It was great to hang out with Shannon for a few days.  Shannon's doctor had a talk with the Urologist and the good news is that the procedure is now scheduled for Wednesday (Yea!).  Shannon is very happy about the news.  Her biggest frustration is with her blood pressure.  Since she cannot feel pain, her blood pressure shoots up if something is wrong.  Then, when she sits up, it plummets.  When her pressure is high you need to find out why.  The doctor stated that the drop is due to the fact that her body is still adjusting to her circumstances.  That means that I saw her systolic go from 161 in the morning to 59 in the afternoon.  It's very frustrating to her because it is wiping her out and she is only getting to go to 2/3's of her therapy.  It's just going to take time for her to adjust. [...]

Good news is that Shannon does not have a clot in her arm.  

She was hoping to get the trach out this Friday, but she needs a procedure from the Urologist and they would like to keep the trach in until that procedure is complete.  The Urologist is currently booked into October.  We are pleading our case to see if he can make some time before then because Shannon was very disappointed to hear that she will have the trach for quite a bit more.[...]

Shannon continues to gain strength with lots of physical therapy.  She is supposed to be taking it easy with one arm because they are worried that she may have a blood clot.  Lots of testing, but no results yet.[...]

I only had a few minutes on the phone with Shannon today.  She continues to make progress with her trach.  She is going to be on track to take it out on Friday.  Her days are filled with exercises and occupational therapy.  As most have you have figured out, there are updates from the folks visiting in the Posts section.  I have chosen not to repeat them in Updates.  I'll be heading up later in the week.[...]

I got an entire hour with Shannon on the phone tonight and she is doing well.  Her doctors have given her a transition to home date of 9/24 (Yea!) since she is progressing very well.  She spent 16 hours today with her trach capped (which means she can talk) and they are talking about taking the trach out next Friday or Monday the 2nd.  She continues to make progress feeding herself as well.  She has discovered a very small amount of control in her right tricep (nothing in the left) which has made her hopeful that she may get control of that muscle in the future.[...]

Shannon made the official move out of the ICU portion on Monday evening.  No longer living in the pampered 1 to 2 nurse/patient ratio into the hardcore 1 to 5 nurse/patient group.  She does have her own room due to the previous MRSA infection and being female (70% of spinal damage patients are male).  She is extremely focused on making progress.  She fed herself half of her meal tonight (random photo added for fun) and is continuing to make progress.  She is already brushing her own teeth.[...]

The boys and I just got back from a weekend visit with Shannon.  She has been at the San Jose facility for a little over a week now, and it's amazing how much progress she has already made.  She is waiting for a spot to open up downstairs (the non-ICU portion) and should be changing rooms either Monday or Tuesday.  Today she was also given the green light to be off the ventilator (she has already done 20 hour stretches).  Her voice is stronger and she is getting better control of the arm muscles that she has.  She is loving solid food but as you can see in the photo, she was very tired today.  Fortunately, Sunday is considered a rest day (no gym time).  We are trying to get food into her because she has lost some weight (she does not recommend this as a diet plan though).  The current plan is an additional 4-6 weeks of rehab, then back home.  I think that 4 is the target and the additional 2 weeks are in case of any setbacks.  She continues to fight on![...]

16 hours is how long was off the ventilator today.  The move from the trama group to the hardcore rehab group looks like it will happen on Monday.  She is already spending time downstairs in the rehab gym building up strength (picture in Photos of traveling).[...]

Shannon spent 13 hours off the ventilator today!  The big news though was she passed her swallowing test which means she gets to eat again.  Yeah!  [...]

Shannon is blowing through ventilator weaning.  The doctors are impressed.  She was off of it 8 straight hours today.  She also got to take a motorized wheelchair for a spin today and get out of the room.  (Picture in Photos).[...]