A minor request from your FTA moderator

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Iceberg,
I just got to read this whole thread. (still no 'net at home) I'm glad your grandma is doing so well! She sounds like a very stong person.
Take care and Merry Christmas next week. :)
 
went and visited today. Grandma is awake now which is so nice...not that she's sleeping all the time like last week

She is just a little chatterbox now. They put in her voice box thingy and she starts talking right away. And not just simple words. Actual sentences. She forgets things but says "oh crap I forgot what I was going to say" :) Its nice to have conversations with her and she remembers lots of things. We were talking about church last night and grampa is talking about folks in the choir and he forgets names but gramma corrects him. She is laughing and smiling and understands what we are saying and responding like normal.

She's doing physical therapy 5 days a week and speech therapy was everyday. We were watching "Twins Classics" (MN Twins) on FSN North (she's a big Twins fan) and she could remember who the players were without seeing their names so thats good that her memory is still good. I said that she had to get better so we can see a game at Target Field this year (the new Twins stadium) and she said "you have to drive. I dont know how to get there" :)

Humor today was when the nurse came in. She wanted to use a swab to clean gramma's tongue (she hasnt had solid foods in 29 days now) and I guess this morning she came in to do it and gramma wouldnt open her mouth. The nurse asked her again and gramma clamped her lips tighter. The nurse said she turned away and had to laugh and told her she'd come back this afternoon. I said "thats gramma. stubborn as hell" and gramma said "you damn right" :D

On a side note, the "cable" there sucks! Good lord it makes me want to cringe. They have Directv in the hospital but they must have a bunch of receivers because they take a channels, modulated it on a DIFFERENT channel, then send it out to the TV's as "analog cable". So they give them crap. The locals, about 8 news channels, only sports channel is FSN, and what the old school C-Banders would call the "G5" stuff (WGN, TBS, TNT, USA)

The picture keeps going out because of a bad cable. I'm bringing my own tomorrow :)

So gramma is getting better...but we still got a way to go
 
Good to hear that she is doing better. Sounds like she is in good spirits also.

See if they will let you hang a dish from her window so she will have something to watch.

Take care
 
no she can watch TV. Its been on in the room when we got there :)

We ask if she wants to watch TV and usually she says no but if she knows something is on then she'll say "yeah because __________________ is on"
 
new update :)

Went yesterday and she has the respirator that was giving her moist air into her trach removed and now she has just the air thing up by her nose. She's breathing on her own with no issues and the speaking valve is gone too. She is talking normal now :)
She dont like that air valve and keeps pulling it off which I think is funny. She said she didnt need that.

I walked in and said "Hi Grandma" and she put her hand up for me to grab it. I grabbed her hand and she clamped down on my hand (uh oh) and said "where you been"? ;)
(I had been gone for 3 days....one day I was busy, xmas eve we had the snowstorm and xmas day my uncle took gramps).

She remembers lots of stuff but has that short term issue right now where she starts to talk...pauses then when we ask what was she gonna say she says "eh I forgot" ;)

So the only tubes in her are the feeding tube and the one taped to her finger that monitors her heart rate and breathing. She dont like that one and keeps ripping it off her finger. Hey it gets the nurses in right away when the machine shows 0 heartrate and 0 for oxygen level :D

So tomorrow is therapy day...all 3 (physical, occupational, speech)
 
Tony,

I've been absent for about a month or so with the craziness of the end-of-semester and holiday season. I read your prayer request and updates on your Grandmother's progress (and Grandpa, too!). I'm so pleased that people prayed for you and your family. Clearly those prayers were answered in the way you were hoping.

Although it seems the worst is past, I will add your family to my prayers. Thanks for sharing your family with the SatGuys "family".

