A Visit from Dad

Some say that laughter is the best medicine.  Today, Shirley received a visit from her father that lifted the spirits of both immensely.  Her father recently lost his wonderful companion of the last five-plus years.  She had been in declining health which had prevented Art from visiting Shirley.  I'm not sure which was more worried about the other, but seeing the two of them hold hands for hours was a wonderful sight that I know was mutually therapeutic.

Shirley had the last of her initial assessments when the Physical Therapist came by.  Unfortunately, Shirley's back was tweaked as she was moved up in her bed which prevented them from getting her out of bed.  The PT did assess her leg strength and flexibility and suggested that taking a few steps is on the near horizon.

We heard back from the nutritionist following yesterday's metabolic testing.  Her daily calorie intake is being modified to 1500 calories.  Her protein levels are just below the acceptable range, but the high protein tube feed formula she is on should remedy that is a few days.

Yesterday, Shirley did 13 hours on the sustained breathing test.  During the SBT, they turn the ventilator settings so that she is getting no assistance besides a slightly elevated oxygen level (25% vs, 21% room air).  The test was successful and after a rest night on the vent, she is doing a 24 hour SBT.  If this is completed without issue tomorrow morning, they will remove the ventilator and have her breath room air that has been vaporized with additional moisture to protect her trachea.

Dr. Roper stopped by after the team met to review all of the assessments.  He pronounced Shirley to be on the "fast track." That doesn't provide any guarantees about duration of stay, but does suggest that if things continue to go this well, our stay may be not much more than a couple of weeks.

The only set-back today (if you want to call it that) has to do with some bleeding around the trachea tube.  The tubes attaching the ventilator to the trachea can put some torque on the tube.  This causes some iritation to the area where the incision on her neck was made.  And then, because she is on blood thinners (did I mention the clot in her neck?) a small bleed just keeps on bleeding,  Hopefully, if the vent can be turned off tomorrow, this will allow this to start to heal.