Day 38 - Kaiser Hospital / Oakland - Transitional Care Unit (T C U)

Day 38 - Kaiser Hospital / Oakland - Transitional Care Unit (T C U)

Graduation day from (ICU) intensive care unit - HOORAY FOR MARK!

Another battle on the road today to Oakland, construction off of the San Mateo bridge is 30 minutes delay to the 880-north exchange.

I made a suggestion to my hubby as we were driving along – they need to close all borders and the roads too coming into California. Think we have enough people here and the rest are out of luck!!!!!!. Close the DMV's, for license plates, etc., ha! ha! No kidding, pretty soon it will take a full day to get across the bay. Dream on lady!

Anyway! A super day, Mark had his trach taken out and he has a voice, he sounds so different but clear. It will take 5 - 7 days to heal. They tried to give him food today that was a thick substance. After 37 days without food he could not eat and just wanted water, or juice but they can't give that to him, as it will go down the wrong way into the airway right now. He has to retrain his throat to swallow into the stomach - gee! Most everything tasted too sweet to him and so he did not eat. The physical therapists came while we were there and sat Mark up on the side of the bed, put his left leg down on the floor and raised it up and down. The right leg still has the big round brass cage on it with all the wires to the pins in his leg. His feet look pretty good too. He is so anxious and just wants to come home and/or get him over here to Santa Clara Kaiser.

It seems they are moving him right along now and things just have to heal. Another thing, they also took out the chest tube so that is a great sign. The gallbladder tube stays in for 6 - 8 weeks?????

So he is in the hands of the orthopedic surgeons now as soon as they can get him eating, swallowing right and the internal organs heal themselves, then the surgeries begin again. We will go over on Sunday to see him. Kevin goes over on days we don't and hopefully he can have visitors soon too. I think they want his throat to heal without a lot of talking right now.

Enjoy a fun weekend!

Hugs! The Alexanders