So here's the update so far today:

When my mom and I got here this morning she was in getting a CT scan on her head. They said that it looks like the ventricles (sp?) are smaller but the blood is still there. They are hoping that they will be able to take the tube out of her head tomorrow. They keep clipping the tube that drains the fluid from her brain off and they watch to see if she is able to drain and absorb the fluid like she is supposed to. They also did an X-ray on her chest to fix the placement of the pick that goes to her heart. They have been giving her all of her medicine through that pick. It's now in the right place.

She is still having trouble coughing. She just can't seem to suck in enough air to get a good cough. They keep suctioning her throat but hopefully she will start coughing and swallowing on her own soon.

She has also been talking more today... although none of it really makes sense. She is pretty confused. They say that it is pretty normal for her to be saying some strange things at this point. Today she said one of her students names and when I asked her about it she said, "It's one of my kids... tell her to be quiet." I said, "She talks a lot in class huh?" and she nodded. She was moving her hand back and forth and when I asked what she was doing she said, "Passing out the paper.. it has words to help with their writing." She's been talking a lot about school today.

One of the PA's came in this morning and I finally just asked her what I should tell Melissa's principal about her coming back to work. She said that it would be quite a ways down the road before they could even look at whether she would be able to go back to work or not. She said to let her principal know that she should probably find a long-term replacement. So I called her school to let them know. Everyone at her school has been so nice to help her out. Her aide is teaching her class this week and then starting Tuesday they have a teacher that retired last year coming in to take over her class as a long-term sub. Melissa has loved the people she worked with at her school over the past couple months and loved her job. She has worked so hard at it. Even when she was at home, she was always doing school stuff. Her principal raved about her teaching and said that she was doing such a good job. We hope that she can recover and get back to the job that she loved so much.

They are trying wake her up enough that she will be able to swallow. She have been feeding her through an IV but they want her to be able to start swallowing water and ice chips on her own. They are going to come in and test her this afternoon. She keeps asking for a drink so we hope she is able to do that. If she doesn't pass, they will be putting a feeding tube down her throat. So we've got our fingers crossed that she passes.