Tubular Thursday

Aly is off the ventilator.  It was removed this morning.  The remainder of the day, she had to deal with the extremely sore throat left behind.  She feels like there is something stuck in her throat, but it is just irritation from the tube.  It is hard for her, because her gag reflex has always been bad and that was part of her eating problem, so now to have irritation like this, it is making her upset.  She has a cough comparable to croup making it more uncomfortable.  Once again, our hospital stay is being lengthened.  They are hopeful she will leave this weekend, but of course aren't 100% sure.  They want to get her up and walking around which she's not to happy about, but after 5 days of no movement, her muscles need some work.
We decided to keep all the notes Aly attempted to write while she was sedated.  They are so fascinating.  Last night she kept asking me what time I got there.  At one point, they shifted her position so she was lying on one side.  Well, with the tube in she had some drool coming out of her mouth.  Aly, being the grown up soul she is, wrote, "I have never drooled in my life."  She is so independent.  She wants to do everything she can, for herself.  She really hates relying on others or having to wait for someone to get something for her.  
I felt guilty spoiling myself at the Ronald McDonald House in the sleeping rooms last night.  They are just like a hotel room, the bed was fabulous.  The rooms are in the interior of the hospital, so there are no windows.  It was nice and pitch black and no machines beeping away all night!  Although I didn't sleep long, I slept good.
My folks are on their way home for a couple of days then head to Texas for my niece's college graduation. Tom headed to Texas very early this morning to hang out with my brother's family and play some golf (a gift from my brother, to help keep Tom busy).  They called to brag about the 80 degree weather! Not very nice! :)  It was hard to see him go, even if it is for a few days.  I don't know what I'm going to do next year when he heads off to college...