FILE - This undated photo provided by the family shows Aimee Copeland, the 24-year-old Georgia graduate student fighting to survive a flesh-eating bacterial infection. Copeland is refusing to take pain... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This undated photo provided by the family shows Aimee Copeland, the 24-year-old Georgia graduate student fighting to survive a flesh-eating bacterial infection. Copeland is refusing to take pain... (Associated Press) 
 
 A Georgia woman fighting a flesh-eating disease is refusing to take pain medications during some procedures, partly because of her personal convictions, her father said. 
 
 Aimee Copeland despises the use of morphine in her treatment, despite its effectiveness at blocking her pain, her father said in a Friday online update on his daughter's condition. Her graduate-school study of holistic pain management techniques leads her to feel she's a "traitor to her convictions" when she uses drugs to manage her pain, Andy Copeland said. 
 
 He also said the morphine has been making his daughter groggy, confused and has given her unpleasant hallucinatory episodes. 
 
 Aimee Copeland, 24, developed necrotizing fasciitis after cutting her leg in a fall May 1 from a homemade zip line over a west Georgia river. Her left leg, other foot and both hands have been amputated. 
 
 On Tuesday, Copeland's condition was upgraded from critical to serious, "a major victory that cannot and should not be diminished," Andy Copeland wrote Friday on his blog, where he has been providing regular updates on her progress. The development came shortly after Aimee Copeland had her first successful skin graft. 
 
 "The area of her wound, which I saw for the first time on Sunday during a dressing change, is massive," her father wrote in Friday's update. 
 
 "The nurse who completed Aimee's dressing change was astonished at Aimee's insistence to avoid morphine during the procedure, as was her mother and I," he wrote. "I know the pain was significant, but Aimee's courage is greater." 
 
 The bacteria that attacked Aimee Copeland's wound releases a toxin that destroys skin, muscle and a layer of tissue below the skin known as fascia, her father says. 
 
 Despite the painful skin grafts, Aimee Copeland has crossed several milestones in recent weeks. She can breathe on her own, she no longer needs dialysis and she's now able to eat on her own, her father wrote. Although her major organs are all functioning well, Aimee Copeland still needs supplemental nutrition through a stomach tube. 
 
 This weekend, thousands of people are expected at a long-planned fund-raising event outside Atlanta to help the family with medical expenses. The two-day benefit concert in Aimee Copeland's hometown of Snellville begins at 5 p.m. Friday and continues through Saturday night. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Online: 
 
 http://aimeecopeland.com/ ||||| Sunday, May 27, 2012 
 
 AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Aimee Copeland has spoken her first words since being admitted to the hospital at the beginning of May. 
 
 Her father, Andy Copeland, wrote this on Aimee's blog: 
 
 "Today…May 27……is AIMEE DAY!!! 
 
 Sunday, Aimee has finally spoken her first words. I will follow with details tonight." 
 
 Aimee, a 24-year-old graduate student, acquired necrotizing faciitis after falling from a zipline and cutting her leg on May 1. 
 
 The family had been looking forward to "Aime Day," a nickname for the day when she'd be able to breathe on her own. 
 
 Her family is really trying to keep the positive energy up and says Aimee is still not aware of the national attention she is getting. 
 
 She is aware of the blood drives, her father's big push since the beginning of this whole ordeal. They said Aimee was amazed by the amount of blood donations they have already received. 
 
 To keep up with Aimee's progress, you can follow her blog here.
– For the first time in nearly a month, flesh-eating bacteria sufferer Aimee Copeland has graduated from mouthing words to actually speaking, reports WRDW. "Today…May 27……is AIMEE DAY!!!" her father blogged yesterday; her family has been using the phrase to refer to the day she would be capable of breathing independently, which happened last week. "Our baby can talk," writes Andy Copeland, who adds that Aimee still doesn't know her case is garnering national press.