July 7 from Sarah

Not much new to report again today. My mom perked up a bit this afternoon, showing us a few of her subtle moves, but she spent most of the day in a hardcore state of rest.  We met with her doctor here to review details of her current status. I forgot to mention this yesterday, but my mom actually had a blood transfusion yesterday. She has not been losing hemoglobin, but her levels have stayed a little low; therefore, she received blood yesterday to increase her hemoglobin and to enhance the healing process.  The transfusion was quite successful and her hemoglobin was up today. 

My mom had been on a very low dose of pain medication, but we learned today that she is now completely off of it. This made sense to us, as we've noticed an increase in reaction to pain from her lately. It was also nice to hear because my mom has always been somewhat of a cheap date.  My dad probably disagrees with this cliche, as my mom has never been known to skimp out on a good meal! But in terms of what it takes to knock her out, we were worried that maybe pain medication could keep her rather drowsy.

As I mentioned yesterday, my mom is doing very well with the tracheoscopy size she currently has. It can take a while to completely wean off of a trach, and we really want her to be able to have the quickest and easiest transition off of it when she wakes. The doctor was very reassuring today regarding a reduction in trach size soon, so we are looking forward to this. Not much else going on, besides the spread of a Starbucks obsession around here. My dad has been spoiling me with a coffee run every morning and the nurses are getting in on the action. My dad has also started little bets with the nurses to see who can more accurately guess my mom's blood sugar levels. He rarely wins, but they never seem to get bored with outdoing him! 

Thank you all again for the ongoing support.

Sarah