Although her condition has improved significantly, Aimee Copeland struggled mightily this past week, her father Andy wrote in a moving update he posted Tuesday on a Facebook page dedicated to her.
For a month now, the 24-year-old Snellville native has been battling an aggressive bacterial infection that nearly cost her life. She remains in critical condition in an Augusta hospital.
The University of West Georgia graduate student was infected with the flesh-decaying bacteria after she fell from a homemade zip line May 1 and suffered a major cut to her leg. To save her life, doctors amputated her left leg at the hip, her right foot and her hands.
Andy Copeland has regularly described his family’s ordeal in the blog that has captivated thousands of people around the world.
"Phantom pain now plagues her ‘hands,'" Copeland wrote. "Although she has no hands, her brain is apparently still telling her body that the hands are there."
Copeland writes that he asked his daughter to describe the pain.
"She told me, ‘It feels like I have been carrying bags of rocks.' Wow. Imagine carrying bags of rocks for days on end and never being able to release them. ... She said her ‘fingers' feel contorted and twisted. Nothing really helps her pain much. Some of the pain medication makes her sick to her stomach and she winds up vomiting. Like I said, she has struggled mightily."
He continued describing his daughter's fight.
"This past week the proverbial poopy hit the fan for Aimee. She was lashing out at her care givers, she was in pain, she was sick to her stomach, she was unable to tend to her own basic needs and she was very unhappy. She had every right to be unhappy," he wrote.
By last Thursday afternoon, his daughter's misery had come full circle, Copeland wrote.
"She knew that many things were beyond her control and that fighting those who cared for her was not the solution. She prayed and meditated on this and she told me she was overcome by peace," Copeland wrote.
"She realized that she had to give in to something much bigger than herself. I asked her what she meant and she said that she surrendered her will and submitted to the will of God. She knew that anger was not the answer. She knows that God is in control."
On Friday, Aimee had returned to her normal sweet self, Andy Copeland wrote. Nurses questioned whether it was due to a change in her medications.
"We know the real reason," Andy Copeland wrote. "Prayer has changed and will continue to change much over the coming days, weeks, months and years."
Andy Copeland gives much credit for his daughter's survival to faith and prayer.
"Considering that Aimee was once the 'sickest person in ICU,' according to one doctor, she has come a long way," Andy Copeland wrote. "Her survival is a blessing and her continued pace of recovery is a testament to the power of prayer. "
Andy Copeland noted other milestones in Aimee's recovery: Her lungs are now healthy; she once had as many as 16 IVs running into her body, and she now has two; she is off dialysis for now; doctors removed her tracheotomy tube on May 27 and replaced it with a trache cap so she could talk.
Monday, doctors removed the trache cap and bandaged her neck, the father wrote. The tracheotomy should close within 5 days.
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