I'm feeling "hole-y"

Ironically, we were listening to this part of HP-7 on our road trip today.  George gets his ear cursed off and says he is feeling "hole-y."  Me, too.  The trach is out, leaving a pretty sizable hole to close up on its own.  It is currently covered with gauze, so not too scary looking.  Both drains are out.  The one on the left is fine. The one on the right went into the fistula, so it didn't close up when he pulled the drain out.  Also covered with gauze.  The Dr. feels the fistula will close on its own in a few weeks.  So, yes, I am hole-y.

There is some concern with the gastric distress the tube feeding has been giving me.  He is stopping both antibiotics and hopefully that will help.  I will continue to bomb in probiotics, which probably will work better if they aren't being ambushed by the antibiotics as soon as they get in there.  I also read that the pectin in banana flakes was shown to be as effective as treatment with medicine, so I put some dried banana chips in the herb grinder and made banana flakes.  We'll see how that goes.  I'm guessing it can't hurt.  If things don't shape up in a couple of days, I have to give a "sample" to be checked for C- diff.  I tested negative in the hospital, so he really doesn't think that is the issue.  I hope not.

We met with the speech path and the Dynavox rep.  I got to try several devices.  I really like the tablet device, the T10, but typing on the touch screen is rough for me.  Fortunately, I had my personal tech support with me.  Kelly asked lots of good questions and the rep got their tech support on the phone to figure this out.  I can get a T10, which is basically a tablet.  It has pre-loaded phrases which are easy to access and will work in basic situations (going to the bank, for example).  It also has whiteboard, which is the high def version of the magnadoodle.  It works well for quick communication I don't necessarily need said out loud.  Kind of high tech note passing.  Finally, I can add on a full size keyboard, either via USB or blue tooth, for situations when speed is important to me.  I can type about 80 wpm on a regular keyboard, but on the touch screen it was more like 8.  Maybe a stylus would help.  Maybe ever having used a touch screen would help.  Did I mention our cell phones are 7 year old flip phones.  I can text like a maniac on that thing...

We met with the other speech path.  She was amazed by how well I am speaking.  Seriously? I sound like a Wookie with a pillow over his face.  But she said, "It has been a rough day.  I could cry right now at how well you are doing."  Clearly she has no idea how much exercise I've given my vocal cords over the years.

Healing of my neck overall is going slowly because of the radiation from five years ago. I am again amazingly thankful that they did not have to saw through my jaw.  Shudder.  The doctor seems confident it will heal, little by little.  Well, it isn't like I have anything else to do:)

Thank you to Aura for picking Karissa up and entertaining her and seeing that she got to Talmud Torah. Thanks to Angie for picking her up and feeding her dinner.  Thank you to my husband, who continues to amaze me more and more each day.  Thank you for all of my friends near and far, who have given me their love.  It is a precious gift.  Thank you!