ChloeWatts.com

Thursday, January 14,2010

January 14th, 2010 Posted in Daily News Post

With the type of days we’ve had recently, I’m hesitant to say anything, with fear of jinxing it. But, I’ll take a chance. She slept well last night and the morning went well with Vicki as our nurse and Sandy on the ugly shift. Dana and I arrived before noon because we knew the wound nurse would be here to do some more silver nitrate on her granulation of the trach site.

Before the procedure Chloe received some versaid to keep her pain level down and it also takes away the memory. Ted was our wound nurse and he was a perfect fit in this room. He had a very similar goofy sense of humor and, as luck would have it, the procedure didn’t hurt Chloe at all. Ted was very careful with her and explained everything well before doing anything. He also told jokes, made Sesame Street impersonations and showed Chloe a fun science project. We finished with a trach pad change and all was well. There still may be a little granulation down in the trach area but we couldn’t see it.

We were a little behind schedule for PT/OT but not bad. The transfer to the wheelchair went well and all the transfers in the gym went very well. She stood for over five minutes at a walker, while hitting a beach ball and throwing a soccer ball. She had spotters VERY close but she needed little help. She’s wobbly but determined to make all this work. She sat without Michelle holding her for a long time and then even put her hands in her lap to show us she could balance.

After that we had speech with Jenny. It’s that part where she gets to have some food in her mouth to see if she can move it around and taste it. Then she spits it out through her suction tube. It was pretty successful today with her getting a little movement of her tongue. She has to be able to move the food all around her mouth so it can go into position to swallow. The throat will also have to be up and working well before real swallowing can happen but we are moving in the right direction.

Next was our time at school. We went to the room for school and it was being used. So we walked to another and it was being used. We finally went to the third choice and we rolled up to the table and plugged the equipment in. Chloe has many pages of homework but the teacher asked her if she wanted to do those and Chloe said no. So they ended up with the teacher holding a book and Chloe reading it…. For 20 minutes! We need tutors! I can’t see anything productive coming from what happened in school today. There wasn’t a game plan and then the teacher let Chloe make the decisions. We didn’t even have a room and it took 10 minutes to get set up for a 30 minute class. Something needs to change there.

Next we went to see Dr. Martha about Psych. At the same time Patty and four-legged Jake showed up. Jake ran that hour pretty well. We also worked on Chloe’s progress board. It’s a project to show Chloe just how far she’s come since December 2nd.

Back to the room we got here in time to have Barry and Heather meet us at the door. There were more Christmas presents that were delayed in route. Barry brought his guitar as requested so, with Jake on the bed, and nurses doing their thing, Barry sang “All You Need Is Love” with all of us singing on the chorus. Then, after a discussion of it’s origin, Barry started in on “Puff The Magic Dragon.” Again, all of us sang along, including Chloe, who mouthed the words. It was a great visit.

Vicki is on again tonight so we are expecting another quiet night. Dana has already asked that the Tylenol be dropped for tonight and Dr. Shih will possibly make a decision tomorrow to discontinue both. Chloe hasn’t had the muscle aches that she’s had in the past so we should be able to do without meds.

I’ll be making a run to See’s Candies for Dana tomorrow. I just have to see if I can wait until I go to Albany to pick up another order of Chloe Peace Shirts or if I’ll need to make an emergency run to the hospital so Dana doesn’t have withdrawals.

Dana and Chloe are in bed watching Gray’s Anatomy, like they don’t get enough hospital drama. The RT even popped in to make sure when it was over so she wouldn’t interfere.

So that’s our day. Hope you all had one at least as good.

Be well,
Ron