I never thought I could get so excited about bodily function, but after 12 days of no activity from her Kidneys, today Shirley began to urinate. Not a lot, but it appears that her kidneys are beginning to think about getting back to work. She received a dialysis treatment again today and they will continue to plan to do so every two to three days, but the need may wane if her output continues.
Shirley is now about 24 hours out from her tracheostomy. They have had her on a pressure support breathing test for most of the afternoon and it seems to be going fine. Now that they have the trach, they have more flexibility in how they can test her breathing capacity. They've talked about removing the vent completely and just having humidified oxygen flowing. It is literally as easy as changing couplings to go between the ventilator and just an oxygen flow that they can provide her with breathing exercises as she can tolerate.
Yesterday I mentioned that she can now start eating and talking. I need to make a correction to that statement based upon my new understanding of how a trach tube works. Currently, the tube is in her trachea and a small balloon has been inflated to seal off her windpipe. Since her vocal cords are :"up wind" of the trachea site, she has no voice right now. The doctor explained to me that after about a week, they can deflate the balloon and she will be able to produce sounds.
Today has been a good day with forward progress that is very encouraging.
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