Sunday update

Sara seemed to be doing well enough today. I still don't know how bad she was yesterday, so I can't really compare. We did our usual thing of watching movies. Today was "Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me" and "Snakes on a Plane". I did notice she needed more suctioning then usual. But now that she is actually willing to tell me when she needs it, its not as big of a problem. She used to never admit to needing it. (I don't blame her though, it must be all kinds of uncomfortable) She wanted me to move her limbs around a lot today. Not because they were sore or in pain though, She just wanted to feel them moving. Every half an hour or so, she would ask me to move her limbs. I would move her arms and legs around, taking care not to yank out any tubing. I would also move her head around a bit every now and then. Apparently her pillow wasn't doing the best job at supporting her head, so I made a narrow roll out of a towel and put it behind her neck. Before I left, she let me know that her head was uncomfortable once again. None of my suggestions seemed to fix the problem, so I had her spell out what she wanted me to do.

This is what she gave me: "Put a doughnut under my head"

That one had me puzzled for a few minutes. After confirming several times that she didn't want me to put an actual doughnut under her head (I thought it was a funny idea) i started folding the towel and placing it in various "Doughnut like" shapes and positions. I eventually found one that was acceptable. What I wound up with was sort of like a halo supporting her head on the pillow. With the bottom of it supporting her neck, and the rest of it keeping her head from rolling side to side. She seemed happy with it. I left her watching Futurama on the TV. Before I left the ICU I asked her nurse about Sara's splints, and how they were doing her schedule for that. Apparently they had been on for qutie some time, after being off for even longer. So the nurse actually wrote up a schedule for them, by hand, and posted it in Sara's room. I thought that was really nice of her.


On a "not specifically related to Sara's care" note.
I've noticed that nobody on the staff asks the patients what they want to watch on TV, they just turn it on and leave it on the first channel that pops up. And although fox news might be ok for some people.... it doesn't really hold the interest of younger people. And sometimes the stuff that gets left on is painful (metaphorically of course) to watch. One day when I came in, the TV had been turned to a car racing channel. Apparently Sara hates racing. (although that may just be a result of being forced to watch it for who knows how many hours) I left a note on the board in Sara's room asking them to put the TV to chanel 53 (Nickelodeon) whenever they turn it on for her. She always asks me to put it on Nick for her so she can watch "Sponge Bob Square Pants".

~Daniel H.