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October 06, 2007
Half-Step Back
Well, I guess Mom's progress was so good, we had to have a half-step backward sometime. Today, she's still doing well, but she's had a bit of CO2 buildup in her brain. Dad noticed it because she wasn't expressing herself like she usually does. She seemed groggy and wasn't fussing much about anything. Plus, I noticed that when she gets like that and tries to write something, I can see confusion on her face and she can't spell out the words properly--she'll try to write a word and repeat letters over, then try to write the word over and still repeat letters. She was asking for her clothes in the closet and she wrote the word clothes as "clothe cllloththe s" or something like that.
But they've got her back on the ventilator again. I would have liked her not to be on it, but, of course, it's necessary again. She's been off it for 2 days now, which is probably why she needed it again. Her breathing isn't as deep sometimes as it should be. So she gets oxygen ok, she just can't always expel the carbon dioxide like she should. But the doctors are still talking about possibly sending her home next week. She's been up walking around which is much easier since there are no drain tubes, no IVs and they took the catheter and stool bag out. So she's been using the commode quite well.
They're reducing her nutrition intake through the feeding tube tonight in hopes that she'll have an increased appetite tomorrow, especially seeing as her activity has increased somewhat significantly in the last few days. Today, she took 5 walks, 4 of which were to the nurse's station down the hall. She's not shaky at all, but occasionally has to sit down to catch her breath. She ate some eggs, apple juice and some Ensure, though I'd like to see her eat more tomorrow. We'll see how her appetite is then and she should be more fresh and alert since she'll be spending the night on the ventilator.
Posted by Amy at October 6, 2007 08:35 PM
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