A few posts ago I mentioned that Ashleigh’s lungs were in trouble: the doctors saw lots of white space on the x-rays and thought that a piece of her upper right lobe had died. As they were preparing to decide whether to take that piece out they discovered that it was just a mucus plug. One that is very large and very stuck (Mom said it looks like there’s a jelly fish in her lung). They tried to remove it yesterday but because it is “cemented” in there they took her into surgery this morning.
Despite this plug Ashleigh has been able to go without the ventilator for around 4 hours at a time during the day. She’s been sitting up in bed, but not moving around too much because she’s afraid she’ll pop the ventilator tubing off her trach. Ashleigh can’t quite talk yet (something to do with the trach) but she can most definitely communicate. For example, she was cold yesterday and wanted to pull the blanket up but she couldn’t reach it. She tried to say “blanket” but couldn’t, so she pantomimed to Mom that she wanted her blanket pulled up closer to her so that she could cover herself when she wanted. Slowly but surely she is becoming her old self again.
Friday the doctors will have a conference with everyone to discuss rehabilitation.
