We got to visit Julie for a little while this
morning. She is doing really well and might be discharged by Tuesday.
The doctors are really pleased that she doesn't
appear to have any infections so that is terrific. According to her x-rays, one
of the reasons she was having so much chest pain from her last chest tube is
that it had moved from being in her lung to being imbedded in her chest wall
muscles. The doctors here clamped it off and she thinks the weight of the clamp
pulled at it enough so that this morning she found it had in her bed. She asked
the doctors yesterday how many broken ribs she has but even they aren't sure.
Some of them are very clearly broken but the pneumonia in her lungs makes her
original e-rays cloudy so they weren't sure. After the x-rays she has had at
Foothills, she might have a more accurate count.
She has lost some weight but she wanted to so
that is not a bad thing. Unfortunately she thinks that she lost is muscle -
which is not what she wanted to lose!
She has been moved from Indian meds to Canadian
meds and from Indian food to Canadian food - she said she was really excited to
have oatmeal for breakfast this morning.
Her doctor was East West Rescue apparently was
not as much help as she would have liked. At Heathrow she asked him to get her
something with protein to eat - he brought her chips and coke and kept offering
them to her. Apparently for the trip in his carry-on luggage along with
everything else he had packed a pair of surgical scissors/clamp as well as a
scalpel - not sure why the scalpel - but anyway he had to check his bag because
security wouldn't let him on the plane with them. That meant an extra delay in
Calgary while he waited for his luggage.
She said the plane from Delhi to Heathrow was
really nice with comfortable reclining well-padded seats and was a good
experience - at at least as good as you can have with a bunch of broken ribs.
The plane was Heathrow to Calgary was an older one and just not as well padded.
Also, Julie didn't have an IV so the only pain killers the doctor was willing
to give her was Tylenol which is not quite as effective as morphine!
Ryan met her at the hospital because she was
processed from the plane through Immigration & Customs into the
ambulance so he couldn't get to see her. She really does need to update her
name on EVERYTHING - her passport, the hospital and Alberta Health Care have
her as Julie B but other stuff has her as Julie W so Ryan was waiting for a W
to arrive at the hospital but she was arriving as a B - they did finally get it
sorted out but this will be her next project.
Anyway, she is home and safe and sound - she
will heal and be back to creating havoc for all those who care for her.
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