Emily had a very quiet night last night - and her night nurse told us that she had purposeful response movements in both legs, which is really great news. She was pretty heavily sedated all day today to allow the staff to aggressively treat her pneumonia, but her neurosurgeon consulted with a visiting professor of neurology with the University of Mississippi who told him it's their normal practice to keep young brain injury patients heavily sedated for the first 5 days. Her pneumonia is responding to the antibiotics, so that's another really good sign.

They removed her intubation tube today and replaced it with a trach tube. This will make her more comfortable, make it easier to treat the pneumonia, and it removes another source of infection to her lungs. It's also really nice to see her without those big tubes in her mouth. They'll probably put in a gastric feeding tube tomorrow or Monday.

She's been put on the list for Craig Rehabilitation Hospital - so hopefully she'll be there starting her rehab in 2-3 weeks. It will also be much easier for all her friends that so desperately want to visit her to see her there. We're also counting on all of her friends to help keep her spirits up during what's likely to be a very tough rehab.

Please know that we will be updating this blog as often as possible. If we get tired and miss a day, it doesn't mean there's been a setback or anything bad has happened. It just means that we're getting some sleep for a change.

Thanks again for everything - the outpouring of love and support has been truly humbling.

Barb & Ken