Kent
 
Sounding better! Hopefully they'll let her get back to solid food soon, sounds very similar to the course of events my mom went thru in 2008. I never got a straight answer from anybody about it, but apparently the feeding tube is related to having the tracheostomy, they tend to cause some people to have 'reflux' until they get used to swallowing again. Glad she's able to speak again even with the 'pipe' as I call it. If she'll keep up with that therapy, she should be back on her feet in short order. Continued wishes for her progress and recovery.
 
well today was kinda a milestone

she ate legit food. They wanted to see if she could swallow and that it went to the right spot :)

I didnt go as the kids were over (no school) but my mom said grandma ate some graham cracker, some water and something else (I forget) with no issues. She is talking up a storm and I guess the 4 letter words are starting to eek back into conversation. I guess she told the nurse "the hell I am" when they wanted her to do something :)

As for the feeding tube, that stays in until she is eating solid foods consistently (from what I was told). So tomorrow I get to see how she is doing. I guess the speech therapist was shocked to see how much she improved since last Wednesday (she was out of town for the holidays)

Thanks for keeping her in your prayers. Its really appreciated :)
 
Iceberg said:
I didnt go as the kids were over (no school) but my mom said grandma ate some graham cracker, some water and something else (I forget) with no issues. :)
Click to expand...

It was probably something like applesauce. If they were doing the study under fluoroscopy (with x-rays in real time like a video recording) they probably mixed some barium paste in so they could see were everything was going. Usually the speech pathologists get the patient to swallow something thick (the graham cracker), something thin (the water), and something medium consistency (applesauce) to see how each substance goes down. They place a radiopaque (can be seen on x-rays) material, usually barium, on or in the items so they can follow the progress of the food item down the esophagus and make sure it is going to the stomach and not into the airway.

I used to setup the fluoro equipment for speech studies a lot when I was worked as a tech out in the main department...haven't done any in a while since I got promoted to CT Scan.

Glad to hear your grandmother is better, and I wish her a speedy recovery.
 
Sorry for lack of updates ;)

Lots happened since last week

Grandma is eating solid foods now each day so that is good. No issues with the food and hopefully soon they can take the trache out. That is the only thing still in her. No other tubes etc
The other day we went (Monday) and we found out she had been walking for a couple days with the walker for therapy. She walked 50 feet on Monday :)

Sunday was kinda tough as my uncle and his 4 1/2 year old came down from up north. He hadnt seen her in three weeks and my cousin hadnt seen her in months and not since this happened. We all walked in and he saw her and said "Gramma you got a haircut" which was cute. But then he kinda got bored after a while so me & him walked around the hospital. :)

But the best news was yesterday.
She has made so much progress that they were able to move her to the long term facility in our hometown....which is 3 1/2 miles away :) Grampa was so excited that he can go visit as long as he wants and still go home for lunch/dinner and when she gets tired (or he needs a nap). Then he doesnt have to wait for us to show up to take him.

So she just needs to do her therapy every day so then she can come home :) But I know thats still a long ways away
 
Iceberg said:
Sorry for lack of updates ;)

Lots happened since last week

Grandma is eating solid foods now each day so that is good. No issues with the food and hopefully soon they can take the trache out. That is the only thing still in her. No other tubes etc
The other day we went (Monday) and we found out she had been walking for a couple days with the walker for therapy. She walked 50 feet on Monday :)

Sunday was kinda tough as my uncle and his 4 1/2 year old came down from up north. He hadnt seen her in three weeks and my cousin hadnt seen her in months and not since this happened. We all walked in and he saw her and said "Gramma you got a haircut" which was cute. But then he kinda got bored after a while so me & him walked around the hospital. :)

But the best news was yesterday.
She has made so much progress that they were able to move her to the long term facility in our hometown....which is 3 1/2 miles away :) Grampa was so excited that he can go visit as long as he wants and still go home for lunch/dinner and when she gets tired (or he needs a nap). Then he doesnt have to wait for us to show up to take him.

So she just needs to do her therapy every day so then she can come home :) But I know thats still a long ways away
Click to expand...

Ice,

I am very glad to hear this good news about your Grandma! I am hoping that her homecoming will be soon.

Radar
 
Good to hear that news, Ice! Hope she gets to come home soon, I'm sure she wants to ASAP.
Make sure she keeps up with that PT, the therapists, I learned, are just as important as the nurses and doctors. They told me that for every one day lying in a hospital bed, you need at least 3 days recovery/therapy time. My mom made it back after 2 months in ICU, she's driving again and everything.
 
yeah its kinda nice to drive over there and can leave when I want to

They say the maximum time you can be there is 100 days and NOBODY has ever made it that long. Everyone goes home earlier :)
 
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