two.  Obviously some are worse than others. 

Isita is currently on the emergency ventilator which keeps her lungs always open and vibrates to circulate the oxygen and CO2. All being well, tomorrow they will try to swap her onto a conventional in-out ventilator but that isn’t guaranteed. 

They need her on the other ventilator before they can wean her back onto unassisted breathing. They will do this as quickly as possible because they are afraid of other infections taking hold via the tubes. However, the pace is dictated by her condition. It could take a few days or many.

We are making sure she hears our voices a lot – reading to her and talking, but of course she won’t remember anything. The midazolam and vecuronium see to that, as well as relaxing all her muscles. All the nurses from Elephant are coming down to visit. She has a lot of support and so do we.