Friday - Monday

Jan. 14, 2008 Jodi’s day started out OK but she had a little trouble with the tube feedings again. The Doctors assume it is because after major surgery on the abdomen, the stomach is not quite ready to fully function. All other vital signs continue to be ok. They pulled out the nasal gastric tube which made Jodi very happy. Speech therapy came by to see if they could try having her use her speaking valve on the trach. She had too many secretions in her throat so it was too hard for her to breath using the trach and therefore too hard to talk. She will try again tomorrow. She is doing her swallowing exercises again and hopefully she will be ready when they decide to take the trach out (probably not for a couple of weeks). Over all, her spirits seem good thanks a lot to all of your comments. She worries about her kids. Tommy has the flu and both ears are infected and Aleq has some residual flu symptoms as well. Aleq cried the other day and told his dad that he just wanted his normal life back. We are all praying for Jodi and Robert as well as their entire family that it will happen sooner than later.
Connie


Saturday Jan. 11 and Sunday Jan. 12. Jodi is doing better since Friday. Physical therapy is going a little slower with her and she has received a nasal gastric tube to drain off the built-up fluids on her stomach. The Doctor’s are still talking about taking the fluids off of her left lung with a needle. They are waiting and hoping that they will not have to do that. We are too. She received another blessing today and she is in better spirits since having that blessing. She so very much appreciates all of your comments. She lives for them, especially since she is not allowed visitors. Please keep them coming.
Connie


Friday Jan. 10th @5:00 PM. Just when we thought that Jodi was doing well, physical therapy came in to get her up. They walked her a little way down the hall with a gait belt supported by two men, one on each side of her. Half way she asked to sit down. We pulled up a chair and after she caught her breath we convinced her to walk back to her bed even though she was saying “no”. After she was back to her bed, I suggested that we set her up in the bedside chair, hoping that the sitting would help her lungs (which are full of fluid). While she was sitting, her vital signs bottomed out. Her blood pressure fell to a scary 46/14(normal is 120/80). Her oxygen saturation dropped to 56 (out of a possible 100%) and her heart rate went to 187 BPM(normal is 60-70). It scared all of us including the nursing staff. We had six nurses and me in the room. We got her into bed and got her stable after nearly 30 minutes. She spent the rest of the day trying to recover from the scare. Later she began to throw up again and have more abdominal pain. She had another x-ray and then a cat-scan. They found that she has a small abscess on the left side of the abdomen. It is too small to drain with a needle so they will keep using antibiotics in hopes that it will disappear.
Connie