Short Synopsis: They are still looking for the source of infection. The fever is gone so the antibiotics are working great. The most powerful antibiotic was dropped in just a day or two. The other two will stay the course for 10 days.
Kayla's blood pressures are higher now - a sample 143/83. Why high? They want it there for the time being. Slight changes in her medications for better results. Klonopin, (.5 intravenous) an anti-anxiety drug is added to the regimen as ativan is dropped. They are looking for better results in helping her with anxiety and also to rest her liver. The methadone dose has been raised from 10 to 15.
When she sleeps, she jerks. She never did that before. The nurse notes this and will ask about it. They are calm when addressing these things, which is good.
Kayla was on the trach collar with the piped in oxygen for 5.5 hours today. She got an additional nebulizer treatment to help with her breathing. Great! She also sat in her chair for 1.5 hours, even with the pain around her middle at the tube site. One has to work through some of this in order to move forward. Kayla is trying and succeeding.
When you stay in bed as long as she has, other annoying problems come up. She has a sweat rash on her back and a small balding spot on the back of her head where rubbing on the pillow has made the hair fall out. The good news is that these things resolve themselves nicely when you get the body up and going again...movement is key.
Up and at 'em.....let's get going here! Got to get those lungs and limbs going again....
Long Story: There is always some sort of adventure on the frickin' highway. You would think that you could just drive peacefully from north to south to the city and all would be a total bore.
Not so!
I am cruising along the Saw Mill, just about at Thornwood, dreaming about getting a Big Mac at the exit, wheat allergy be damed....I am hungry and a burger is what I want. Skip the fries, just the burger, please.
The cars in front of me slows way down and the car next to me stops. Out jump two 20-something gals in their high heels, clomping down the highway. Ahead is their little dog galavanting along in the middle of the two lane road, dead center...little fat body waiting to be road kill.
It looks like some sort of plump Jack Russell terrier, white with brown spots, soooo cute!
Jeezzzz.....
he must have jumped out of their open window!
Since the traffic is at a dead stop, I open my car door and stand up, half way in and half way out of my car, holding on to the top and the window of the door for a good viewing perch. Gotta see this!
One girl is yelling to the other one, who is ahead, "Get down. He knows....get down on the road!
The getting-down-girl is looking tentatively back at traffic as she crouches and tries to kneel down...she's afraid of the cars behind her and keeps looking back. Nothing will happen there as I am fully stopped and they are too and behind us is a load of stopped cars.
"Buster! Buster" - She meekly calls....and I mean meek. This was no command at all....it was comical. Dog had no plan to even look back. He was frollicking now, bouncing all over the highway like a lamb in Mary Had a Little Lamb.
Then the true drama begins...
He darts through the low guard rail and bolts towards the oncoming traffic with two lanes of fast cars bearing down. Amazingly, he skirts right behind them, oblivious to any danger at all. He ends up in the grass by the woods but then after he romps around there for 3 seconds, he comes to the side....and
I am waving my hands big time to stop the oncoming traffic....and it does stop. Now we have 4 lanes of stopped traffic.
What came next was like a scene from a great football game. Four, and I mean, four of the biggest fastest young males (20 somethings too) flanked up behind my right and the lead one yelled,
"Where is it?"
I pointed with my entire arm and hand, military precision-like, "Over there!"
The dog bolted out into the road again coming towards us and ran up the exit right next to us. The boys jumped over the rail in a beautifully executed u-turn move, each near one another.
They were fast, fast, fast...
But, the dog was faster.
The girls were gone. I have no idea where they went - their car had simply vanished. It was time for me to go too as the traffic was now restless to move on. I have no idea what happened to this dog and I never got my burger. I completely forgot about getting off to get it. Later on, I wished I had because it would have been fun to see what happened to that dog, to those boys, to those girls.
When I got back to my cozy ICU waiting room corner and told everyone about Buster, Aaron remarked,
If it had happened in Kentucky, that dog would have been shot!" Everyone laughed.
