8/8 - Sunday

10:00 am - Mom looks good this morning.

Mom had a fair night; she has a difficult time getting to sleep. When we arrived this morning at 7:45, mom was having a procedure done. They were putting a PIC central line IV into her right arm. This will replace the one in her chest, and she also will not have to have regular IVs put in her anymore. This is good because it is extremely painful and her veins are difficult to find, especially a good one. This also has less susceptibility for infection with this central line.

The groups of doctors came in at 9:00 am. (This was quite interesting - kind of like Grey's Anatomy or ER, as this is a teaching hospital.)  Anyhow, her doctor is a 1st year intern (Dr. Jenn Hasvold) with a 3rd year resident (Meghan Jankowski) and the attending is Dr. Higgins. There was also three or four more students that came in to learn.

Her x-ray and cat scans came back unremarkable for blood clots or arteries being pinched or stressed.

The game plan right now that they are looking at is as follows:
1. They have started her feeding tube in her abdomen - it is now running at 25 ml. / hour. We are going to take this slowly. They up the rate 5 ml. / hour every 8 hours as tolerated. At Gerber they increased the feedings by 10 ml / every 2 hours. Maybe the slower rate/pace will help her.
2. They are giving her an antibiotic (oral med this time) every other day. This med helps with motility of her digestive system. She was on this same med for 4 days at Gerber two weeks ago. Only it was by IV.
3. Walking, walking, walking - now that she is getting some nutrition and a bit of strength.
4. Neurological aspects - In GR at St. Mary's, a neurologist was consulted; however, he mainly looked at mom's brain - CT Scan. These doctors are going to consult neurology and do an expanded consult to include the neurological aspects that involve the stomach, spine, and lower abdomen area. Dr. Higgins mentioned that sometimes patients have an accident/injury and many times an injury with the nerves that involve eating/motility is overlooked.
5. Gastric Emptying Study - They are also going to run a digestive/releasing study to determine how well/quickly her digestive system moves/releases. This is a 4-hour study. She will have to eat something that Dr. Higgins called scrambled eggs (he said that's the closest thing it could be compared to.). They watch how quickly it moves through her system and take images with a detection/x-ray machine at 1/2/4 hours.

10:38 am - Mom just went for a 5-7 minute walk. She went further than yesterday. She is moving so much better today - Lifting her legs into bed, move with more ease. She is quicker to smile today and has even cut up a little bit with Dad, Sue, and I. Now, she is very tired from her walk and is going to rest.

3: 20 pm - Mom has been doing really well today. She has gone for 3 walks today. They are going to see if she can tolerate Jello and Ensure. Eating wise we are going to move very slowly.

Sue and I took a ride into downtown Ann Arbor - about 2 miles. We go a zip-up sweatshirt that is going to hang up in mom's room where she can see it. This is her goal - Wear it home from the hospital when she is better.