Hi everyone!

I apologize for the lack of updates. Please know its just because things are busy, but that Lauren is doing really great! I'm going to try and provide a longer update today to let you all know what has transpired over the last couple of weeks! 

Lauren has made such significant strides over the last few weeks. Her lungs have improved considerably. She will still be on antibiotics for several weeks, but they felt comfortable enough moving her out of the ICU last Thursday. She had the feeding tube removed on the 8th and is eating on her own (Although she's not a fan of hospital food!). She gets tired out very easily and even eating makes her tired, but just being able to get down some food is helping with recovery. 

The chest tube was removed last Wednesday, and she was so happy about it! It was rather uncomfortable, but they wanted to make sure she and her lungs were ready before removing it as they didn't want to have to put it back in. 

Her kidneys have woken up! It has taken slow progress over the last couple of weeks, but she came off dialysis and even LASIKS. The doctor even told the family today that her kidneys have done so well that she might not need to come back to have them checked! This is really great progress as they were thinking it might have taken months for them to get back to normal. 

PT has started a bit in the hospital, and is going well. She is able to raise both arms over her head now. We FaceTimed with her last week, and she said its like being a baby as they have to work with her to practice basic things like sitting up on her own. She is frustrated by this and we continually try to tell her to give herself grace, as she has made almost unheard of progress in the last few weeks! The doctors said that for everyday you are in the ICU or in a coma, it takes 1 week to recover. She was in a coma for nearly 2 weeks, so it is going to take time to get back to "normal". But, we all know Lauren and how vibrant and active she is, so we know its hard on her. But, we are so proud of all of her progress. 

The talk is that she will be discharged from Barnes within the next couple of days (we are hoping today, but it all depends on when they can get an ambulance ride). She will be transferred to an in-patient Physical Therapy center where she will spend the next couple of weeks having 3-5 hours of PT every day. They are hoping to get her to the point where she can take a few steps in the center before discharging her home. There, she will need months of outpatient PT as well. 

It has been a long, hard road. But we can confidently say she is going to make a full recovery, and that in itself is reason to celebrate. That was not always a guarantee, and we are just so happy to be at this point where we know she will be okay and just have to support her getting back to her "normal" self. 

One more PSA - the doctors told Angie and Jim that what saved her was 1) her age, and 2) the fact that she didn't smoke or vape. They said if she had, the outlook would have been much more bleak. It made all of us as a family think about all these people who smoke/vape never knowing that something like this could happen even when you are young, and because of the damage it does to your lungs, it could limit your life even in your 20s. Please consider this when smoking/vaping! :)

The doctors are going to do some genetic testing to see if she has a genetic condition that makes it so her immune system isn't as strong as it should be. If that's the case, she may have to go for monthly injections to help. However, I think this is a good thing! Its good if they catch it and can treat it so she doesn't go through smoothing like this again. I think they are very surprised that she got as sick as she did with how young and healthy she is, so they want to make sure they are checking every possibility. 

Getting HFlu and pneumonia and then getting as sick as Lauren did was shocking to both us and the doctors. There were definitely times that we and the doctors weren't sure she was going to make it or not. But, we knew our girl and knew she was a fighter! She is going to continue to fight and live her (LONG!!) life to the fullest. We keep saying she needs to be a motivational speaker after all of this :) 

Thank you again to everyone for your support! If you have any questions, please leave them below and I will try to answer them!

Kirsten