Tuesday August 7

A pretty busy day here.  Donna had a very full schedule of sessions but they were overly impacted by a desire to better control her pain.  Our “one glass of wine “ girl also has the same reaction to pain medication, she participated without pain but she wasn’t quite in the moment.   One of her therapists made her a new splint for her right hand.  It really looks like it is helping already.  

Day two of eating was better than I expected, she tried a lot and managed to eat a small bit of her lunch.  There was an eagerness there that was great to see.  Early days but positive signs. 

Donna’s full team gathers together on Tuesdays and plans their objectives for the next week as well as look long term toward prospective discharge timing.  Very rough but those of us from the business world can understand how this keeps the team unified and focused toward objectives.  No wonder TIRR is such a world-class facility.   There is no doubt these people know what they are doing. 

Donna’s roommate appeared today and seems like a nice lady.  Our short period of privacy is a bit reduced.

I don’t have any good anecdotes to provide today so I’ll share a few facts (for all you nerds out there, I think we know more than most. What does that say about us?). Here are some swallowing facts I learned in the last day.  It takes 52 muscles to swallow and if you don’t swallow for 3 days, the muscles and the important reflexes involved will begin to atrophy.   As you can imagine this is a big deal for someone like Donna.  Her swallow was well above expectations (gee who could have seen that coming) and the best way for her to get to 100% is practice with safe foods.  She is doing great here. 

Donna gets a little better every day but a long haul left.  Every day she has said that it doesn’t feel like she’s getting better (I don’t think she remembers much of the first 6 weeks).  The TIRR folks really do perform magic and I think today for the first time, she actually realized that what we have been telling her about improvement might actually be happening.  She probably will forget about that tomorrow, as she is as demanding of her support team as she is of the students she has taught.    One of the phrases I have loved so much is when she often says in response to praise, “I can do more”.  We know this is absolutely true.  Praise God.

Bob