Day 9... it's only been 9 days??

It feels like we've been here for a month. Holy cow.... the doctors are convinced mom is a medical miracle. She's exercising like crazy (moving her arms and legs, squeezing her hands and opening back up) to try to get stronger and she's getting some really great (and productive) coughs going. Physical therapy came in and had her get into a sitting position, which was really hard on her and she can't put her feet down at all (both feet had huge blisters covering them on the bottom, now bandaged after debridement).

We had our favorite dialysis nurse back again today... she pulled another almost 10 pounds of fluids off of mom, which should help her swelling tremendously. They were able to take out her arterial line and her central line today as well. I think Tara is my long lost best friend....

They've turned off her pain meds this morning, so she's down to a single pump of IV fluids with an antibiotic in it. She said she wasn't in much pain, then when the nurse asked her on a scale of 1 to 10 how her pain was, she said a 7. haha, that's mom. Her hands and her feet are really hurting now, so she's getting some occasional doses of pain meds to manage that, but not through a continuous IV drip.

They have a feeding tube through her nose into her stomach right now, but she's chomping at the bit to get some real food.

Here are some shots of her CT scan showing the large stone in her right kidney. It's almost 40mm (you can see the measurement in the one scan). I've included both shots, the one where it's a "slice" from your belly to your back and also the vertical "slice". I added arrows pointing to the stone in her kidney. You can see her vertebrae not too far away for size reference. The other kidney is the problem one with the small stones. We don't have a plan yet for how to handle them.

All, in all, today has been utterly magical for us. Thank you so much for the prayers, thoughts, positive energy, etc. you've been sending our way. She has a long road to recovery, but she's on her way.