#ShannonStrong2020

Update by Kim Today Shannon graduated from SICU - which sounds to me like university, so we are giving her the same fanfare we plan to when she does graduate from one. Not only did she graduate- Rapunzel has left the tower! Jefferson has been so fantastic for her and we cannot say enough good things about them. I am planning an entire post on sharing how fantastic they have been. Now she’s off on a new adventure. While it’s not as cool as going to see a bunch of paper lanterns take flight, we know this is exactly what she needs. She moved to Magee Rehabilitation Hospital so she can do brain and spine injury rehab.   Shannon has been practicing breathing without the ventilator again and did well. She also had some speech therapy- to teach her how to form her words so others can read her lips better, and also to try to talk plugging her trach. We are so hopeful that both will help her communicate better until she gets the trach removed. It’s so hard for her to not be able to ...

Update by Kim Well the good news is that Shannon can breath easier!! Her lung infection is admitting defeat. (Remember those Mucinex commercials with "Mr. Mucus"? She's kicking his butt without even breaking a nail. I'm sure in her mind, she's pulled out her frying pan and smacked him in the head in true Rupunzel fashion) So again.... all the prayers. Thank you.  We just keep seeing miracles. She's being weened off the ventilator and onto humidified oxygen. After a while (a while= whatever time frame a doctor can't guess) when she's shown her lungs are strong enough, she will be breaking out of that SICU! The bad news is that today is very much Monday. I haven't felt a day of the week in weeks, but today hit me hard. No one from the hospital called, so I'm guessing it was Monday there too. I'm not sure where else it's Monday, but it's good to know other people have it too. We were able to FaceTime Shannon this morning an...

Well, it's officially two weeks today. Two weeks ago at this time of day (around 3:30 pm), I was wandering through our home trying to figure out what else needed to be taken care of and packed before we hopped on a plane for Iowa. We had a few friends who came to our home when we told them what happened, and they were right on top of taking over wherever we needed them. We were headed to a pretty unknown scenario, to whatever condition our kids were in, and it was comforting to have left our two youngest and our home in their capable hands. A piece of the story I haven't talked about here is that we were, in fact headed to our kids, two of them- and another one that is like a daughter to us already. Shannon had been riding home from school with her brother Austin, and his fiancée   Katie. Austin and Katie were at a hospital near the accident scene, and by now, Shannon had been taken by Life Flight to a trauma hospital in Des Moines. Katie's mom flew out with us, and s...

Update by Kim Well this girl had us laughing this morning. Yesterday was tough with a lot going on for her and she was pretty exhausted. This morning she was much more energetic and had us stumped trying to figure out what she was saying. At one point, her nurse told us she asked about her phone. We let her know that it was fine and we are switching it to an Iphone so when she is able to use it on her own we can still easily FaceTime her. I let her know that all of her belongings that were in the car (she was headed home from college) seemed to be back with us, and in good condition (another miracle); including her candy stash- which we have NOT been eating! She responded by mouthing "OH, BLESS!!!"  After that conversation, we likely had the worst version of the game "bad lip reading" you've ever seen. Happily, she is quite able to completely communicate to us her trademark eye-roll, which punctuated almost every one of our guesses. If anyone knows where ...

Update by Kim This photo looks like today. Just rolling with it. Not much has happened since yesterday. Shannon is still interacting wonderfully. We were able to FaceTime her several times yesterday- including having her visit with a few of her siblings. She seemed to be happier when she saw them. Last night when we chatted with her before heading to bed, she was a lot more smiles, and even a few chuckles, which does great things to our parental hearts. Today she's still practicing breathing without the ventilator for 15 mins several times throughout the day. The PT team came in and moved her to a "wheelchair" for a while- which just looks like a smaller version of her bed. It had her sitting up a bit more than her bed does. She didn't like it much so after an hour of it, they moved her back to her bed. She seemed uncomfortable and out of sorts more when we talked to her this morning, and we could tell she was struggling in the chair. She continues to make gr...

Yesterday we were talking with doctors about helping Shannon with her breathing, the need for the ventilator tube to come out and the trach tube to go in. Today we have been talking to doctors about her getting off the ventilator completely in the very near future, and the trach coming out soon after. In the world of medical trauma- things change quickly, we are learning. It's hard to process everything that happens day by day, sometimes hour by hour. I'm struggling even to understand what has happened in the last 11 days,  with perfect hindsight.  How well she overcomes her injuries depends on Shannon and the fight in her- and she is blowing us away with her progress. I know it's not her alone, I know she is extremely blessed and all the prayers on her behalf are working. In a word, what we are seeing is miraculous. There is no other way to explain it. We started with Shannon in critical condition with all her vital organs and spine in trauma, and now we are only d...

Update by Kim: Sometime in the not too distant future Shannon is going to ask for her favorite food. "A Wawa turkey sandwich- just lettuce, skip the mayo, please." She will be extra happy if there are Cheezit's on the side. That's a while off though. Yesterday Shannon's Neurologist called to tell us he wants us to consider taking Shannon off the ventilator and to allow them to give her a tracheotomy (hole in her throat used for breathing). I was less upset about the procedure as I was about the decision he asked us to make. Up to this point, there was never any "I want you to think about this". Shannon needs something done, so they called to get permission for legal reasons. We weren't going to say no to spine surgery, to blood transfusions, to anything needed to save her life. There hasn't been any "think about it and get back to us". I didn't like it. It was truly uncomfortable having to make a decision for her. I trust al...

