Moving on up...

To the 6th floor. We were surprised today with another move. Rob's doctor was pleased enough with his stable condition to move him to a regular nursing unit. So on up to the 6th floor we went. He address is now...

Robert Kendall
UIHC
Room 6056-2 6RCE
200 Hawkins Dr
Iowa City, IA 52242

They removed the heart monitors and oxygen monitors along with his IV lines. He still has an IV port in but nothing attached to it for a drip anymore. They have discontinued the calming drug they were using so he can start getting back to himself again. But he's had a lot of medication over the past 5 weeks so that will take a little while. They cut his tube feedings down by half and he ate real food today. He had scrambled eggs and toast, Lucky Charms, and juice earlier today. And meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy for supper. He isn't very hungry yet since he still has the tube feedings going but we're working on it. He doesn't quite clean his plate like he used to. :)

So we have 2 lines left to get rid of, the feeding tube and the trache. Hopefully those will go soon. He's having a hard time adjusting to breathing when his trache is capped so we have to work on that a little bit at a time. The stronger he gets with that, the faster the trache will come out.

So he had another good day of progress. We should stay put now until he's ready to leave UIHC. The next move will be to rehab, probably at Ottumwa Regional Health Center, to get his strength build back up to prepare him to come home...finally!

Kelly