Dad made some great progress today. He stood up on his own two feet (actually, he had on his "new" Converse All-Star high tops) for 30 minutes without resting! Better yet, he said that it was mostly all him, with the apparatus keeping him from falling down. He had to use his arms a lot to stay up, so they got a bit of a work-out too.
Also, they took out his tracheotomy today! YEA!!! There is just a dressing over the stoma now, and they are going to let it heal up.
Dad' stomach is still very distended, but he said it's not hurting. Some of that is from the C. Diff and the lack of protein in his system. Also, something we haven't been mentioning is that Dad's left leg is quite swollen and has been for weeks. This is the leg with the blood clot, but his right leg is swollen too, just not nearly as much as the left. Please be praying that his kidneys continue to heal and pull-off the fluid like they need to, as well as he get all his protein and other blood-work vitals to where they need to be.
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Protein levels being out of whack can cause the swelling in the legs and belly. Also electrolytes being off (potassium/sodium). But the biggest cause is immobility. The more he moves his legs even while in bed, the less "dependent edema" and the more quickly the swelling goes down. This has taken a long time to develop and may not be resolved for a few weeks.
You might want to ask about a one time dose of a diuretic to get some of that fluid off but if his labs are off, they may not be able to do that.
Elizabeth,
I have some other ideas I'll email you about that may help.
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