February 5th

Today started as usual, dressing change and then the stretch chair for about an hour. The Occupational therapists came in and moved Brenda from the stretch chair back to her bed. They worked with her on sitting up and then standing up. Brenda did a lot of the work herself. She made three attempts to stand ALL the way up, but was only able to go about 60% of the way up. This is the first time she attempted this. After this session she was placed back in the stretch chair for about 4 hours. This is very good position for her lungs. The Rehab therapist came in and replaced the facial pressure tape. The therapist was impressed with her lower lip flexibility. She will not get the pressure mask until she is off the Ventilator. The mask is not made to accomadate a ventilator. The Pulmonary doctor and therapist said today she would start breathing on the Ventilator first, then to CPAP and then finally try to breath without the Ventilator. Breathing on her own only lasted a short time because of the size of the Trach and the type of Trach. Breathing through this Trach is like breathing through a straw. The Renal doctor reported her numbers are steady, urine and processing toxins. The Dialysis Cather Tube was removed late yesterday. Later in the afternoon, while she was in the stretch chair, the Speech therapist worked with her swallowing and putting in her dentures. Today she was only able to put in the upper dentures. The therapist was impressed with her tongue movement and made sure we continue work with her using the mouth exercises. Tomorrow they are going to insert the feeding tube into her stomach. She still remains in the Surgical/Medical ICU in critical condition.