Day 44

IF all the blue cross blue shield paper work gets processed today, we should be off to Wheaton for inpatient rehab! The team decided to let Emerson work with speech pathology to overcome her facial aversion. If in ten days (about) she doesn't get over it and oral feedings are not going well, we will have to go back go Loyola for a G Tube, a direct line to her stomach, the rehabilitiation physician thought this unlikely though, as she was very pleased with Emerson's progress since she last saw her. It is tough right now for our little lady as she has to work hard to mobilize her secretions. Her coughing episodes can lead to panic is she isnt swallowing well which then leads to vommiting.

Her withdrawal symptoms have returned, boo. She needed two increases in her pain/sedation medication last night. I had to restrain Emerson from pulling out her feeding tube for a couple hours last night. I'm glad she is with it enough to want it out and try, however it isn't at all fun seeing her so upset, although she is REALLY cute. Her maraca is a nice distraction sometimes but I had to take it away for a bit when she tried to hit her tube out with it. One of her nurses, Aunt Lindy, said that her withdrawal was going better than she expected, despite a few episodes, when considering all that she has been on for so long.

Suregy came and took off the stery strips from her abdominal procedure, a beautiful tiny thin white line about five inches across, they said it should get even smaller (nice work Dr. Glynn and Chris). Her body still looks really weak and beat up but you can see little improvements each day.