"This Sucks!"

Today was a bit of a setback day. In theory it was supposed to be a day where Amanda turns a corner and starts to feel dramatically better. I suppose there is still half the day left, but so far it's been more of a downer day than a feel-good one.

Mandy was up and doing some walking this morning, but relearning to walk and balance is proving to be a daunting task. I think her quote after we made it to the bench by the window about 10 yards away was, "This sucks!"

Her face and tongue on the right side are still totally numb and lack control, so she hasn't been able to eat much. A couple of spoonfuls of oatmeal and applesauce so far today leaves her feeling hungry, but a limited functioning tongue and face create more food outside the mouth than in, and relearning to balance leaves her feeling nauseous. Kind of a Catch-22. She made it though, and we planned to have another go at it around 2 pm.

At the 12:30 pm checkup, the nurse pulled back the covers a little and we noticed Amanda was developing a "Popeye" forearm. Either she was doing a ton of wrist curls in bed or the IV was not functioning properly. As you might guess, it was the latter. All the fluid and pain medication was draining into her arm instead of  making it through the vein to the blood stream. The nurse quickly put another IV in the other arm, and started it back up again. However, this meant Amanda had been without pain and nausea medicine for a few hours.

Of course her head started to throb and ache, and after a quick(ish) shuffle to the bathroom, they gave her some Loratab and Morrphine to ease the pain. We decided to postpone the 2 pm walking tour of the nurses station, and she is resting again instead.

We'll have to get her up again this evening to try walking some more, but so far it's been more of a struggle today than we anticipated. I'm sure this is part of the process and there will be other days like this. Apparently, though, you can't do much about it except give it a try, sit down, rest, and mutter, "This sucks!" before you try again.