Saturday Morning Update

BLUF: Rainey had a good night. Although the drainage from her lungs has slowed down, it is bloody so they will probably leave the tube in today, which is disappointing but understandable. She will probably be moved out of ICU, though, perhaps later in the afternoon. No visitors this morning at least, but depending upon how she feels, the staff may allow a few visitors later today. Check the blog for updates.

LONGER VERSION: I am delighted to report that Rainey had a good night. So good, that if Aunt Denise weren’t leaving tonight, I would consider switching shifts – I get crap like the drainage tube being put in, unmanageable pain, etc. I get a text at 11:00 last night from Denise saying, “Now we’re having a ‘chick’ party watching videos and taking pictures! So far so good – let’s hope it stays that way all nite.” Now, I’m all for Rainey having a good night. I just wish we could throw a good day in there, too.

As for today, Rainey has already had to move, and she is soon going to have to walk here pretty soon, too, but is trying to rest now.

The drainage from her lungs has slowed (the nurse just told us that 1 liter came out in the first 5 minutes), but it is still bloody. This means that the tube will probably have to stay in today, which is obviously disappointing because she will be in less pain when it comes out.

A few things that I have forgotten to include:

As you can tell from the huge gap in blog posts yesterday, Friday was hard. At one point, Rainey was really just trying to rest after she got some muscle relaxants, but the nurses outside were being kind of loud. Tamara, Rainey’s step mom, threw open the curtain and said, “Would you all keep it down???” Rainey got moved to a private room with a door shortly thereafter. Smile. It’s much better, and quieter.The hospital is amazed by Rainey’s fan club. When Rainey rolled into the ICU after surgery, the nurses showed up with a stack of letters from Rainey’s basketball team. “We normally don’t have mail waiting for a patient,” she said with a smile. (The night before surgery, Rainey went to see her basketball team play. Afterwards, Dawn was reminding me to put the address to the hospital on the blog. Coach Jamie was right there and rattled it off the top of her head. I knew she had obviously sent something, but I didn’t understand why if she just sent balloons or whatever, she would know the address by heart – she didn’t look like Rainman. Well, she had addressed 26 envelops so that Rainey would have a stack of mail when she got here.) And this was the first time the staff has seen a patient’s name written in the snow...