Friday July 30th, 2010 PM

From the ICU floor of Shands Hospital in Gainesville Florida.

There is so much good news I did not want to wait until later tonight to get this out there.

She has been up and feeling much better all day.

The catheter has been removed and when she needs to get up to the bathrom, she is actually pushing herself up to prop herself up.

They took out the NG tube from her nose.

The fluid from her brain drain is definitely starting too look much better. They did have a problem with the tube coming out of her head today. It had a kink in it, and they had to remove the stitches where it goes into her head, fix the tube, and then restitch the area. It was two stitches and they did that without any local anistesia.

She has had a good appetite today, and tonight she ate all the noodles, mushrooms and alot of chicken for supper. This was the most I have seen her eat in 20 days, and even the nurse was impressed with the amount she ate.

She had a DVT scan of her arms and legs to look for clots, and she passed that test. She has no clots.

They did a brain dopler ultrasound test and that was still showing signs of vaso spasims.

The red blood count is low, and they are adding iron thru an IV.

She now has 2 IV's hanging on the rack.

Her cousins Alex and Kyri came by for a visit this afternoon.

Alyson took two walks today. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon. She is hoping to possibly take a third walk tonight when Manny arrives.

She has been doing her breathing exercises, and she is showing great improvments there.

Pauline has been working with Alyson doing exercises in the bed to stretch and strenthen her legs and hips. Alyson also received some new excerise equipment from her mother-in-law that she can use both here at the hospital, and once she gets out of here. She already tried the stretching band.

If you had not know what had happened 48 hours ago, you would just think that she had made great progress today. But knowing what she had been through 48 hours she is looking and feeling fantastic. She has had a very good day. This is the kind of day we have been waiting for, for 20 days.

Her lower back is still very sore, and she is still needing the heating pads and the pain medication. She is moving about the bed more, and able to get from side to side easier then she has in the past.

We are hoping that this is a sign that she will start to make remarkable progress.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.