July 17

I visited Mom today and she was doing the best yet. She was bright eyed and smiling. She has eaten well for the last four meals and asked me to get her ice cream. She was very happy when I also showed up with a fruit cup. She gobbled it up quickly.

No temps, no low blood pressure, etc etc. Her hemoglobin count is low but she is not experiencing any other symptoms so they aren't too concerned. Besides that, everything is great. She isn't expected to need dialysis again. She still has the trach only because she is coughing up so much secretions. At one point, I was told that she'd probably keep the trach until she was done with rehab just in case she went backwards. From what they say, healing from a trach is a piece of cake -- it doesn't even require stitches!

She is doing so well that they are teasing us with claiming that they'll release her to an intensive rehab clinic in a couple days. She needs to go to this type of clinic because of the trach. The Case Manager prefers that she stay at HFH but we're trying hard to have Mom released to a clinic that is housed within Hurley Hospital in Flint. The paperwork takes at least a couple days to process so they will process the release while they are investigating the hemoglobin issue.

Hip hip hooray!

Dad's neighbors took him to visit Mom today. I just tried to call him but didn't reach him. Aunt Susie is taking Dad to visit Mom tomorrow, Wednesday, and they will stay in the HFH apartments until Saturday or when Mom is released, whichever comes first. Jan, a family friend, may visit on Thursday and will offer to take Dad back with her then. I will visit her on Friday if she is still in Detroit or will visit her on Thursday too if she is in Flint by then.