Susan update 8/2/07

Hi all,
The good news is that mom is doing really well.
Unfortunately dad is not doing so well. He went into
respiratory failure Monday morning and had to be put
back on the ventilator. He got a tracheostomy
yesterday and seems to be doing fine now. At least
he's stable. His gall bladder remains inflamed and
I'm still not sure what they're going to do about that
-- probably reinsert the drain. I'm waiting to see or
hear from the gastroinestinal doctors. For the
moment, he's heavily sedated and so he's comfortable.
He had dialysis again this morning (at like 5:00 a.m.
they tell me ...no, I wasn't there! <G>) They're
going to try CPAP later today and see how his
breathing is now. Hopefully his trache will be
temporary and only for a couple weeks (not like
mom's).
Mom is doing wonderfully well. She's talking
(when the cup in the trache is deflated and she can).
She's up to solids and only having trouble with thin
liquids, so she can eat again. They tell me thin
liquids are the hardest to eat because your throat
gets terribly sore from the vent and the muscles have
to recover. She's using her leg and and arm and
sitting in the cardiac chair for like an hour and a
half a day. And she's seems lucid and fairly with
it. She does seem to be having some vision problems,
which is a concern since she was such a voracious
reader. They say that after a stroke the most comes
back in the first couple months, especially the first
6 months, but things can come back for 3 years. So we
have to be patient and see what develops.
Please keep the prayers coming! They are working!
Thanks!
Love,
Susan