Saturday July 31st, 2010 PM

Happy Birthday Pauline.

From the ICU unit at Shands in Gainesville Florida. 10:00pm

Another great day for Alyson.

They took an x-ray of her kidneys at 3:30 this morning to make sure there was no problem with them. She is fine there.

She is no longer having to take the dreaded saline solution. She is happy about that.

They clamped off the brain drain tube at 7:30am to see how she reacts to the pressure in her head. She has handled that just fine today, and is doing remarkably well. As long as she has no problems there, she is on the fast track to recovery.

Dr Mocco came in and said that he is hoping that they can remove the brain drain tube on Monday and then they can talk about a release date for her.

She was up early this morning and did exercises. She also took a walk this morning.

Had a good lunch of a hamburger. Then she took a nice long walk where she walked without the use of a walker or holding on to anyone, up and down all three hallways, and even out past the lobby to the outside balcony. She then sat in the chair for a couple of hours.

After her afternoon nap, supper arrived. She ate good again. Then Santiago and Rebecca came by for an hour. Then after they left, Elyse and Heather came by. Alyson had a great time talking with everyone and it was great to see her talking with everyone. It lifted her spirits greatly.

Pauline spent most of the day at camp sleeping. She came back to the hospital at 8:30 tonight. By that time half of her birthday cake was gone.

They just took out the a-line from her arm. So now she has 2 IV's. One in each arm. But with the A-line off, she can now bend and flex both wrists.

She has now been up for 4.5 hours and we are about to take one more walk before she climbs back into bed.

She still has the pain in her lower back, and her neck is still stiff. But she is getting better at getting in and out of bed, and she is moving about much more.

Overall she has had another excellent day, and we may soon be able to count the days until she is out of the hospital. This has been an excellent birthday present for Pauline.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.