Lunch-time

As of today, Sam is now officially having "lunch" everyday in the diningroom. Lunch is all pureed food, but it's a very good start. The speech/swallowing therapist is pushing Sam, since on Sunday night, once again, she pulled out her feeding tube and needed to be sent back to the Emergency Room of the Hospital. She ended up spending over 13 hours there in total. I arrived very early morning and was quite amazed at how long it took to get transport back to the facility. I believe that if I had been there initially when Sam had been checked into the Hospital, the time frame of her visit would have been significantly shortened. Since there was no advocate for Sam when she arrived, and she can't talk for herself, I believe they were in no rush to assist. I am shocked that the facility sends brain injured individuals essentially on their own to the emergency room, without anyone from the facility to accompany them, but I must be imagining a different world, i.e. where things make sense. I did have a number of long talks with people once back at the facility as to how best to prevent this from ever happening again, but, I believe that until she is eating regular food and the feeding tube can come out, Sam and I may unfortuantely get to know Flushing Hospital very well.