Update from Kim: This is going to come a quite the shock: Shannon is Covid-19 Negative !! What does that mean for Shannon? Nothing. It was never an issue for her. We knew she would be negative, she wasn't exposed to it ever. For her doctors and nurses, it means they don't have all the the restrictions put on them that are required with her isolation. No more hazmat gear and standing in specific places required of them. No more extra care handling of her medical equipment so they don't become contaminated by Shannon. Now it's just the normal amount of extra careful care- and no one is going to rappel through the windows into the room with tasers ablaze when someone opens the door without full body hazmat armor on :D. But on a serious note:  I'm positive that this past week Shannon was blessed by the over-protective care she received while in isolation. She wasn't introduced to any type of illness from any of her caregivers. So we will focus on the good in t...

Update by Kim Yesterday was another day of letting Shannon do a lot of resting. They gave her a break from practicing breathing with less help from the ventilator, but will resume that today. She's no longer on antibiotics, has been getting nutrition from a feeding tube which is going well, and was responsive when they lowered her sedation. She opens her eyes a little, squeezes their hands a bit. We were able to talk to her over the phone once, and FaceTime her once. She looked more tired yesterday than the day before. Her blood pressure lowered when she heard us talking to her. She was also able to hear Austin, Katie, Jake, and K's voices. I was really happy that they were able to talk to her as well. We are still waiting for the Covid results. They are planning to do a rapid test on her, since the one they did last week still hasn't come back. But even if they do it, we won't know the results until tomorrow. The original test won't be back until Wednesday....

Update from Kim:  Shannon was able to do some breathing on her own yesterday with less help from the ventilator. She was responding to the SICU team’s requests to open her eyes and squeeze their hands the few times they took her out of sedation. She tires easily and needs the rest so she will continue to be on a cycle of sedation and waking.  We were able to FaceTime with her once while she was supposed to be awake, but they already had her doing all response testing before our call, so she fell asleep before we could talk to her. We really want her to hear our voices.  We didn’t hear from any doctors yesterday- apparently weekend doctors aren’t as good at communicating with family as weekday doctors are.  Today she will have her ventilator settings turned down again so she can practice breathing on her own more. The ventilator will continue to assist her. Still no COVID-19 results, so she’s still in isolation. We learned from a friend who is a...

Update given by Kim: Overnight, Shannon didn't have any changes, meaning she is still in critical condition, but is stable.  She's been responding when the hospital staff lightens the sedative - trying to open her eyes, stick out her tongue, and grip her hands. The nurse said Shannon has a pretty good grip! That's new since yesterday, when they said they think she's trying to grip their hands.  Today, they might have her practice breathing on her own a little bit. the residents haven't done their rounds yet, so we don't know more than that. We are hoping to FaceTime with her at noon today when they go in to have her respond to them. We are still waiting on her COVID-19 test results. 

We are putting together a continuous list of blessings that are shining forth during Shannon's journey toward recovery. We hope this helps everyone touched by this event to see that God is in the details & to remind us of the beauty in humanity. At the accident scene a nurse was driving behind them and got to Shannon right after the accident. There was a trauma doctor on call at the local hospital that isn’t usually there. He saw Shannon and immediately knew what she needed done so she could be stabilized for air transfer to the trauma hospital.  The other passengers in the car had little to no injuries.  No other cars were involved in the accident.  Lancer & Kim were able to get on a flight four hours after hearing about the accident.  Lancer's coworkers Patti, Rob, Omar, Bryant, Kris took over for him when we left to get to Shannon. The air ambulance medics took on the personal role of helping get Shannon back home- pushing against the doctor...

Today the Neurologist called to let us know they have been weaning Shannon off the sedation, and she is responding to the questions they ask her. Lancer and Kim were able to FaceTime Shannon. She cracked open her eye a bit and stuck out her tongue when the Dr. asked her to. She had also moved her arms earlier when they asked her to, but was falling asleep when they were talking to her.  She remains in critical, stable condition, but it's nice to have them weaning her off the sedation so we can see that she is responding. We aren't out of the scary part of this yet; she still remains on her ventilator, and has a lot of healing of other vital organs that has to happen.  We are so very grateful for all of the prayers! Please keep them coming. This is still a long, hard road for Shannon and our family.  Please continue to pray that her vital organs and brain will function correctly,  that her COVID-19 will be negative and they will let her parents come...

Yesterday Lancer and Kim were able to spend two hours with Shannon. All the prayers for them to be able to see her were  definitely  felt when they got the news that there were making a special one-time exception, and then walked into the hospital where there were signs and security preventing entry.  Lancer and Kim had to suit up in protective gear to enter her isolated room. She is heavily sedated so she cannot respond to them. They spoke to her, told her stories about things that have been going on with family and friends, shared well-wishes from family and friends, and sang to her. When Kim started singing ‘I am a child of God’, the EEG machine lit up with brain activity, and she appeared to shed some tears. The two hours flew by.  Shannon remains in critical, but stable condition. The medical teams continue to run tests, and monitor her, but mostly they are having her rest and recover for her trauma, keeping her as comfortable as possible.  Everyon...

Shannon was involved in a car accident Sunday morning in Iowa on her way home from college. She sustained  severe injuries and was taken by life flight from the nearby hospital to a hospital in Des Moines. Lancer and Kim flew out to her Sunday, and after a day, were able to transport her back to Philadelphia via Air Ambulance. She is currently in the isolated critical ICU at Jefferson Hospital.  Shannon has several serious injuries that are being addressed. Her spine was fractured, which has now been stabilized via surgery and some surgery was performed on her spinal cord. She is currently on a ventilator as she cannot breathe on her own, and medications maintain her blood pressure. Shannon also has some injury to her heart, as well as some bleeding in her skull. She is currently stable, but critical. We will not know for some time how these injuries will affect Shannon. The situation is complicated by the current Coronavirus lockdown measures at hospitals. Shannon is ...