10/03/2007 Update

October 3rd, 2007 by shahin

Shahin had a tough day today.  The speech therapist gave him some ice and grape juice to see if he could swallow.  Some of this fluid ended up in his lungs, causing him a lot of discomfort.  Tomorrow, they will take him into an x-ray environment and give him some die colored fluid to see if they can trace the flow of it.  Probably another day of discomfort for him.

They did remove the tube that was used to pump out the contents of his stomach.  So there is one less tube going in through his nose.  This is good as it does indicate that he is passing the fluids in his stomach through the intestine.

Shahin was going to be taken for a walk today, but they postponed it till tomorrow as he was being punished enough.  I’m not sure if he can tolerate a walk given his very weak muscle conditioning.  He has been bed-ridden for over 3 weeks, and the saying “if you don’t use it you’ll loose it” goes, the muscle mass has certainly not been used.  He still has a hard time controlling his arm movements, let alone support his own weight on his feet.

Talking about his weight, he weighs in at about 140 pounds; about 40 pounds less than what he weighed before going into the hospital.  If I’m not mistaken, the colon does weigh about 20 pounds.  

His heart rate is still fairly high.  In the 110 to 120 range.  All other vitals are holding steady.

His score for the day… Holding at 6.5.