Jump to main column content

Monday, February 16, 2004

Update From Don

Linda started making her first voluntary movements of muscles other than her eyes. She can turn her head a few degrees to the right. Once she realized she could do that, I noticed that she kept trying it throughout the day.

She still seems very concerned about getting the feeding tube, and she woudn't let me sign the paperwork tonight. I don't know why exactly. So we are saving it for morning. Perhaps it is because she'll need general anasthesia. They are being careful about the anasthesiologist because it is common for stoke patients to stop breathing when under. If you'd like a hard question to ponder, I'll give you one. If you have a "do not resuscitate" order on your chart, and you think you might stop breathing temporarily during an otherwise pretty routine procedure, do you temporarily suspend the order? If you know the answer, then I suspect you haven't thought about it enough.

We used the spelling board tonight, and she spelled "Which room is mine here?" I hate this exercise, because I never understand what the hell she means. I think she just wanted to be oriented some, and to talk of inconsequential things. So I described the 4th floor, told her how you get to the hospital from Kirksville, explained where downtown is, etc. That seemed to be what she wanted.


I want my old Linda back.