26Feb08 - Portimao Day 14

I think this is now the longest stay Lucy has had in hospital since she was born although there have been quite a few visits and I may be wrong. Apart from the course of antibiotics there is not much keeping Lucy at Portimao hospital. The oxygen saturation monitor is only connected every now and again just to check but each time the levels are up in the nineties.She is still been given nebuliser treatment but the periods have been reduced from 4 hours to 6 hours. The only real concern for me is the number of times the cannulas have to be changed. For those who don't know a cannula is a tiny little tube which is inserted into a vein to deliver intravenous medicines and fluids. In Portugal the nurses are left to insert the cannulas. I watched yesterday while they tried to put a new one in. It is very difficult now because all the obvious veins have already been used. They only managed to get a new one in on the sixth attempt. Lucy was very brave but you could tell how much discomfort she was in while they poked around trying to find a vein in both arms and feet.Hopefully Lucy will only have to put up with this for another couple of days. Lucy is mostly quite content sitting in her chair. She still struggles with a cough at times and is producing a lot of saliva. The only time she looks to be uncomfortable is when she is receiving the intravenous antibiotics. I was allowed to take her for a push around the ward yesterday and we spent quite a long time looking at the fish.I think it was nice for Lucy to have something different to look at for a short time. All the nurses have said how much better she is looking which is encouraging. The doctor reconfirmed her intention to discharge Lucy on Thursday, I just hope that the insurance company gets the message too. The airline needs a day or two's noticed to have a sky chair ready for Lucy. I just want to get Lucy home as soon as possible.