Monday

Dorothea was wide awake when I arrived at the hospital this morning. I come each day at 7:30, and usually she is still asleep and it takes a little while for her to wake up. Anyway - today she was wide awake and ready to talk. We talked for an hour or so - she was feeling pretty good. She is still on the ventilator, but they are hoping to get her back on to the oxygen shield later today. Since she was having dialysis again today, they wanted to wait until after that procedure before taking her off the vent. They are still needing to monitor her blood pressure closely (and dialysis makes it drop), so they kept her on the vent just to keep everything stable. She also still has an elevated CO2, but that number is coming down as well. Hopefully later today they will have her on the oxygen shield, and if she can keep her numbers good, then they may try to cap the trach again tomorrow.

They have started the peg feeding again today, hopefully her stomach and intestines are ready for it and will cooperate.

Physical Therapists came in today and had her dangle on the edge of the bed for a few minutes, and converted her bed into the chair position so that she could sit in a "chair" after they left. So, by the time I came back this afternoon she was pretty tired! She did open her eyes for me when I asked to see them before I left - but she mostly just wanted to rest. I knew she was listening to me talk, but she just didn't have the energy to participate.