Check out my new TESTING page where I hope to continue testing new features. Also, be sure to have a look at my new HIKES site and especially some of the “highlighted” hikes that are listed in bold there.
Note that HIKES used to be a “section” here, but there are a lot of them so I made a site just for them.
Just moved into room 71-19 (7th floor) of the Inpatient Rehab Unit (IRU) at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids.
For anyone coming to visit be advised that you enter the parking ramp on 10th Street but the intersection at 10th Street and 8th Ave. SE south of the hospital, is closed, you must come in on 10th Street from the north.
-Mark M
So I went home last night and got some rest. When I returned this morning about 30 minutes ago Chris was on the phone talking with a representative from Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids and we believe Mackenzie is checking out of here today and we will be transporting her to the rehab facility at Mercy CR.
She is currently out running laps with her mother around the neuro ward. I took her for a lap and a half before this update and she is moving even better and faster than yesterday. She did have some headaches overnight but they’ve got those under control here. I think she’s feeling pretty good this morning, still struggling with some speech as the words are on the tip of her tongue but she can’t always get them out as quickly as she would like.
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Sorry for the late update today but it’s a pretty good one. Mackenzie has been up in her chair all day and every time she visits the bathroom we make her take a lap around the ward. We walked three or four laps today and her coarse physical abilities are back to normal. I think her fine motor skills are also back to normal or nearly so.
Finally the feeding tube came out today at about 11 AM or maybe noon. She feels so much better and she’s so much more talkative now that it is gone. She’s had a couple of showers and for the most part she’s able to take care of herself now that the f-ing tube is gone. Her words not mine.
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Sorry for the late update, been a busy morning here. Mackenzie continues to rest comfortably for the most part although her feeding tube is still in and that thing is driving her up the wall. She needs to get one more meal in her today before they will feel safe enough to remove that.
She’s getting up to use the bathroom, brush her teeth, comb her hair, took a shower, all the things we take for granted. She’s still struggling with her speech and processing numbers, but you can tell the information is all there. It’s just getting it out, and communicating that is tricky.
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We are out of ICU and back in neurology, moved to 6JC room 6337… and no roommate this time!
Not much has changed with Mackenzie since the last update a couple of hours ago, but we did receive word that she will be admitted to rehabilitative care at a Mercy intensive therapy facility in Cedar Rapids, probably early next week.
Mackenzie’s uncle had therapy there after his stroke 4 years ago and that went well. The facility is probably the most convenient for family members given the other choices we had as well.
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Mackenzie is still resting comfortably in the ICU and they are looking for a bed for her so we hope to be out of there in the next few hours. She still has her feeding tube but she’s eating a little better so they think that might come out today.
She continues to make slow progress and has been up and walking a little, but still has some difficulty with her right hand and speech.
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She had a restful day in ICU, is sitting up a little more, eating a little soft food, and is speaking just a little. Her left/right functions are nearly back to normal. Speech therapy was here and pleased that she can swallow again. Feeding tube is still in but she is clearly looking forward to getting that out later.
She just took the TV remote from me and is channel surfing again!
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Lots of people asking how Mackenzie is doing so here is this morning’s update…
I was working from home yesterday, Wednesday, November 13, and took a break at about 1:30 following a meeting so I could check on Mackenzie. She was in bed and sitting up so I asked her how she was feeling and she said she was tired and hungry. I asked her what she would like for lunch and she did not answer. Another question went unanswered so I called 911. At that time, I asked her to lay flat in the bed and she understood and did that, but her right side was almost completely non-functional. We had a policeman at the door within about two minutes and the ambulance was there in about 10 minutes. She was taken to Marshalltown ER and directly in for a CT scan.
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Wow, this post is long overdue.
For as long as I can remember I’ve been looking for, or building and using, a workflow that would let me create quick and simple microposts for this blog using my iPhone. I want that workflow to automatically record my location (in the form of a city/town reference) and date/time. With the help of my daughter, Mackenzie, I’ve had workflows that used Working Copy and iOS Shortcuts to get this done, but I never really understood the entire process and over time it broke down and I was unable to repair it. It’s time to revisit those pieces and I’m going to follow, and document here, the steps and components presented in Post to Eleventy from iOS with Drafts, Shortcuts and Working Copy. The only change I anticipate will be pointing the workflow at this Hugo blog rather than an Eleventy one, and those differences should be minimal and manageable.