Sunday Update

Sunday, June 15, 2008

by Judy

Today gave us some encouragement and energy. Doreen remains in intensive care because of the drain, but the unit is now familiar to us, and we know many of the people there. One of of favorite nurses from the last ICU stay was on duty this afternoon and evening. When we arrived at the room this morning (after celebrating Father's Day--Judy, Linda, Lee, and Carl), we found that Doreen had been awake quite a bit in the course of the morning. The TV was on and was broadcasting the Golf Channel, because she had requested it (she loves Tiger Woods). But she wasn't watching much, and she was then tiring. We visited some and continued talk to her and get some short answers. We help with her simple lunch, but then needed to leave for "quiet time" between 2:30 and 4:30.

After that break, we saw much more alertness, and found that she opened her eyes and talked with us. She complained about a little bit of confusion, but still piped in to correct Carl as he tried to tell some stories to son Steve on the phone. She is very regularly ribbing the staff and family. Her sense of humor is likely to be very helpful as she moves through this process. And after a meager supper of applesauce and mashed potatoes, guess what she asked for. And the staff made sure she got what she wanted later--mandarine oranges!

One of the most promising signs was evident during her range-of-motion exercises. When we did them with her over the past 3 days, her left arm was basically dead weight, and that was discouraging, considering that she was showing increasing strength and cooperation before that. Today, though, Judy asked her to try to push back when moving her forearm up and down, and there was definite strength in that effort. Doreen was also able to rotate her forearm almost by herself. And she did her breathing exercises (blowing through a tube against pressure) with strength as well. So we are moving forward!

The nurses report that it is most likely that we will be in intensive care for at least 5 days, considering what they have seen from other patients. Unfortunately, we still have not seen the surgeon since the surgery took place. But we are confident that things seem to be going well. We expect to see daily progress now! Watch for the updates (which may shift back to every other day, unless significant changes or more dramatic events call for daily updates).