She can BREATHE!!

Wow, what a machine! Sumana got trained to use her new cough-assist machine yesterday. You can actually SEE her chest rise and fall with the extra air that is inhaled and exhaled. That may not seem like much of anything, but if you've ever watched Sumana, her chest doesn't move very much unless she really exerts herself or is pretty sick. She's starting with 6 cycles of 6 once a day for a month, then we'll increase to twice a day. Hopefully, we'll also be able to increase the pressure. With every breath her lungs are inflated more than usual, so it's a really good exercise. Sumana can already feel the machine helping her get mucous out of her lungs . . . YEA!!

Get this . . . there are only TWO cough-assist machines in the whole hospital! Because of this, the respiratory therapist recommended that we take 'the beast' with us in August. I'm sooo thankful that our insurance covers the rental of this machine. I think it will make a big difference in Sumana's health.

So, I'm continuing to try to coordinate Sumana's appointments through the University of Rochester. Today I was able to get her scheduled for an eye exam with a pediatric eye doctor 'in the system'. It was so easy to give them her name and date of birth and they had EVERYTHING at their fingertips! I think I have ALL of her care in the same system (except for her wonderful, local pediatrician). I really hope this will reduce the chance of something 'falling through the cracks' in her care.

By the way, since we were already at the hospital, we were able to visit my 95-year-old Aunt Ruth. She broke her upper femur this week and we were happy to see her sitting up less than 24 hours out of surgery. We had a nice visit and it was good to hear her telling funny stories and laughing with us like usual. What a wonderful, spunky, young-at-heart lady! That's the way to be at 95!!!!