Tuesday tidbits

Dorothea was taken off of the ventilator today. They have placed an oxygen shield over her tracheotomy tube. So she is still breathing through the tracheotomy tube, but she is having to do all of the work herself. An "oxygen shield" is basically an oxygen mask that is placed over the trach tube instead of over her mouth. They also removed the sutures from around the trach tube.

Early this afternoon the physical therapists came in and sat her up on the edge of her bed for about 2 minutes. She was extremely uncomfortable and began to pound her fist into the bed. She doesn't move much, so for her to pound her fist, she must have been really agitated. She did not want to open her eyes up after that. I had to leave shortly after that, and she had quite a frown on her face.

I don't know what they call them - but they have put back on these blow up things on her lower legs. Every so often air blows into them, which increases the circulation in her legs. Her legs and feet are very stiff from lack of movement.

She had two bleeds overnight, so the doctors are still wanting to consider a colonoscopy, but Harold is wanting them to hold off. He still thinks that the heparin from the dialysis might be a contributing factor. Tomorrow they are going to do another dialysis treatment, but they are going to use something different than heparin.