Jan 22nd

It is Thursday night, and yes, I did skip last night. Yesterday was a blah, down day for both Marion and me. I think that the move hit both of us and we realized that we were in for an up hill climb.

But today was a new day, and we greeted it with a smile, for Marion it was with even more of his face showing as he had pulled out his ng tube. The nurse allowed it to stay out for most of the morning as the speech therapist gave him a "swallow test" and he passed it first thing in the morning when he was fresh and not yet so tired. Then he had a session with the physical therapist which included sitting in the wheel chair with an O2 tank strapped on the back, and attempting to use his arms to navigate the corridors himself! While he only moved a few inches under his own power due to the lack of strength in his right arm, it was the first time he had been out of bed, and out of his own hospital room in 4 and 1/2 weeks, so I pushed him down the rest of the hall and back just to have a change of scenery. He was exhausted just having been up, by 11:30 and wanted to be back in his bed, and by the time lunch came, he "flunked"swallowing the grape juice, so unfortunately by mid-afternoon the ng tube was reinserted, ugh! But Lisa the speech gal is going to give him another try tomorrow or Sat, and even tonite he was asking "didn't he get food?" So he is on his way hopefully. He does miss his food.

For the locals that have asked, the visiting hours at Tahoe Pacific are 8am to 10pm. Trust me, Marion is asleep long before 10pm! There are no closed hours as there were at Renown, and when Marion starts eating (soon we hope) meals are approximately 7:30 or 8am, noon, 5:30pm. I understand that they have a dining room that they put patients in wheel chairs and take them to for their meals. We have not graduated to that level yet. I have mentioned to a couple of friends coming to T-P that his room is so small, do not consider bringing flowers, balloons or anything. Even the chair that I sit on has to be moved every time that the nurse or respiratory therapist comes in to do something for Marion. The space in TINY! But the prayers that are coming our way are huge, thank you all so very much! Love, Sue