Christy’s Recovery Day 7

So today Christy had her entire family from both sides here at the hospital taking turns being by her side. She also had very many close friends come and cheer her up. The energy and support that Christy has is very powerful and I know that’s helping her recovery. We are not going to have the MRI results until sometime tomorrow. There was only one trauma doctor here today that was busy with many emergency patients, so we just have to wait a little while longer. We have been reading Christy “Alice in Wonderland,” which is one of her favorite movies. Christy continues to move and continues to posture, which according to the nurse are different. When Christy postures, her whole body tenses up and she seems a little agitated or uncomfortable. When Christy moves, she might twitch her eyelid slightly, wiggle her toes, grasp your hand, move her head, arm, or leg. While I was reading to her, Christy looked as though she was struggling to open her eyelid. This helps us to know that she’s still with us. And although these movements may not be voluntary yet, it’s still a good sign that she hasn’t given up on us and that she’s still trying to come out of this. They have told us before that Christy doesn’t seem to be reacting to pain, but it is evident that she does react to pain. Whenever they prick her finger to test her blood sugar level, or make her cough to check her respirator, Christy obviously becomes uncomfortable and tries to pull away or tenses up to show that it was uncomfortable for her. We hold her hand and let her know that we are there with her and she just needs to focus on healing herself little by little, day by day. Thank you for all of you praying for her miracle, we have to have faith that Lord is taking care of her. I know that all of our prayers can help God realize how much we need Christy here on earth. We love you so much! Sleep tight my angel.

Christy Betancourt’s Recovery Day 6

We met with one of the neuro Trauma doctors today. We have been trying to have a family conference scheduled for past two days, but they have been busy with many emergency patients that have come in recently. So today at our conference, the doctor tried to be very honest with us and tell us that they are very worried about Christy. The doctor said that we are almost a week into the recovery process, and we should have seen Christy improve slightly by now. He told us she has an MRI scheduled for this afternoon, but they are checking first to see if the metal plates they had to use on the side of her face are going to be compatible with an MRI scan. The scan is only going to tell us more detailed information of additional damage to parts of her brain, but will not change the treatment that she is given. The doctor guesses that the reason she hasn’t improved at all is because she does have additional damage to the brain that is not visible on the CT scans. Her other non-damaged eye is not functioning now either, which could be a symptom of bilateral blindness. In all of his 10 years of experience, he says that he’s only seen a couple of patients improve after this amount of time of no improvement at all, and those patients haven't gone on to be normal functioning. He told us that if Christy continues to stay in this condition for another week, he’s going to ask us what we want to do. So needless to say, the information we were given today was very grim. Christy needs a miracle to come out of this. We are staying by her side and telling her how much we love her. All we can do is pray that God doesn’t snatch her up for Himself. Please continue to pray for her as much as you can. She is in the Lord's hands. We love you soooooo much Christy!

The Betancourt Family

Christy's Recovery Day 5

Hello Family and Friends,

Thank you all for the love and support you have shown Christy in this past week. As many of you know, Christy was in a horrible car accident last Sunday, January 24th and is suffering from a severe brain injury. Most of the damage was to the left side of her face, damaging her left eye and her frontal lobe. Her eye is still intact but is not functional as of yet; the doctors aren’t sure if this permanent or not. Her skull was cracked at the time of the accident, which actually turns out to be a good thing for a brain injury, because the brain has room to swell. All other parts of Christy’s body are in mint condition. Christy is in stable condition but is still in a coma and still needs help breathing through a respirator and is fed through a feeding tube. Christy’s condition hasn’t gotten any worse, but hasn’t gotten much better as of yet. The most important thing is that the swelling in her brain stays down, which it has.
The doctors have seen patients who have had an injury similar to Christy’s and make it out just fine, and they have also seen patients with a similar injury that just stay in that condition. The doctors have conducted several CT scans, but there haven’t been changes between any of the scans yet. It is still too early to conduct and MRI to find out if there is damage to any other parts of her brain. Christy has moved a little bit which was exciting for us to see, but the nurses describe this just as posturing, or reflexes. Christy has been running a slight fever the past couple of days, but nurses are keeping this down with Tylenol and ice packs.
Christy is young and strong and we just have to believe that she is in God’s hands right now and we have to trust that He is watching over her. Christy could use all the prayers she can possibly get right now. Please continue to show your love and support for Christy, I really do believe that that will make all of the difference. If you would like to see her, just please make sure you aren’t feeling sick and contact my parents first. We love you with all our hearts Christy! Our world wouldn’t be the same without you. xoxo

Love,
The Betancourt Family

WE LOOOOOOOVE YOU!