---------------------------------------
Aaron is Mordechai's older brother by two years. David is 5 years younger than Aaron. Ok, it's hard to get this straight....first Aaron, then 2 years later - Mordechai and then 3 years later, David, born in 1970. Umm....I think this is correct.
I leave a green apple for Aaron as I am headed home now.
Aaron: 5/1/11 10:10 p.m.
Safe trip home to Chicago.
Stephanie
If you see a red-haired 5'3" woman, 80, friendly, smart and medically confident - that's my mother. Invite her to our corner. Just washed the apple. Thank you.
They said the boys were hoping to meet those girls and get some dates! It was exhiliariating for me, as an aging female, to see those four strapping young men! And what about those poor damsels in distress? Hope they rescued that doggie for them!
---------------------------------
Our "Doin' Time" show was the most incredible production I have ever had the privilege to be in. Daniela was worried that she was expecting too much out of us. Before we were just fantastic singers in a chorale. Now with the addition of Steve, our new stage manager/choreographer, we were singing, dancing, delivering dialogue, moving all about the stage. It was like a Broadway musical, with music at its core.
We were given scripts and movement charts. I knew the music and words no problem, but the movement was foreign to me. I took the sheets and since I had no three key hole puncher the night of the performance, I just punctured them with my sharp binder rings and put them in. I would be able to look at it during the performance and know where to go.
In the first act, I did the lindy during the last song. Seth threw me into the fancy move at the start - we didn't do the little one step - two step thing we practiced. He did the fancy move first. I was thrown off but it worked out just fine.
In the second act, I had several lines of dialogue and was in three small ensembles. All was super-duper-fantastic. I am now buying a DVD of the show so I can show my Dad and any other relative who missed it.
Daniela raised the bar and we did it! The expectations were high - we were challenged and we delivered. The audience was really soaring with their clapping and roaring with delight. We gave them something that they had no idea we could do.
During the performance, with the lights so bright, you see only shadows out there.....
------------------------------------
Special day for visitors today....Rachel Finaldi and Vinnie Pellicione, two dear childhood friends of Kayla's came. Kayla was happy!
Also Uncle Chris visited and stayed for hours. He brought along an IPAD to show Kayla how it worked in case she wanted one for her stay at the hospital. Uncle Chris brings a warm, calm demeanor with him when he comes. It's beautiful.
--------------------------------------
At 11:30 I got home to Ridgefield...
"Stephanie, come in here. Osama bin Laden has been killed. It's all over the news."
I put down my things in the bedroom and come out to sit in the livingroom next to Mike......
Not so!
I am cruising along the Saw Mill, just about at Thornwood, dreaming about getting a Big Mac at the exit, wheat allergy be damed....I am hungry and a burger is what I want. Skip the fries, just the burger, please.
The cars in front of me slows way down and the car next to me stops. Out jump two 20-something gals in their high heels, clomping down the highway. Ahead is their little dog galavanting along in the middle of the two lane road, dead center...little fat body waiting to be road kill.
It looks like some sort of plump Jack Russell terrier, white with brown spots, soooo cute!
Jeezzzz.....
he must have jumped out of their open window!
Since the traffic is at a dead stop, I open my car door and stand up, half way in and half way out of my car, holding on to the top and the window of the door for a good viewing perch. Gotta see this!
One girl is yelling to the other one, who is ahead, "Get down. He knows....get down on the road!
The getting-down-girl is looking tentatively back at traffic as she crouches and tries to kneel down...she's afraid of the cars behind her and keeps looking back. Nothing will happen there as I am fully stopped and they are too and behind us is a load of stopped cars.
"Buster! Buster" - She meekly calls....and I mean meek. This was no command at all....it was comical. Dog had no plan to even look back. He was frollicking now, bouncing all over the highway like a lamb in Mary Had a Little Lamb.
