Posted May 25, 2015 10:00pm
On Saturday morning, we met earl with the team of doctors taking over Lori’s care for the weekend. We expected them to want to drain the fluid from her right lung just as they had for the left the day prior. Surprisingly, they presented her with various choices all of which sounded pretty good. They talked with us both to find out our goals and motivations, and after our chat, they recommended that we either remove the fluid and stay an extra day in the hospital or leave the fluid and discharge within hours. Their opinion was that the fluid around the right lung wasn’t hurting her ability to breathe. The left lung was fully expanding by then, and her ability to breathe seemed normal. The amount of fluid around the right lung was much less than the left according to the scans and the risks of the procedure (potential lung collapse, bleeding, infection, etc) didn’t seem to outweigh the small advantage to-be gained.

Lori immediately elected to be discharged. It felt great to be making such a big move toward improving the situation. We drove home a few hours later, and Lori had a very relaxing day with the family at our home in Dayton. Sunday was even better physically. We again relaxed at the house, and Lori got around well on her own. Her head began to clear as well. The mental haze was still prevalent, but it was fading.
Today was a MUCH better day for both her mind and body. She woke up this morning at 0530 and went on a short walk down the street and back. Then, she started writing a list of to-do’s around the house! That’s huge because for the past two weeks up until today, she has pretty much been unable to write anything legibly including her own signature. Her mind seemed almost normal today although she still had tired moments where she would fall asleep in the middle of a conversation in the room. Oh, and she has zero pain!
We’ve had a great few days, and Lord willing we’ll get many more. It’s amazing that this is happening because last Thursday was a bleak day, and if I’m being honest, I couldn’t have imagined we would be sitting here like this now.
Thanks to everyone for all of the support. The house looked great and was very welcoming for her. Neighbors and friends painted our house (following the mold remediation and new drywall throughout), unpacked boxes from the recent moving delivery of household goods, arranged rooms with furniture, set up the basement with kid’s stuff, and much more! She wants to write back to all of her texts, emails, fb messages, etc but she can’t typically focus long enough to do so. We feel very well supported, and we’re thankful for all of these days.