Mom has had an eventful couple of days. Yesterday morning she had her nasal feeding tube removed and had a gastrostomy tube or PEG placed. The gastrostromy tube is a feeding tube that goes across the abdominal wall and empties into the stomach. She tolerated this procedure well and seems to be happy that the feeding tube is no longer in her nose. Until she is less confused and can eat on her own, she will require that much of her nutrition be provided via this tube.

The physician on service this week finally received the x-rays of mom's neck from the Portneuf Medical Center. He found that the neck fracture was indeed stable initially and that she has likely had the rigid neck collar on long enough. As a result, he removed the neck collar today.

Lastly the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist came this evening. He evidently found no obstruction. Instead, it looked like mom had a smaller than expected windpipe or trachea. After trying to find a smaller trach tube to replace the larger one that mom had in place, he decided to simply remove the trach to see how mom did. So far mom is doing well and is maintaining her oxygenation.

All of this is great news and indicates ongoing improvement. These are clearly important steps in her healing process. However, all of this is tempered by the fact that mom is still quite confused at times and struggles with her short term memory. Hopefully as her traumatic brain injury continues to heal, these problems will resolve. Also, she is still quite weak and will require long term therapy to regain her function. Assuming that she passes her swallow studies with the trach out, it will take some time before she is strong enough to adequately maintain her nutrition without the supplemental nutrition provided by the feeding tube.