Monday, March 9

Good Monday morning to you!! Hope all of you survived the time change!  I know “spring forward” is always hard for me.  Things are looking pretty good here this morning.  There is still no change in the leaking in Daddy’s lung; however, I did find out this morning that Daddy’s status is no longer considered “critical”.  He didn’t have to be accompanied by a nurse when we went for the swallow testing.  They told me that this change occured because he was no longer considered critical.  Having said this, they still expect to keep him in his current room. room 202…which is in the “special” or intensive care unit.  His radiation treatment went pretty much as expected.  After that, they performed some new swallow testing on him to try and get him taken of of the thickened liquid/mechanically soft food diet.  His swallow looks good; however, he has some swelling in his neck area from air that is leaking around the chest tube.  As a result, the swelling is pressing on the muscles in his neck and they determined that he needs to remain on soft foods and thickened liquids.  The good news is that when the swelling subsides, he can return to a normal diet.  The problem is being caused by more of an external factor (air leaking around his chest tube) rather than from an actual problem with his swallowing.  Daddy is resting today because all of the activity associated with radiation and the swallow testing made him tired.  Other than that, he is doing well.  He looks better today than he did yesterday.  He spent most of the day yesterday sleeping….which is probably what he needs to do.  He continues to be weak, but that is expected since he has been in ICU for almost three weeks.  Not much else is going on today.  We hope to see the doctor to discuss options for the chest tube and to see if Daddy will be released from here when he completes his radiation treatments late next week.  Please keep these issues in your prayers.  Love to all of you!!

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