Fwd: Great News about Joe!

January 3, 2001

I just spoke with Joy on her cell phone and she was sitting in Joe's

room --- and guess what! He was moved out of ICU to 6CVA

today!!!!!!!!!! After he " woke -up " from the procedure they did to

drain the fluid trapped in his chest he was able to come off the

ventilator without any problem! Then they exchanged his Trach tube

for a smaller one with a plug.... Now that he's completely off the

ventilator he has it plugged all of the time and isn't even using

it! He was talking so much, Joy kept having to stop and see what

he was saying while we were on the phone! And they let him start

eating clear liquids yesterday. He has been taking sips of broth and

jello and the like and, of course, water. They even switched him

from IV pain medication to pills today! He still has " tube feedings "

going directly into his intestine with the Jejunostomy tube but no

more IV fluids. As you can imagine after being so sick for so long,

he is VERY, VERY weak and will need to build up his strength slowly.

He's able to sit up at the end of the Bariatric bed briefly, but

that's about it for now, so he still has the compression devices on

most of the time (you preops-- remember how important those are for

clot prevention and don't complain about the day or two you have to

use them... if Joe can put up with them for over a month, so can you

guys!) Joe isn't quite up for visitors or phone calls yet, but I'm

sure its just a matter of time because he's definitely on the road to

full recovery! I am so relieved and grateful and happy as I am sure

all of you are too!

Best e-gards,

Gayle

--- End forwarded message ---

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