Better day, Loopy, No more isolation

Denise said she had a much better day today. The schedule of therapy resumed, so she rode in the wheelchair, bathed & dressed herself (she was especailly proud of doing her socks by herself). One of the PTs from USC popped in for a visit. Denise said she loved the visit but felt loopy. Read on.

Isolation is a thing of the past, it seems. When we visited we didn't have to wear the gloves, gown & mask anymore! Jacob continues to get more comfortable with mommy. The lack of all the isolation measures probably help. Both kids sat on the bed next to Denise. Gracie snuggled. Jacob kept taking the bed phone off the rail and saying, "Hello," then hanging it up again.
Denise had one vomiting episode today, not eating much, no fever, still on amikacin for the pseudomonas, ab/pelvic CT scan showed some abnormality with the psoas muscle. We've had that before, but it turned out to be nothing. One of the teachers from my school shared with me her hospital experience (it was scary), and it was due to an infection in the psoas muscle. One of the doctors came in tonight and said that there's a head CT scan or MRI on the horizon.

The pain from the g-tube and the bedsore were not as pronounced today. She sounded spacey over the phone this afternoon, and I wondered if she got morphine or something to deaden the pain. She said she did get morphine. Our visit tonight was interesting. She was definitely not as "with-it" as she's been previously. She had a fixation about "counting 189 things and the 189th thing was real." She tried counting things on TV, letters in a book, footsteps that she thought she heard... weird stuff. She also said she knew when she was going to die: Age 89. Better then than now, I figure. She happily noted, "Honey, you know you'll probably be dead by then?" Cheery as can be, she is. Get a load of this next bit: Her hair's very thin and falls out easily, to the point of being bald on the back of her head (laying in bed, nutritional issues). Those of you that have known her for a long time probably can't imagine her with thin hair, or even being able to see her scalp. But it's true! Anyway, at one point tonight my mom told Denise that she thought her hair looked lovely. Denise grabbed a handful of it, pulled it out and handed it to my mom, pleasantly saying "Oh, here... have some."

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