Day 34 - Tuesday January 17, 2012

Today Bridgett got the catheter removed!  She's doing good right away with the ability to empty her bladder completely.  After so long on a catheter they let her void and then do an ultrasound to see if she completely emptied her bladder.  Sometimes they have to put in a straight catheter to empty the bladder if the person is unable to empty themselves.  They do this test the first three times (if successful each time).  Bridgett has passed the test twice, and will hopefully again this evening.  This is all good news.  Because of the three day weekend, the doctors were very busy and didn't have the time to downsize the trach today so they will do it tomorrow.  Bridgett fed herself breakfast today.  I forgot to mention that yesterday I tried giving her the spoon with food on it already and she fed herself.  The doctor walked in while she was taking a bite and asked how long she had been doing that.  I said this is her third bite!  Well, she's doing great he said.  So, this morning Rebecca asked if she could have her feed herself.  It was a bit messy but she did good.  Her only problem was that her hand was shaking so she'd lose some of the food before she got it to her mouth.  But, she got better as the meal went on. Today she did a great job of eating almost all of her food, so they are discussing cutting back on the peg tube feed and then eliminating it all together.  Of course, as I mentioned before, she has to keep the peg in for six weeks, so we've got four weeks to go.  Bummer!  It sure would have been nice if she could have avoided getting it put in.  But, I asked if they could get rid of most of the tubing when they are done feeding her, so that it's not such a big mass of tubes to deal with.  Right now, we have an ab binder over the tubes, to keep them out of sight, out of mind--to protect the peg from being pulled out.  As times goes by we are either getting rid of tubes, or like I said hopefully soon she will be less focused on pulling things out.  Once she becomes more fully aware, that will improve.  PT went great.  Bridgett did a lot of walking, supported on just one side.  The second person just walked behind and held onto the gate belt just in case.  She played ball standing up and walked the parallel bars really well by herself.  Speech therapy went really well.  Today Bridgett got to use an ipad. There are lots of great aps for speech therapy.  Somehow we need to get one for her I think--it will be a great way to pass the time when she is bored in the late afternoons and evenings.  Last night was the first time she has slept through the night (mostly) until she woke up when they stopped the tube feed.  I know that Tyler appreciated that since he has night shift for the whole night while Mark is out of town in Montana.  Usually he and Mark split the night.  Mark will be back tomorrow night, just in time for Tyler to head to drill.  Congrats on making Sargent, Tyler!