Showed up at Suzanne’s room today just after noon and already missed most of the fun, well maybe not fun but progress. She was all smiles and anxious to tell me all that had happened so far this morning.

The ‘Grey’s Anatomy Crew’ were in early as usual and anxious to do something, anything, as the breaks have been put on them most of the week; but today, they got to jump in. First, they removed the staples that hold a cover over her leg skin graph. It’s a mesh material and covers a 6″ x 9″ area on her upper thigh. Over time this cover will come loose and fall off. Then they removed her wrist cast and re-dressed where the reconstruction flap came from. The area is only covered now with Ace Bandage.

Mid-morning, Dr. A (her main surgeon) was in. Suzanne has the choice of discharge on: Thursday, leaving a neck drain in, neck staples, and then coming back on Monday to have them removed OR Friday, after removing neck drain and staples with next appointment later next week. I voted for Friday and I think Suzanne did too with a sad face though.

Then, Dr. A’s – PA was in for more action. She removed half of the staples in the neck incision sharing that it’s easier to remove them in stages than all at once. She also removed the neck drain on Suzanne’s right side.

After lunch, Suzanne was fitted with a Speaking Valve for her Trach. It’s a check valve that allows air to enter through the Trach and then forces the air out through her throat so she can speak. Currently, her throat is still very swollen and with the back of her tongue gone, her articulation is very rough. Just getting started, sometimes it takes a few tries to understand her, but she is so excited to be able to speak and not have to do everything with hand gestures or pencil & paper.

Tracheostomy 101 was our class this afternoon. How to clean, change out the inner parts, and then how to suction out her lungs. Grades were not handed out at the end of class but I’m pretty sure Suzanne got an A+ and I pretty much got what I was used to in Grade School.

The highlight of my day was on one of our walks. After a couple of laps, we reached an area at the end of one of the wings where you can sit and look out over part of the city. When we stopped, Suzanne looked up at me with a big smile, took me in her arms, and just like we were in the Brad Paisley Song – We Danced.

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness
Psalm 30:11