Then the true drama begins...
He darts through the low guard rail and bolts towards the oncoming traffic with two lanes of fast cars bearing down. Amazingly, he skirts right behind them, oblivious to any danger at all. He ends up in the grass by the woods but then after he romps around there for 3 seconds, he comes to the side....and
I am waving my hands big time to stop the oncoming traffic....and it does stop. Now we have 4 lanes of stopped traffic.
What came next was like a scene from a great football game. Four, and I mean, four of the biggest fastest young males (20 somethings too) flanked up behind my right and the lead one yelled,
"Where is it?"
I pointed with my entire arm and hand, military precision-like, "Over there!"
The dog bolted out into the road again coming towards us and ran up the exit right next to us. The boys jumped over the rail in a beautifully executed u-turn move, each near one another.
They were fast, fast, fast...
But, the dog was faster.
The girls were gone. I have no idea where they went - their car had simply vanished. It was time for me to go too as the traffic was now restless to move on. I have no idea what happened to this dog and I never got my burger. I completely forgot about getting off to get it. Later on, I wished I had because it would have been fun to see what happened to that dog, to those boys, to those girls.
When I got back to my cozy ICU waiting room corner and told everyone about Buster, Aaron remarked,
If it had happened in Kentucky, that dog would have been shot!" Everyone laughed.
---------------------------------------
Aaron is Mordechai's older brother by two years. David is 5 years younger than Aaron. Ok, it's hard to get this straight....first Aaron, then 2 years later - Mordechai and then 3 years later, David, born in 1970. Umm....I think this is correct.
I leave a green apple for Aaron as I am headed home now.
Aaron: 5/1/11 10:10 p.m.
Safe trip home to Chicago.
Stephanie
If you see a red-haired 5'3" woman, 80, friendly, smart and medically confident - that's my mother. Invite her to our corner. Just washed the apple. Thank you.
They said the boys were hoping to meet those girls and get some dates! It was exhiliariating for me, as an aging female, to see those four strapping young men! And what about those poor damsels in distress? Hope they rescued that doggie for them!
---------------------------------
Our "Doin' Time" show was the most incredible production I have ever had the privilege to be in. Daniela was worried that she was expecting too much out of us. Before we were just fantastic singers in a chorale. Now with the addition of Steve, our new stage manager/choreographer, we were singing, dancing, delivering dialogue, moving all about the stage. It was like a Broadway musical, with music at its core.
We were given scripts and movement charts. I knew the music and words no problem, but the movement was foreign to me. I took the sheets and since I had no three key hole puncher the night of the performance, I just punctured them with my sharp binder rings and put them in. I would be able to look at it during the performance and know where to go.
In the first act, I did the lindy during the last song. Seth threw me into the fancy move at the start - we didn't do the little one step - two step thing we practiced. He did the fancy move first. I was thrown off but it worked out just fine.
In the second act, I had several lines of dialogue and was in three small ensembles. All was super-duper-fantastic. I am now buying a DVD of the show so I can show my Dad and any other relative who missed it.
Daniela raised the bar and we did it! The expectations were high - we were challenged and we delivered. The audience was really soaring with their clapping and roaring with delight. We gave them something that they had no idea we could do.
During the performance, with the lights so bright, you see only shadows out there.....
------------------------------------
Special day for visitors today....Rachel Finaldi and Vinnie Pellicione, two dear childhood friends of Kayla's came. Kayla was happy!
Also Uncle Chris visited and stayed for hours. He brought along an IPAD to show Kayla how it worked in case she wanted one for her stay at the hospital. Uncle Chris brings a warm, calm demeanor with him when he comes. It's beautiful.
--------------------------------------
At 11:30 I got home to Ridgefield...
"Stephanie, come in here. Osama bin Laden has been killed. It's all over the news."
I put down my things in the bedroom and come out to sit in the livingroom next to Mike......
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