Nurse Joanne signs in for duty

And its a another St Louis morning. The alarm went off at 4.50am and the 6 syringes we need were assembled. Going through a sleep filled head..wash hands, uncap PICC line, clean line with alcohol swab, break seal on saline flush,  push up the barrel (to remove air), Insert into line, plunge to 2, take off the line, Wipe with alcohol swab, connect anti-biotic number one, Place syringe in pump, pull back the trigger , line up the syringe neck, Switch pump to on (with alarm) wait one hour. Alarm goes off, Wash hands. Disconnect line add cap, Swab with alcohol swab, break seal on saline flush, push up the barrel to remove air, Insert into line, plunge to 2, take off the line, wipe with alcohol swab, connect anti-biotic 2, place syringe in pump, pull back on trigger, Line up the syringe neck, switch pump to on with alarm. Wait 30 minutes, Alarm goes off,  Wash hands, disconnect line and cap it. swab with alcohol swab, break seal on flush, push up the barrel to get rid of the air, insert into the line, plunge til 2, take off the line, swab with alcohol swab, break seal on Heparin, push up barrel to remove air, insert 1.5ml, Wipe line with alcohol swab and recap PICC wash hands and another dose of anti-biotic is done without waking Leo.
Leo woke up about 8.30 and went down to breakfast where he was greeted by Angie...she has really missed Leo. Leo had scrambled egg on toast and managed to eat almost half of it. He also had chocolate milk. Leo has to go back to the hospital for physio at 11. Then the rest of the day he can pretty much do what he wants.
Well Leo arrived at Physio only to find his walking sticks have been delivered. They are called quad sticks because on the end is a weighted arm with four limbs enabling Leo to get his balance. Now we have had tripods for Leo which he refused to use because they were unstable (or he was) but with these sticks Leo was up and away. He managed to do 10 steps with Erica (the physio today) just supporting his lower back. He then got to stand on a wobble board which is what it sounds like. its a board with a half crescent fitted underneath making him check and recheck his balance. Leo managed to stay on board and got to throw a ball at a basketball hoop as a reward. Erica then had Leo sitting on a chair and leaning down to pick up a jigsaw piece and then standing to place it. It was a 10 piece puzzle so Leo bent and straightened 10 times. This exercise works on his core strength. As a reward he was allowed to draw on the chalkboard. All in all Erica was really pleased with Leo today especially as its really his first day out of bed in 5 days.
This evening we went out to dinner at Applebees and Leo almost managed to finish his meal so looks like his appetite may be returning. Once he rested Leo went down to the lobby to meet up with Finlay and Jack to play for a while...well they think they're playing but in reality they're all practising their walking Leo managed to use his sticks with NO HELP for at least 6 steps. As Dr Park says in order to learn to walk you have to walk walk walk. Unfortunately the evening was cut short because three little boys got very tired and Leo had to have his evening meds done so we returned to the room to start again 5am tomorrow