DAY 72: Therapy
The pace of Mom's recovery remains fast. The doctors and nurses are as amazed as we are, noting that this hardly looks like the same patient they were seeing just a few weeks back.
Mom is now breathing on her own for a few hours each day. She requires less of the ventilator than ever before. She lies with her eyes open, lifts her head, reaches her hand toward people approaching the bed, and constantly shifts her position on the sheets. Her feet, ever the most active part of her body, wrap themselves around the safety bars and clamp onto anything within reach.
Can you believe that this is the same person who was on 100% oxygen, facing pneumonia, and completely sedated just before Christmas? Sometimes I can't. Here's Emily helping the occupational and physical therapists position Mom on the side of her bed:
Mom's doing so well that Dr. Pinson told me this morning that she's ready to go to a long-term acute care center any day now. The LTAC will finish the job of getting mom off the ventilator entirely and able to participate in a rehabilitation program, which will likely take several months. The LTAC phase of her journey back to health should last between two weeks and a month.
We're all excited about Mom's benefit concert at the Estes Park YMCA tomorrow night. If you're in the area, I'd love to see you there. I'm supposed to say a few words about Mom, but I've lost most of my voice to a nearly painless sore throat. The only symptom is a husky voice. I'll do my best.
You can read more about the concert by scrolling down to the last entry, directly below this one.
Mom is now breathing on her own for a few hours each day. She requires less of the ventilator than ever before. She lies with her eyes open, lifts her head, reaches her hand toward people approaching the bed, and constantly shifts her position on the sheets. Her feet, ever the most active part of her body, wrap themselves around the safety bars and clamp onto anything within reach.
Can you believe that this is the same person who was on 100% oxygen, facing pneumonia, and completely sedated just before Christmas? Sometimes I can't. Here's Emily helping the occupational and physical therapists position Mom on the side of her bed:
Mom's doing so well that Dr. Pinson told me this morning that she's ready to go to a long-term acute care center any day now. The LTAC will finish the job of getting mom off the ventilator entirely and able to participate in a rehabilitation program, which will likely take several months. The LTAC phase of her journey back to health should last between two weeks and a month.
We're all excited about Mom's benefit concert at the Estes Park YMCA tomorrow night. If you're in the area, I'd love to see you there. I'm supposed to say a few words about Mom, but I've lost most of my voice to a nearly painless sore throat. The only symptom is a husky voice. I'll do my best.
You can read more about the concert by scrolling down to the last entry, directly below this one.
Posted by Jason Kelly | 2:57 PM
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