Improving Earth Score

Dr. Roper, the medical directory at Regional, is a fun guy.  Although he's been in the Seattle area for over 20 years, his Georgia accent is still thick and he has a folksy presentation style.  And although I haven't heard anyone call him by his nickname, we were told it is "Bubba".

Today he walked by and told Shirley that her Earth Score was improving dramatically. Earth Score?  This is a Dr. Roper indicator of how close someone is on returning to normality.  He said when Shirley got to Regional, her Earth Score was zero.  The following have all attributed to her "return to earth:"

• She's off the ventilator and breathing room air (her score will improve more when she doesn't need any supplemental oxygen)
• She has begun eating food again - pureed for the past few days, but the speech therapist just showed up with apple slices, sloppy Joe and a turkey sandwich!  She was just been cleared for a general diet.
• She began swallowing some of her smaller pills today instead of having them ground and pushed through her feeding tube
• She stood up today and was able to pivot to a chair
• The past two days, we've wheeled her out of the room and on to a deck outside her room.  She provided the power to the wheels for the first part of the journey each day.

There are more points to gain on her Earth Score, but the progress over the past few days has been remarkable and we look forward to the complete return to Earth!