Ken and I visited the long-term acute care hospital where both her neurologist from St. Anthony's and Craig consult this afternoon. It's a very nice facility. Emily would have a large, private room with lots of space to decorate, so we'd be able to take in her life-size Buffy and Spike (thanks Steve). We met with the case manager, medical director and head of physical therapy. She'd be the youngest patient there, although there is one 17-year old, but that's likely to be true at all acute care hospitals. They're checking with Children's to make sure there isn't an option there as well.

We need to talk to Emily's neurologist at St. Anthony's tomorrow to try and get a better feel for his reservations. She really can't stay in the neuro ICU much longer - she's just not getting the intensive therapy she needs to make progress. At the acute care facility she'd have two sessions of physical and occupational therapy each day and one session with the speech therapist.

Her lung issues seem to be resolving. The meds have definitely thinned the mucus so she's able to cough it up on her own. The problem is she starts coughing and then starts gagging on the trach tube and the coughing just gets really bad. She needed meds to numb her throat twice during the day. She did do about a 4 hour wean on the vent at the lowest settings she's tolerated thus far today without any oxygen saturation issues, which was good. She was really alert this afternoon - able to hold her left arm above her head, give her nurse a "thumbs up," and take the green stress ball from the nurse's hand. She still won't stick out her tongue for them - I hold by my original assessment that she's just sitting there wondering who this idiot is that wants her to stick out her tongue.

Her physical therapist and I have a date to get her up in the chair at 8:30 sharp tomorrow morning. The more she moves around the better she'll feel, so wish us luck.