first steps

Sorry no update yesterday. I was exhausted last night. Becca is doing really well. Yesterday she continued to improve -- got out of bed and walked around for the first time. My mom and Sydney visited for a bit and in the evening Gwamma Sarah brought the kids in for dinner with mommy.

You remember the last time Sammy was in mommy's hospital room. Well this time his first question to Mommy was "Can I drink the juice in this plastic thing?" pointing to her drain. If you don't know what a drain is, it is probably best I don't tell you.

The nurses continue to marvel at Becca's "flap". "That's the best I've seen" came from one. It turns out this practice pretty much originated the DIEP procedure, and the rest of the surgeons in Boston who do this learned it from them. My mind still boggling at this procedure, I peppered Dr. L. with some more questions today.

The sewing together of blood vessels took place 3 times. They picked one artery, one vein, and a second vein "for good measure". These vessels measure 2 millimeters in diameter. TWO MILLIMETERS. Get out your ruler so you can wrap your head around this. I still don't get how it is even possible.

The check-ups consist of a doppler reading to hear the blood flow to the flap, a review of the oxygenation history that is being continuously kept by a machine standing next to Becca's bed, and palpating various locations on the flap to watch how fast the capillaries on the surface refill.

All these check-ups have gone well. Today Becca added stairs to her movement repertoire and had her first shower. She also put on real clothes for the first time. Although there was plenty of napping, she seems to be handling the pain a lot better today. She had some Tylenol at one point for a headache but otherwise no meds.

There is no doubt that Becca still has a long road ahead before she is back in action, but tonight's stay really feels like a formality. Dr. L. cleared her for discharge tomorrow morning.

Many thanks to our visitors today: Rev Bob, Destine, and Tom with our gorgeous god-daughter Lydia. And to Emily and Brian, who schlepped it into Medfield with Hannie to help Sarah cheer on Sammy at his game and then cook a yummy cookout for dinner.

Meanwhile, when she was awake, Becca and I played scrabble. :-)