Praise God Almighty! She is free at last! While I know that her struggle does not compare to the generations of oppression, but it has been such a season that I could not help but want to shout this quote from the top of the building. Tammy is off the vent! She is getting humidified oxygen blown past her trache opening and she is doing all the work of breathing on her own. As a matter of fact, normally they put the patient back on the vent for the night to "rest," but she is doing so much better that they are going to try to leave her off all night! When she rocks, she rocks!
I need to confess that I absolutely messed up yesterday. We do not yet get to hear her voice. This collar is like a mini oxygen mask that fits over her trache. If she does well with this they will put in another type of trache valve. It will allow the air to move past the vocal cords. She is looking forward to her new "robot" voice. The tube will divert the air a little which will distort the sound of her voice. She may be sounding a little like her favorite green creatures! Ribbit!
Anyway, at some point they will do a "swallow study" to see if she can swallow well enough to eat. As much as she is hoping to get some chocolate milk, we think the study will involve drinking some barium, and the thought of that makes her taste buds shudder. Pray it happens sooner than later.
Also, she is down to being able to move from bed to chair with the help of one person. I think part of that is because they are able to get closer to the bed and because she no longer has the chest tubes. But we celebrate anyway! The muscles in her legs are beginning to show more, and I am making her work to get them where she wants them. It seems to be helping a bit. All we can do is keep on adding a bit of resistance to build up so she can stand on her own.
All of this improvement is leaving me with a bit of a dilemma. We have been using numbers as markers to pray towards, and now I have to be a little more creative to lead us in specific praying. She is doing really well with her left hand, but her right hand is not quite ready for the same activity. Pray that she will be able to close her hand fully and make a fist. Also pray that she will be able to bend her arm enough to be able to touch her chin. Right now it is able to reach just below the point where the two sides of the ribcage come together. Also pray that she will be able to pull her legs up to . . . how can I explain it. Imagine you are in a recliner and your legs are stretched out with your calves on the foot rest. Then, you decide to pull your legs up so that you can rest your feet on the foot rest, so your legs make a shape like a tent. I hope you can picture it because that is what we are shooting for!
It has been a pretty great day. I realize that these posts have taken a shift from "a little bit of Tammy update and lots of scripture" to "lots of Tammy stuff and a little scripture." I know that most of you only have a little time, and there is so much going on with her right now, that I do not want to neglect giving you information nor do I want to impose on your time. So, I pray you know, God is still very much in every step being taken. And He will be there when she actually takes her first steps. We are blessed beyond words, even when I feel I have used too many in one post. Til tomorrow. . . All God's blessings to you today.
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