What a difference a day can make. By no means are things back to normal yet, but after all of the drama and excitement of yesterday, it feels very good to give a positive report on Shirley's progress.
Shirley is again breathing on her own, the breathing tube being removed at 11 am this morning. She does have a lot of mucus build-up in her throat that she is not strong enough to cough up. This evening, they placed her on a mask piping in warm, moist air. As I write this, they are administering an inhaled medication to break up the mucus. Her bed is titled head down about 20 degrees and is percussing to to help shake out whatever is plugging her up. As the doctors point out, the build-up is in her throat, not lungs, but it is still something to be dealt with.
Her surgery yesterday seems to have done some good. Her belly is not as painful, nor distended. They placed a small drain and the fluid coming off is what would be expected post-operative with no signs of bile.
Shirley had her second round of dialysis this afternoon,. She tolerated the procedure well. We'll have new blood chemistry reports in the morning, but her dialysis nurse said that if her urine output increases, that's a good sign that the dialysis did its job. So far, her output is up only slightly and she is beginning to puff up from retained fluids again. We'll see what the doctors have to say in the morning about that.
Finally, her cognitive skills seem to be taking an upward tick.She still doesn't seem to recognize some familiar faces, but is tracking with her eyes, wiggling fingers and toes on command and gave the doctor a thumbs up earlier today. All encouraging signs of progress.
We may not be out of the woods yet, but we think the forest is beginning to thin, Thank you once again for your continued good thoughts and prayers.
Greg
1 comment:
Finally good news and answered prayers! Thank you for sharing.
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