Working Hard

Day by day we continue to see improvement. Yesterday morning mom was able to get her catheter out. (family members refer to it as a "Lamp" but that's a story for another time). She also took (and passed) her swallow test. This test is kind of like a video x-ray that's taken as she swallows a barium solution. It enables the doctor to watch where the solution goes to make sure it all ends up in the right place. Once she passed, she was hoping to start on regular food (or at least some jello) but her doctor wants to wait for a day or two. She still has some fluid in the lower part of her stomach which needs to drain out before she can eat. The drain is a tube that's in her nose, down her throat and into her stomach. It's kind of like the feeding tube she had before. Until she's ready to have that out she won't be able to eat regular food or even have ice chips. He said it's better to take things slow because jumping ahead too quickly can mean extra days in the hospital.
Mom also continues to take her walks regularly. She walks around the 10th floor, three laps at a time, at a pretty quick place. Her doctor said walking will help her heal and get stronger. It's a bit of a pain to unhook everything, detangle wires and tubes, get it on the portable cart and make sure nothing is dragging or in her way for a 15 minute walk, and then to do this several times a day, but she does it.
Another thing she has to do every day (10 times every hour) is a breath test/exercise. She has a little apparatus that measures her breath intake. Her goal is to get it over 2000. The first day she could barely get it to 500. The second day she got it to 750. Now she is over 1200. Slowly but surely she is getting stronger.
We know she really wants to go home, but we also know, it takes time for her body to heal. The surgery she just had is very complicated, making her body have to work on healing several areas all at the same time. We want to avoid rushing to get results and just let her body take it's time to heal itself. Our bodies are marvelous things. It's amazing how they can heal given the right circumstances. But, it can be very detrimental to push too hard and not allow the body to do it's job. She is a strong woman and willing to do whatever it takes to make herself whole again, even if that means being patient.
She is looking forward to watching conference today and tomorrow and listening to the words of our prophet and other church leaders. It's always so encouraging to hear the talks and sermons from these inspired men and women. I'm sure it will help lift her spirits and give her the added strength she needs to get through this trial.