Not much is new today. Suzy continues along pretty much as yesterday. The challenge now is to bring her lungs back to capacity so that she can be weaned from the ventilator. My impression is that progress on this front will be considerably slower than it has been in the last couple days. We have been so encouraged to see many of her systems doing well, but we were reminded today that her respiration still has a very long way to go.

Unfortunately, we have found that too much help actually hurts. At one point this afternoon, two people from my work and another from Suzy's stopped by to say hello. With me, and Suzy's mom and sister, that made six visitors. It was too much stimulation, and she became very agitated. Our eyes met and locked, and she shook her head violently "no." I shooed everyone from the room and eventually calmed her by promising that I would never ask her to go through this if I didn't think she could get better. It took some time, effort, and persistance, but we managed to calm her down. The progress is heartening, but the torment is heartbreaking.