PICC improved, Foot circulation? Homesick, Party planning

The PICC line insertion site looks better than it did yesterday. Again today, just a little food went down, but it stayed down. She' been hurl-free since last Thursday! Yay! Yay! Yay! Unfortunately, the feeding tube was left off for a couple hours this morning, so Denise lost out on some calories. Also regarding the feeding tube, we need to clarify some directives about using Coke in the flushing of the tube. We don't want all that valuable research we did on Coca-Cola during Friday night's j-tube clog to be wasted.

I forgot to mention that ankles & feet have been getting a little discolored & a little swollen during the past few days. Could be due to cold, hopefully not a circulation problem. Last blood pressure I heard was 120/80. Still, we'll bring the concern up to the cardiologist during the upcoming appointment. It's hard to imagine there NOT being good circulation, though, as she's getting plenty of exercise during PT & OT sessions. I guess that after she got a shower today, she went to PT before her feeding tube dressing was put back on. She said that felt a little weird to have that that thing flapping around while trying to walk. I saw her stepping sideways today. She'll be doing country line dancing in no time (I'd better break out my earplugs). By the way, I took a picture of Denise & her physical therapist tossing a beach ball back & forth, with Gracie & Jacob playing with some other PT equipment in the background during today's visit. But it's super late, so that picture will have to wait. It's about 11:40 pm and Jacob finally fell asleep. He has a gnarly case of gas tonight that's kept him & everyone else awake. Hopefully he's done for tonight. I'm pretty worn out (I feel better now than I did yesterday, though).

Denise asked tonight if there was a goal set for when she can go home. She misses the kids & me and is plenty sick & tired of the hospital life. Sure, she won blackout Bingo again today (she's getting good at that... maybe I should have a trophy made for her), but it's a triumph that can bring only so much joy in this situation. I told her that everyone wants her home. Based on what happened the two previous times, we don't want her turned out before she's ready to be home successfully, though. Neither the doctor nor the insurance people were able to be present at the last care planning meeting. Hopefully we'll be able to touch base and find out specifically what criteria she must meet before being considered for a discharge from the nursing home.

Jacob's turning two (and Denise is turning thirty-three) in April, and Denise is trying to plan Jacob's party from a hospital bed, as she tried to do for Gracie. Hopefully she can work out the final details from her own bed at home, right? She picked a jungle (uh... er... rainforest) theme. I thought it'd be funny to tape banana leaves to Jake's diaper, give him a spear, and take a picture of him as a pygmy. If Denise buys the idea, you bet I'll post a photo. Anyway, if anyone's got any jungle-related goodies that we could borrow for the party, please contact me (pdjwilliams@yahoo.com).

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