ChloeWatts.com

Monday, Dec 28, 2009

It’s never dull with Chloe. After what seemed like a great night with Mama, sitting on the side of the bed… supported well of course… to dancing to Thriller… as much dancing as one can do on the side of the bed… to getting some good sleep after about 1 am, we then had the morning arrive.

Trying to get sleep in the morning is trying at best. All the activity started early, before 8 am. Then there were two cough assists within 30 minutes of each other. She had a lot of secretions from her nose and her breathing was shallow. Finally, at about 8:30 she fell asleep, completely spent. That lasted until about 12:15 noon when she needed to wake up for more nurse stuff.

When I arrived at 11 am she was sleeping deeply but her color was terrible. Very pasty and grayish, a look she hadn’t had for quite a few days… except for her crash the other day.

She had an x-ray of her abdomen and chest to see why things were what they were. The lungs looked good but she had a lot of pressure below that had to be addressed. That would make her suffer until about 6 pm.

Katy from childlife came in to see if she wanted to do a craft. After many choices she decided on a snow globe with a space to be able to put two pictures in it. As we were waiting for her to decide on the craft, Dana, Sandy and I all secretly guessed she would chose the globe. What we failed miserably on was the guess for the pictures. We all thought it would be Edward and MJ. Surprise! She wanted two pictures of Dana in the globe. One was to be a serious picture and the other, a silly one. The pictures came out great and after Dana left for the night Chloe kept the globe in her lap and looked longingly at it for an hour.

Rehab started today with Katy and Michelle coming in to do an extensive assessment of Chloe’s abilities. To their surprise, Chloe was much stronger than they expected. Also to their surprise they initially faced three badger making sure they were qualified to work with our Chloe. They were.

Chloe does have pretty good muscle tone so now we just need to get the coordination back. Rehab had her write her name with both hands. After many attempts to hold the pen she was able to write her name with her right hand. The left hand penmanship was actually pretty good.

Tomorrow we will have a meeting with the rehab team and also have two different sessions. The first PT will be done in the room; however, the afternoon session will be in the gym. That means we will finally be out of this room after three days. Sure, it’s a pretty neat room, but it’s time to leave. Chloe certainly agrees. Emily, our very good nurse for today, has just finished putting together a traveling kit for the excursion and restocked the cans of feeds we keep in the room.

Chloe did a complete turn around at about 6 pm when the pressure released. The full day of pain was gone, the breathing got better, the secretions reduced and her spirits jumped. Dave came in just after her turnaround and read more of New Moon to her. It looks like she’s ready to party all night but we are going to really suggest she sleep so she’ll be ready for her first full day of rehab.

She has been on the ventilator all day but we will get her a break before going back on for the night. We know that we will have roller coaster times but it sure is much nicer before the drop.

Be well,
Ron