Settling in at Regional Hospital

Saturday, Shirley was transferred to her newest home away from home. Regional Hospital for Respiratory and Complex Care welcomed her with open arms yesterday.  The facility is a small, non-profit hospital that leases space from Highline Medical Center on their Specialty Services Campus.  The hospital is located a couple miles due north of SeaTac airport (yes, right on the flight path, but fortunately the rooms are well sound proofed).

With the transfer, yesterday was a rest day with no goals for Shirley other than settling her in and getting rest. But this morning, things kicked off at 8:30 with the start of their weaning process.  For 6+ hours, her ventilator was turned to a setting that tracked her respiration rate, minimum lung pressure and expiration volume.   The objective for today was six hours on this setting and Shirley went six and a half.  

She said she could have gone longer, but tomorrow they want her to do twelve hours, so they didn't want to overdue her first day.  If things go according to schedule, tomorrow she will do twelve hours off the vent and then Monday, will go 24 hours.

Shirley had an unexpected guest yesterday as Mary, her IV nurse for the past eight years dropped by for a visit. She and her husband were returning to Portland and had seen the blog post that the move was taking place.  Shirley was tickled to see a familiar face, especially in light of the anxiety around moving.

My folks stopped by today as well. They are heading off on a long road trip and made their first stop to see us before stopping for their first night at my sister's in Renton.

We also received the sad news today that Shirley's father's girlfriend and companion of the last 5+ years passed away this afternoon.  We all loved Margie very much and will miss her dearly.