Fri, 8.1 - Upright Again

There isn't a ton to report today, but the news to report is good. This morning's Ganguly Report (I feel like we should have some kind of news station acronym for his daily visit!) brought decent news. He felt like her left lung still had some infiltrates inside, but the right one was clearer than it had been. He was also very pleased that she made it through the night on the blowing mask set at 50%, and they talked later about reducing that percentage some more. Maintaining overnight did require some anxiety medication to ensure she didn't have short breathes. It isn't anything to worry about though. His only negative over the previous 24 hours was the temperature spike around 8 PM last night.

He confirmed she won't go back to 41 until Monday or Tuesday due to hospital overload. I guess they're currently diverting people who come to the ER. So unless something changes and a room frees up then she'll stay in ICU through then. He also said he expects WBC regrowth by next Wednesday or Thursday sometime. Based on our marrow biopsty conversation yesterday, I have a feeling he went back and looked at his diagram of her treatment to come up with the estimate. Either way I'm happy to have a 'line in the sand' where if we get regrowth prior to that we're happy!

There were a lot of naps today as Mom continued to rest up and still extend herself when she's awake. The two key activities today were physical therapy and gin rummy. She played gin rummy with Janice for a few hands, and I have to say it's funny to hear her play. She'll talk about how the hand's going to take a while or she's trying to figure out what to do. Then all of a sudden she'll say something funny about pitching her cards and lying down. That's about how quickly it goes.

The gin was after her physical therpay routine today. We had to focus on Brendan (PT guy) taught us b/c Ganguly told us this morning those guys don't work on weekends, and we'd be responsible for continuing any PT work she was going to do. But I've attached this picture sequence that should be worth more than a 1000 words...

That's right - she was standing for a bit (you can see her air boots that stimulate blood flow in her legs). She was going to sit in the chair for a while, and I would expect that to take place before too long. I don't think Brendan really knew what to do with her b/c he asked her if she wanted to do something. I told him, 'She'll want to do anything you'll let her. She'll at leat try whatever it is then tell you she can't after trying.' We all know what I mean!