Speech Therapy: Since she has been still and intubated, trached, and tube-fed for so many days, JoAnne hasn't had to use her swallowing mechanism or her voice. Her speech therapist will come daily to help her relearn swallowing and talking (the latter has not been difficult for our JoAnne) and assess her readiness to eat, and whether she will need some exercises to improve. I told her that she had better be nice to this lady, as she will be the one to sign off on the pastrami sandwich. At which point JoAnne smiled angelically at her.
Physical Therapy: Dana came in and worked it with
JoAnne; again, her inactivity has caused significant muscle loss and weakness, and
she is beginning her regimen of daily PT visits to begin the road back
to strength. Her arms and leg were the targets today. JoAnne didn't care
too much for Dana, as she doesn't sign off on anything, as yet.
Cognition: It will take some days/weeks for JoAnne
to "be herself" as far as short-term memory, as well as her retention of
the information we give her daily about her condition. We know that she
is keeping little bits of this each day, and think that repetition,
coupled with her improvement as she continues the waking process, will
create a better understanding for her about what's been going on. She
still has a sense of humor, though!
Wounds- Dr. Ramzy came by today and has decided he'd like to close up the skin of JoAnne's abdominal wound later this week when Dr. Madey (the ortho surgeon) cleans her hip. This'll create a healthier, better looking scar, and also means she won't need the wound vac changes anymore. Dr. Chang, her infectious disease specialist, also came by today. He'd like to give her a body scan (CT) before discontinuing her antibiotics, just to make sure there are no other areas that could possibly be/come infected. We like the sound of this!
Wounds- Dr. Ramzy came by today and has decided he'd like to close up the skin of JoAnne's abdominal wound later this week when Dr. Madey (the ortho surgeon) cleans her hip. This'll create a healthier, better looking scar, and also means she won't need the wound vac changes anymore. Dr. Chang, her infectious disease specialist, also came by today. He'd like to give her a body scan (CT) before discontinuing her antibiotics, just to make sure there are no other areas that could possibly be/come infected. We like the sound of this!
Love,
Team JoJo
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