A trip to the beach

Here is a pic of baby Caroline and daddy Jeff at the beach. Thought you'd enjoy. She is 10 months now and crawling, pulling up standing, walking around things and just a pure joy to all of us.

Jeff Doyle Family on Christmas

Here is a shot of Caroline, Jeff and Heather outside St. Patrick's on Christmas Day. One happy family.

Mom Home From Regency Place

Here is a shot of Mom home from Regency Place Rehab Center. Note her Rolator walker. Pretty fancy, huh?? The rate she is going in PT and OT, she probably won't need it too much longer.

I stayed with her the first 8 days home, now Phyllis is with her for a week. The nurse comes 3 times a week, PT and OT 3 times a week for first week or so.

She still has an open wound from her graft site that we are debriding and redressing
every day.

We are monitoring her heart rate (which has been extremely low (40's and 50's) and making adjustments to her heart and blood pressure meds as we keep in touch with the Cardiologist's office. We are also monitoring her weight on a daily basis because of the high dose of Lasix (water pill) she was on. We've got it down to 40 mg from 160 mg daily, and we've cut back on her Potassium as we have decreased her Lasix. We are in frequent contact with the Nephrologist in this regard. Phyllis is reporting vital signs and weight every day, so I can monitor it and get in touch with the doctors as needed.

She is doing more every day. This photo was taken on one of the two days in 6 weeks where she stayed in pj's and robe due to overdoing it the previous two days with Dr. visit, discharge home, and Christmas.

Tux watching kitties

Here is Tux at the back door, watching Cheddar.

Ivory

Ivory is beginning to look better nourished now that she comes once or twice a day for meals. She is also feeling comfortable enough to stick around, sometimes all day and evening...grooming, napping, doing her business, etc. Just today, she finally let me pet her...a break-through.

Cheddar

Here is Cheddar, at our back door, meowing for his supper. He has made a complete turnaround from being a skittish, run- when- he- saw- or- heard- us, kitty to an affectionate guy that loves to be petted and jumps up onto our laps for snuggling, kneading, petting, grooming.

Right now, he and Tux are getting to know each other through the front and back doors. Sometimes, they just sit and stare at each other...other times Cheddar growls and hisses at Tux, who backs down...then Tux's tail rapidly thrashes back and forth. They definitely are not ready to be together.

Meet Cheddar

About a week after we started feeding Ivory, we saw this orange tabby in the yard, then feeding at our feeding station. He, too, looks undernourished. We named him Cheddar, and he has been a "regular" from then on. He, also, is standoffish, but appears to have been around people some, because he does not run off. We can watch him feed too.