Day 8: Staying the Weekend

Lots of walking, some visitors, few doctors. Not a bad day.

Jean continued making progress - slow progress, sometimes too slow by her estimation. She walked around the 10th floor a couple of times using crutches. Her movement was good. Still no feeling in the leg, but she's learning how to compensate with the left leg for lack of the right.

She had a few visitors during the day - Frank stopped by, and so did our friends Mark & Yvonne. Late in the afternoon, the occupational therapist visited. She showed Jean how to get out of bed when you can't move one leg, and other useful tricks and general advice for welding crutches. By the time 7:00 PM rolled around she was tuckered out. Sleep is better, too, since they took her off the Decadron. They also removed her IV fluids - no more pole to push around. And they took one of the JPs (Jackson Pratts, not Jamaica Plains).

Dr. Hanto wants her to stay in the hospital another couple of days. The surgical wound is healing nicely, and the kidney and bladder appear to be working. But JUST IN CASE. He's running more tests to make sure the kidney is functioning properly: not just outputting liquid, but removing the poisons from her body like its supposed to.

She's definitely more confident today than anytime in the previous week. There will still be issues getting to the bathroom. That's been an issue for the last few years. The leg is a challenge thrown on top of it.

I'm writing this entry from 1014 Farr, where the latop is connected to the internet via modem. There's a wireless network in the hospital, but it's for medical purposes, so I'll behave and won't hack into it. Jean just came back from a nuclear medicine test - they inject a dye into her and see if the kidney processes it, or if there are leaks or other problems. I'd ask her to type something, but she's asleep.