Steph update

Things are progressing slowly but positively for Steph. In the last two days she has moved out of I.C.U., started eating ice chips and has had the bandage removed from her incision. The medical care has also removed the I.V. and inserted a tube from by her clavicle to next to her heart. That tube is her source of nutrition right now. They can't give her much nourishment through a regular I.V., so they needed to do this since she can't eat anything yet. They have also removed her catheter since she can get up and move around without help now.

Steph will be allowed to drink water next. I'm not sure if she's done that already or if that is for today. Duane told me the next step is for her to drink a protein drink. This whole process seems to go very slowly. But everything has to be done in a way not to cause anymore problems. They have to make sure her system is running regular before releasing her from the hospital. She has had one B.M. so far. I thought that was excellent news. Never thought one would be excited about that before. But, we are.

Also, they will be removing the drainage tubes from around the incision site. They will be doing that at a rate of one a day (if I got my info correct).

As for James' stay, the hospital case worker let Duane know that the hospital made the decision to pick up all the charges for James after the insurance ran out. They will continue to treat him as if he were a regular patient. That is fabulous news. Makes Duane's efforts of being a caretaker to both his wife and son a bit easier.

As for Nicholas, he's spending his time with me. I will take him home (his home) a day or two before Steph's release so he (hopefully) won't feel overwhelmed by his brother "taking over" his home while he was gone.

As of this writing we don't know when Steph will be released. Duane mentioned Sunday or Monday. But I'm thinking that that may be speculation. I'm sure Duane and Steph, both are anxious to get home and be done with all the hospital life. Duane also mentioned the Steph misses her little Nicholas too. It'll be wonderful when life can get back to some normalcy again!

(Hope I didn't forget any important details. This stuff Steph is going through is a bit mind boggling on my part.)