It Has Been 1 Week Already

Sorry for the late post. There was not much news to report on Friday, and to be perfectly honest I am exhausted! I finally got a little sleep on Friday night and I'm feeling a little better today. It seems like I have been waiting forever to get back down to Madison.

She looked great today. She's walking about 200 feet or so around the nurses station in the ICU. She uses a walker and needs 1 person to guard that left side, but she does it mostly on her own.

She is sitting up in the chair several times a day. She sits up in a recliner chair, puts her feet up, and does pretty well. I can imagine that her head must pound when she is upright.

She complains of a bad headache all the time. She takes some oral pain meds, morphine, and uses ice most of the day. Stephi talks about being home and being afraid of knowing when to call for future headaches. I can't blame her for being scared of that, and I'm happy that she is thinking about it on her own. She worries about the right bone flap going back on and maybe having some more left sided weakness from that surgery. The staff keeps reassuring her that the surgery should be without many complications, but this whole experience is still very fresh.

Stephi has her own sense of humor. She seems to be in good spirits today while I am there. She jokes around a lot (which, I guess that is pretty normal for her). I still have a hard time telling if she is just that openly making light of her situation or if she has a little trouble filtering some things we think and do not say :) Nevertheless, she's as cute as ever.

She seems to remember everyone, Steph was able to tell me the entire story of the night she got sick. She remembers everyone that was there and conversations that they all had, she remembers the awful pressure she felt and she is able to describe it to me in pretty good detail. I hate thinking of her having had to go through that whole experience, and I'm sure everyone one of use will come away from this as changed person in some way or another.

She gets very uncomfortable laying in bed and moves around a lot, and where I'm going with this statement is that the inventor of the hospital gown should be shot! Stephanie's room is directly across from the nurses station. The rooms are all windows with a large pull curtain on the inside of every room. I am pretty positive the Stephi has mooned the entire Neuro ICU staff at one time or another in the past week trying to get herself comfortable in bed not to mention her family. The reason that I know she is somewhat herself - she could care less and actually kind of laughs about it. She said that is how she keeps people out of her room. LOL see my point?? Is it her or is it a filtering issue. Time will tell, but it gives us all a little laugh for now. Stephi will be getting new undies and some lounge pants from her big sis ASAP. :)

The one other thing that I notice today is that when she decides to do something she just goes. She will sit up or stand without warning and forget about where her tubes for a second. We usually have to run to catch her before she pulls something by accident. She looks at us like where crazy for guarding her so much and she will say something like "I just wanted to move my leg" or "I just wanted to walk". I heard she fell out of bed a couple nights ago trying to reach for her ice pack. I'm not sure if she just doesn't want to ask for help or if she is not fully aware of her limitations right now. She is quick and we all have to be quicker right now.

Eating is going well. It is slow and very uncoordinated but she eats. I can tell she has some visual deficits. She tries to pick food up with her fork and it goes in a totally different direction and sometimes falls off, but she gets it eventually. She has been PROMISED that the NG tube will come out tonight or tomorrow and I would hate to be the one who had to tell her otherwise, so I will keep my fingers crossed for the staffs sake!

Sleep well and no worries for now. Keep fighting Stephanie!