she speaks

Things are going really well with mom right now. She had surgery on her wound again on Monday. It went well. They then moved her back to the burn unit. They had been keeping her in the MICU, but the burn unit nurses were taking care of her wound and the burn doctors were still taking care of her, so they decided it would make more sense to put her back in the burn unit. She hated to lose her view, but she loves the nurses in the burn unit, so it was good. They have continued to wean her off the ventilator. Earlier in the week, they had her to where she was off the ventilator all day, with only a tiny trickle of oxygen and were also weaning her off the vent at night. Today, the doctor decided she was ready for the smaller trache tube. They switched it out this morning. When I got there today, they were just trying out the cap for the trache that allows her to speak. They said it could take her a while to get used to and that they would probably only leave it on for a little while. She was so excited to be able to talk though and she got used to it really fast, even having a nap with it on, so they were able to leave it on all day. It was so wonderful to be able to talk to her again. It made her really happy. They said that now they will work on weaning her off of it even more so they can take the trache off completely. Also, now that she has the smaller tube in, she should be able to eat and drink. There is still a little work she needs to do before she can have food, but it will hopefully happen soon. They are also working really hard on her physical therapy. They put her on the tilt table today and had her stand a little. It really wore her out, but was good. Then this afternoon they had her sitting in the wheelchair thing for about an hour. They even made her sit up without leaning back, unsupported for a few minutes. They told her they are going to keep working her hard. It is time for her to get strong again. Today we definitely made some huge steps forward. They were careful to warn us though, that she is still very sick and has a long way to go. Everyone was very happy with her progress though. It is so nice to have such a good day and to move in such a positive direction. Now we just pray that things keep going that way.