Seven Days after Surgery, 1:40pm

Good Memorial Day to you all,

We took a day off from blogging yesterday, and it was a good day for that because there wasn't much news anyway.

Today Anne was moved out of the COR section into Room 302. This is a double room on the other side of the block. It has a view of the White Mountains and into Hadlock Field where the Seadogs are actually having a game with New Britain right now. It's another beautiful day, however unusual because the city of Portland (as well as much of the State of Maine) is covered with smoke from the wild fires in Quebec that have been in the news. We opened (and closed) Anne's window and could actually smell the smoke. Same phenomenon at home the past 2 days.

This morning Anne has a Chest-xray and an EKG done. No results were discussed with Anne yet.

She is walking 4 laps around the block 4 times per day now. She's up to 2/3 of a mile of walking daily.

Anne is experiencing shortness of breath, and I can tell it is not comfortable for her. The breathing exercises don't seem to be expanding her lung capacity as designed. An inhaler has been ordered and is on it's way to see if it will help. She asked Nurse Jamie if there was any medication available that would relax the muscles in her stomach and chest, to ease the sensation. The Dr. will be consulted.

Big news of the day, at 10:10 Anne passed gas for the first time. That's not only a milestone but a requirement for getting out of here. There's been nothing said about going home yet.

Anne stated that since the epidural has been removed that she has alog more pain when she coughs, makes sense, however she is still encouraged to freely cough.

Pat the respiratory therapist just arrived. She is going to give Anne a breathing nebulizer treatment rather than use an inhaler. Pat is listening to Anne's lungs as she breathes in on a device which generates a 'mist'. Anne will keep this up for 5 minutes. I hope it helps her out. Pat said the Chest-xray showed bilateral infusions of fluid on both sides of Anne's body. She said that sometimes they tap into that to relieve it, and sometimes they do nothing and let the body absorb it. The nebulizer treatment is done now, and aparently was not helpful for what is bothering Anne.

More to come........don't be alarmed, Anne is fine and resting pretty comfortably.
She needs to do more work with the breathing exercises than she has been doing.