THIN MAN WALKING!
Yes, I know the picture's blurry. That's because it's an ACTION shot. Yup, Michael is really walking - and here he is trotting down the hallway with Physical Therapist Erin as ballast.
(Have you noticed I discovered the color button? We're both moving along in our way.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Michael G. Burgos leaves this Rehab Hospital, do you think he'll be leaving with a walker? No! A 4-legged cane? Nope! Okay, a regular cane? Doubtful!
Our Michael is a-movin'. And at this rate, they think he may just need a person nearby to remind him to lift that leg higher over anything resembling a speed bump...
Nausea Morning, Then Terrific Day. When I got in to the hospital this morning, Michael was having a bad one. He thought it was from anxiety - and I'm sure that was part of it - but I also deduced that he'd been overfed.
I'd had a discussion with the nutritionist Carrie to change the criterion for the need of tube feeding after real eating. It was percentage of food eaten, but I felt it was more accurate to be calories consumed since Michael did not eat large amounts before all this happened. She completely agreed and I thought that was that.
But what I did not realize was that our discussion was not passed on to anyone, because the doctor has to agree and change it in the chart. Sometimes you just don't know the question you're not asking. I assumed her agreement would create a change of orders...but n-o-o-o-o.
So when Michael ate 30% of breakfast, instead of 50%, they supplemented with a can of liquid food thru his tummy tube, making him so full he felt sick. Dammit! I can't tell you how frustrating this is!
Yes, I got the doctor to sign off on it. Yes, it's now official - and they even printed out all the calories of all their meals so I could track it. He only needs to eat 500 calories per meal to skip the tube feeding, which is turning out to be completely doable.
Thank goodness once he did digest breakfast plus a can of food, a giant amount for him, he rallied and actually had a terrific day. (See picture at top!)
Limited Left Eye Vision. They tested Michael's vision with an eye chart. When instructed to read a line of six letters starting at the left, Michael started with the 4th letter. To his limited field of vision in his left eye, that was the beginning of the line.
He'll be tested further with this by someone more expert - and they're teaching him to compensate for it, by turning his head to look left and not trust his peripheral vision.
It could improve, by the way. Or not.
SLO Tribune Story Interview. Michael spoke on the phone today to the reporter from the Trib, the final bit in the story they started with us back in Templeton. AnnMarie, the reporter, wanted to wait until Michael could really speak to her - and I'm so glad. He was his usual intelligent, thoughtful and compassionate self again and I hope the story reflects that. More on that later.
Must sleep now. Must get up early to be there tomorrow for Mr. B.'s breakfast at 8 a.m. I'm not taking any chances...
P.S. Thanks to the warm and wonderful Greg and Jeannie Malick for calling when you were in the area and for understanding about the No Visitor rule still in place. We can't wait to get back to the house your real estate agency sold us!
No comments:
Post a Comment