Day 27 // More R&R

Hi all,

Not a lot to report today about JoAnne... see below for some brief updates!

STATS- her stats continue to be stable! No fever, steady blood pressure, mid-range WBC, hematocrit, hemoglobin... no blood transfusions needed at this time. All still very encouraging...

HIP WOUND- JoAnne's hip wound is very near to being healthy enough to close up a bit more! She'll go in to the OR Wednesday to get it checked up on... and what is great is that if it's ready to close up (with just a few draining tubes in place) it could be her last surgery for the foreseeable future! A surgeon came in to see her wound today and said the pink (inflamed) tissue covered a much smaller area than before, and the draining seems to be going well... so assuming JoAnne doesn't get any further infections, things should continue to heal smoothly. Fingers crossed.

ABDOMEN- since weaning of the paralytic medication she'd been on, JoAnne's still been somewhat sedated. Her sedation is typically at a "4" or "5", and it's still at a 6. We're expecting they'll be reducing this a bit in the coming week, but right now they want her to continue to rest... plus the face that she'll be in surgery again Wednesday means it's not worth reducing her sedation just to increase it. We're all hopefully that as she continues to heal and gain strength, they'll be able to lower her sedation bit by bit! The sooner she's able to begin feeling ok with less sedation, the sooner she'll begin to feel better with less pain meds, and the sooner she'll be able to get going on rehab, etc. Little by little...

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST- JoAnne has been seen every few days by an occupational therapist. We hadn't imagined someone coming by to work with her until she was moving around more, but they reminded us about how critical it is to keep her limbs and joints moving now, and as much as possible! JoAnne has spent almost four weeks lying down with little movement, and needs to keep things limber and "alive" to maintain her strength and range of motion as she continues to improve. It was a great thing to see, and we appreciate them very much!

R&R- It has felt good to see JoAnne resting with the higher sedation the last few days. She hadn't been sleeping well last week with her infection, so we hope that continued rest until her routine surgeries are finally done will do her good, building her strength. That's all we can hope for!

Much love to you all... more updates tomorrow.

xo Team Jojo