Good things

Today has been a good, if exhausting, day so far. Last night was a bit of a rough night for Diana - they kept doing procedures, so, not much rest. As she improves, and becomes less fragile, her nurses and doctors cease walking on eggshells, do more stuff to her, and thus she gets very little sleep! However, this is a good sign that she is improving, if not the most fun result of that.

She had a bit of a cry this morning, which I was encouraged by, in a strange way - it means that she is beginning to deal with everything she's been through, and is no longer too sick to be able to realize what's going on. And, I told her, I've had many crying spells, so if she didn't have at least one, I would feel like a real wimp!

Here are the good things from today:

1. Her pain is down to nearly a manageable level now, which is a great relief. This will be a struggle for a while, but she seems to be maintaining at a "6 out of 10" (10 being the worst) pain level, as opposed to the "9 out of 10" she was at most of yesterday. They are also going to try to move her to a patch for her pain medication,as opposed to the constant drip - this will be in addition to her PCA (the self administered pain med device.) We were happy about this as it means that she will have one less line going in.

2. She had her first visit from Physical Therapy today, and they worked with her for over an hour. It went well - she put weight on her feet and lifted her bum off of the bed! Her nurse today jokingly said that she's not allowed to call that "standing" yet, but that's our story and we're sticking to it. : )
She liked her therapist very much and said that the therapist and the nurse worked together very well. And she did her best not to give them too much direction (although they could learn a thing or two from her.) When I came in this morning, she was sitting up straight in bed, at her manageable pain level and had a great feeling of accomplishment at her progress.
They are also talking about another visit from PT this afternoon - very exciting!

3. I hesitate to mention this, as no decisions have been made, and the "plan" seems to change from hour to hour sometimes, but...there is definite talk of letting her have some soft food today. She has been allowed to have small, cautious sips of water already today, so we are hopeful that they will go that one step further. This would be enormously cheering for her, and also will speed her healing and recovery.

So, even though we have a long way to go, I am allowing myself some cautious optimism now, and feeling that we are finally on the road, as opposed to the days of nail biting waiting well behind the starting line.

Again, I can't thank everyone enough for your sweet and loving comments, cards and letters - Mom loves to hear all of it so much. And she tells me often how unbelievable it is the number of people thinking of her and sending her wonderful energy and prayers. We are very fortunate in our kind, generous and truly loving friends and family, and we are so grateful for you all.