Monday, March 2, 2015

Update # 175

8 Years

Last Monday, a teacher friend made the comment that it was the beginning of Jeff’s work week and it was work for him to get off the ventilator. Today is another Monday so this week is to work on building strength.

I walked into Jeff’s room this morning to see open eyes and a small smile. He had a pretty good night. We noticed some yesterday, during the night, and more today, episodes where Jeff becomes extremely warm. He has no temperature and the room is set as cold as it can get so no one can really figure this out. The 3 of us take turns fanning him during these times. Jeff needs his ceiling fans from home!

Jeff passed his swallow test! The speech therapist came in fairly early this morning and did about a 30 minute test. Again, questions, counting, chewing ice chips, sipping water from a spoon and a straw, plus a bite of a graham cracker and a bite of applesauce. We knew he was ready when she said she had some goodies and Jeff asked if she had cranberry juice. The test took longer than usual because he is so weak he had to rest between each segment. But he is now permitted a soft food diet.

He saw someone bring something in his room and asked if that was his lunch tray. No. In fact, Jeff is still waiting for his first food! His liver enzymes have been elevated and the docs decided to do a liver MRI just to maybe see what’s going on in there. So Jeff was told no food till after the MRI. Well, poor Jeff has been waiting all day. They finally came at 6:15 PM to take him for the MRI. (just returned at 8:35)

Another pleasant part of the day – 10:40 AM Jeff said “turn on the TV”. So naturally the StL NBC affiliate KSDK channel 5 was turned on for him to watch. Jeff was awake for several hours watching tv. Wow. Jeff’s voice is weak but we noticed he is doing short sentences as compared to single words.

Orders were put in for Jeff to receive physical therapy and occupational therapy beginning tomorrow. A step towards building strength.

The heart doctor came in this morning and feels Jeff is doing pretty good. He was not really concerned with those brief moments of AFib yesterday.

Two infectious doctors came in to see Jeff this afternoon. The BMT team just wanted their opinion to be sure nothing else is going on inside Jeff’s lungs. They feel he is doing good (glad to hear) but will check out some things. Both teams agreed that Jeff can stop taking a couple of meds but will begin a new one.

We were all surprised late this afternoon when a text from 2 close friends from Hillsboro said they were in the family lounge. It was great to see faces from home. We had a good visit and Jeff was able to say a few things to them. Thanks for coming – and for the goodies.

It’s a cycle right now of getting food to give Jeff energy to being able to do the physical therapy to make him stronger. A slow process but things seemed to move in the right direction today. Thanks for the love and care you give Jeff and us. We feel those hugs!

love,

Marcia