Mondays can be Good

Stan here:

I went up to hospital this morning and was met with a scene that did not look all that much better.  I had heard that yesterday Deb had been able to really enjoy seeing her brother Jim and wife Nancy.  She had spent about three hours talking with them.  Nancy stayed overnight and the staff moved in a cot to help her sleep some.  She is an RN and has really been helpful in this whole thing. Her daughter, Jen, is a ICU nurse and the two of them have a strong understanding of the issues and procedures of the ICU. So what seems to me like climbing Mt. Everest, they take a little more in stride.

One of the other things that happens is that weekends in hospitals do not have the staff availability of weekdays so it would appear to me that maintenance of the situation is done on the weekends and progress can be made in a higher form on normal work days.  When I arrived this morning it seemed like Deb was having shorter breaths than before.  So they had to get the whole  thing moving on down to the x-ray to recheck the fluid on the lungs.  The goal of today was to get that feeding tube pulled and they did not want to do so if the risk of having to put it back in again existed.  The x-rays did show some fluid but the decision was made to pull the tube (which was really bothering Deb).  That was done around  2:30 today.  So sometime later today she will get her first meal.  I do not think it will be a Logan's seven course deal.  But it will be something. Like I said earlier we are thinking in small steps here.

I want to give you one more note of huge progress.   For the first time the PT (physical therapy) people came in and they helped her sit on the side of the bed.  Then, with one person on each side they had her stand up.  I am so tempted to send you that picture but I think but it is important right now that my life continue to help her on another day.  I am quite sure life would be over for me if I did so. Please just trust me!  I was not sure she would stand again.  Gotta remember here that she has not had her hair washed in 11 days and the picture might not make the next magazine cover, but believe me when I saw it was one of the finest pictures I have seen.

To settle one little thought from previous blogs.  Do any of you really think I would eat the ears off of my own children's chocolate Easter bunnies?  I do have an answer but I will save it till a later post.  I will tell you for now I am innocent.

Stan  (fun to post this one, we are gaining here.)