Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Day 21 : Moving on up (soon, or not!) and no more trach!

Great news today, Linda's lungs are looking clear and much improved today. She's going to be getting rid of the trach! That's one item I know she won't miss, although it served her very well over the last 3 weeks. I asked her if she wanted to keep it as as souvenir, but she declined...

Otherwise, she's in good spirits. She told Brian and I that she's overall very positive, only occasionally upset, and is motivated to work hard to get better and get home!

We're getting very close to changing phases from acute surgery and post-surgical care to rehabilitation and therapy. This is great news that we've been preparing for at least a couple weeks. I believe she will be moving on in a couple days or so.

On the other hand, hospitals have their own rhythm and gait to them, and it's just best to go with it sometimes - we are still not certain just what type of care will be best for Linda and exactly when she will be ready to go, but Brian and I took a tour of the most likely place today. It's what's known as an LTAC (Long Term Acute Care), which is designed for stays of 25-30 days on average and focuses on therapy and rehab more so than a short term acute care hospital would (where a typical stay is 5-7 days). So what we really know for sure is that we don't know exactly where or when, but that moving from this hospital to therapy/rehab is going to be a huge improvement and will help her get back to the life that she had.

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