Day 35 - Tests

Daniel is scheduled for surgery in three days - to graft his chest this time. That will be his 8th surgery in total and the third autografting surgery. His legs have healed nicely and are ready for harvesting skin to use on his chest this time. His doctors will tag-team again like they did with his arms: Dr. Wi. and Dr. Wa. to get the job done more quickly.

Before that surgery happens there are a few tests they team want to conduct. One test is a barium swallow test which I've heard is a pretty cool test to try to see. If we can we will try to go with Daniel so we can see how this works. Doing the swallow test will help the team learn of any issues he has with swallowing food and until he can "pass" this test he won't be switched to solid food. Moving to solid food is a gradual process, but the test uses different types of food consistencies to see how he swallows.

Another test is called a Metabolic Cart. It uses a headgear or tent-like structure around his head and analyzes his breathing. As I understand it the test examines what he breathes in and out and can then determine from that many things about his metabolism. One thing they want to fine-tune is his food intake and understand what all his metabolic needs are. I'm anxious to learn more about how this test works and what can be learned from it.  We were scheduled to do this test at 11am today, but the calibration component of the cart wouldn't work so the test is off until tomorrow.

Right now we are in a holding pattern waiting to see if we can get either test done today or tomorrow.
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Tests will have to wait until another day. Luckily we have lots of them (days) ahead of us...

Daniel did some walking today. First he did a down and back then sat in his chair for about 30 minutes. I coaxed him to do an extra mini-walk on the end of this first stroll before sitting down. He was showing a lot of pain. We think it was mostly his legs and that when you first get up it sends pins and needles down as the blood rushes into his feet - which were already really puffy. One he got going his stride seemed to correct itself. He was standing more upright and looking ahead not down at his feet. That was good to see too.

Daniel returned to his room. He shuffled around to his chair; all the while eyeing his bed with angst and desire. Well actually we steered him around and away from his bed, but you get the idea. He sat in the chair for about 30 minutes until the tub room was ready and warmed up for him. In the chair he was uncomfortable at times. Pain would surge through his body. We couldn't tell what hurt or where or how to help. We asked the nurses for some warm blankets and that helped him relax some through the waiting. Dawn and Daniel's grandparents Susan and Wes chatted away to help distract him while we watched Song of the South on his room TV.

Once the tub room was all ready we helped Daniel to stand and walk to the tub room and sit on the tub table. He was great walking again; this time with shoes on. (the shoes were on to catch the Carefiber they apply to his recent grafts on his left leg - it is really "goopy" and runs down his leg and leaks out of it's cellophane casing). It is amazing though how much his heart rate will increase from a walking activity. The pain and effort to get his body working again must be very taxing!

Daniel is back again and resting. He's still showing pain at times, but I think he's settling down into a more relaxed state.
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The two tests might be done tomorrow - Wednesday. We'll see...