December 21, 2016 (The opposite of sunrise.)
HUZZAH! For now, the breathing tubes are OUT! The gloves are OFF! … it’s been such an exhausting day. It was really slow going, really hard work to get those tubes out. Because of the swelling, the doctors and nurses are still really nervous — she’s under constant surveillance. The docs and nurses don’t want her trying to talk yet because they need the swelling in her throat to go down and for her to rest. Colleen looks SO much more comfortable now!
What else do we know? Well… We found at least one blood clot in her leg this morning… her brain still needs at least a week and a half to flush any blood rolling around up there… now that she’s off the ventilator, the doctors are most concerned that she get some real rest, because she really hasn’t had any in the last 5 days and what she’s been through has been enormously exhausting for her. The last five days have been nothing but stimulation, turning, poking, prodding, fighting and testing! Now they feel like as long as she’s being physically monitored, we can let her sleep for a couple of hours at a time… the nurse is here, gently adjusting knobs, pouring over little printouts … her BP is still a wee high and she’s carefully, carefully trying to ease that down… she’s not leaving until she hands the baton to the night nurse… these ladies and gentlemen are heroes. I mean it. HEROES.
SO! Maybe more later tonight? But for now, I’m going to lean back, take a deep breath, and eat this entire pile of chocolate someone left here….
P.S. I never thought I would be excited to hear my mother snoring…
Leave a Reply