She Eats!!!

Heather had a really good day and a mixed night. It is currently almost noon on Saturday and she has been off the ventilator since yesterday (Friday) morning. The button or cap in her tracheostomy tube seemed to tires her out yesterday, but she has had it back in today for several hours and is doing great. It is fantastic because it is a big step forward, and it allows her to talk whenever she wants. It would be wonderful if she didn't need to go back on the ventilator again.

She had a difficult night because her bowels haven't been working very well again, and they gave her a stool softener called Senna that really makes her feel terrible. Within five or ten minutes of taking it last night she started feeling nauseated and continued to feel so throughout the night. It just really doesn't agree with her. She said that she thought she was going to throw up all night. She has been feeling a little better this morning, but not great.

The worry of the day today was that her feeding tube became blocked. They were worried that they might have to take it out and put another one in, which would not be much fun. However, with a few tricks they were able to get it flowing again.

The major excitement of the day is that she had her first drink and ate her first food in a month! A speech therapist just came in and evaluated her ability to eat and drink. After not using her mouth and throat muscles for eating and drinking for so long, they want to make sure she can eat and drink without it going into her trachea and lungs. She did great, so my days of eating Heather's hospital meals are over. I couldn't be happier, even though the food here is actually pretty good. It was like Christmas for Heather to finally be able to wet her throat and taste some new tastes. The speech therapist tested her with ice, water, milk, applesauce, and saltine crackers. Heather seemed to love them all. However, combined with the nausea she already had this morning, the "newness" of food in her stomach seemed to make her feel even more nauseated. They just gave her some anti-nausea medication, so hopefully that will help.