One Down, Nine to Go

A few posts back, I commented on the number of tubes and such that were stuck into various parts of Shirley's body.  I'm happy to report that for the first time in many days, the number is on the decline, as an IV port in her neck was removed today. Now, only nine more to get rid of.

We've also experienced another hospital irony:  while virtually everyone at the hospital is encouraging her to eat more to regain her strength, today a couple of nurses from the "skin team" came in and were concerned that her feeding tube had been taped to her right cheek for many days.  Their solution:  attached the tube to a  band aid affixed to her nose. now the tube hangs right in front of her mouth.  Besides being just annoying, Shirley is still in the fog of some serious pain meds and she keeps forgetting its there with each bite or sip.

Gee, is that feeding tube in the way?

Shirley had visits today from the Physical Therapists (twice). They helped her work on her legs strengthening exercises and got her out of bed and into a chair for three and a half hours.  She also had a Speech Therapist come and evaluate her swallowing. They assume some of the discomfort she is still experiencing is from swelling and will monitor this for the next several days.

The infectious disease team came by and indicated that the infection is on the wane. They are changing her from a broad spectrum antibiotic to one more targeted to the staph strain that she did have.