Friday fun

Okay Dorothea might not have thought it was fun... but it was good for her and the Physical Therapists were impressed! :) Dialysis was scheduled for the second shift (around 11 am), so that PT could come in and work with her before dialysis tires her out. They let her know that they wanted to have her sit on the edge of the bed today for a few minutes...Dorothea shook her head multiple times to tell us that she did not like that idea. However, she needs to push herself a little bit, so they went ahead and told her that is what they were going to do, and she did not resist.

They sat her up on the edge of the bed for 5 minutes. She leaned her left arm against the railing of the bed for a little support. It was great to see her support herself. The therapists were not holding her up - she was using her own core muscles to hold herself up. When she would start to go backwards, she used her own muscles to bring her back to an upright position. She acknowledged that this was very hard. I imagine she will be very tired from this, but I think it is good for her both physically and mentally/emotionally to sit up like that. PT will not be back until Monday so she has plenty of time to rest. They recommended that we have the nurses put her bed in the chair position on Saturday and Sunday, which we agree is a great idea.

Her tube feeding has now been increased to 35, and they have discontinued her TPN IV feeding. So far, it all seems to be going through her system just fine. They have her on a different type of tube feeding now - something that they say is better for her kidneys.

A voice/speech therapist came in to see her yesterday, however Harold was not impressed with her and asked that they send someone else next time. As he talked with her he realized that she was not very knowledgeable about what is going on with Dorothea...She did not know what the cuff was on the trach, and she did not know what the T-bar was either... we would like her to have someone who is familiar with working with trach patients... seems to make sense to us.

Her right chest tube contains to drain a lot of fluid - 600ml in the overnight shift. However, the left is still barely draining... they keep saying that will come out soon.

Thank you as always for your prayers and for taking the time to keep up on Dorothea's progress.