Cyn's recovery 07/25/10

Good Morning All,

Hello from Cyn!

Jan and I arrived in Flagstaff yesterday, found the hospital and Cyn.  She is in good spirits and is generally doing well.

Overall condition
Considering everything, Cyn is making good progress.  Yesterday started a bit of a set back with her retaining fluids.  The gave her some medication to counteract that, which was working well within a couple of hours.  They are also seeing some fluid around the lungs in her most recent x-rays, so they are attending to that, too.

Pain in the ribs and collarbone is a problem when she coughs, which is something she has to do. They are adjusting meds to see if they can find a combination that gives the desired effects.  We got a rib count yesterday, and the current number is ten to a dozen broken ribs, front and back.  The collarbone fracture is a simple one, so won't need to be set.

The ribs and lungs are the major issues, but she has some pretty healthy bruises and a decent sized cut and deep bruise on her left lower leg.  It seems they are watching the cut / bruise as a potential source of blood clots.

She is working on stamina with physical therapy.  Just getting up and down is an effort with the ribs.  So far, trips to and from the nurses' station is about the extent of what she can handle.

This morning is test morning.  Cyn will be having chest x-rays and maybe a CAT scan to examine her lungs.  She'll also be getting a shower, which will help her feel better and will also test her stamina.

Today
We will see her this afternoon and evening.  We are staying at the Taylor House which is connected with the hospital.  They house out patients who are in for chemo or radiation treatments and families of hospital patients.  The house is within walking distance of the hospital, so we can use it as a home base without doing a lot of driving.  At elevation (about 7200 feet), walking can be an interesting experience.  We can feel the three block walk to the hospital, and have been warned about going slow until our bodies acclimatized to the altitude.  That altitude is giving Cyn some difficulty.  With the lung injury and the altitude, her oxygen level is difficult to maintain.  In talking with the supervisor here, the hospital takes in a lot of tourists who have difficulty with the altitude that progress to heart problems.

Future plans
Assuming all progresses somewhat on plan, Jan and Cyn will leave on AmTrak Thursday morning.  I'll head north with Prancer.  We should all be back to our place in about a week.  As we've done since the beginning of this adventure, we are making things up as we go, so everything is fluid.

Communication
Cyn's cellphone is recharged and working again.  She can also take calls on her room phone.  Dial the hospital number 928-779-3366, ask for room 30XX, and you are there.  Remember that Flagstaff time is the equivalent of Pacific Daily Time (the are Mountain Standard, no Daylight Savings here) - two hours behind MN time.

Appreciation
On behalf of all of us, I would like to thank everyone for all their help, their prayers, their wishes, emails, cards and everything else.  The hospital email form works well.  Since we haven't found her glasses yet (truck trip is tomorrow), someone will read the email messages to her when they arrive.  Even short ones are real spirit lifters.

That is all for now.

Take care.