Withdrawal Begins . . .

Ellie continues to do well with her breathing, her oxygen saturation is good, and this morning she can come off the nasal canula. They are going to pull the arterial line in her left groin and the Foley catheter can come out today. She will need to receive a platelet transfusion today.

The unfortunate side effect of coming off the ventilator is that all the drugs that were used to maintain her during that time were stopped. Gradually last night, Ellie began to hallucinate as a symtom of this withdrawal. Supposedly if we establish and stay on a proper dose of Methadone, these symptoms should diminish. Sarah said to me last night, as she and Belinda were fully occupied with restraining Ellie, "hallucinations with words!" The blessing in this - we will now have a sense of what Ellie was seeing before, to better help her with any residual memories she may have from these experiences.

[Loretta]