own, but dr. francisco said that she needs considerable support. the speaking part gets a little murky. she has a tracheostomy which is a hole in the windpipe, so there s really no way to get words out. the question is, is she trying to get words out and they re not sure. they re seeing her move her lips. they re not sure if she s trying to get words out or not. and she remains in intensive care primarily why? reporter: primarily because of a drain in her head. she has a drain in her head because she has hydrocephalus. now, over the next couple of days they ll have to make a decision about whether she s ready to have that drain come out, because she can t leave the icu with that drain in. if she s ready, if the swelling has gone down, thecan take the drain out. if not, what they might do is sort of an internal drain that s called a shunt. what they would do is put a drain inside her body from her head believe it or not down to
she ll go to houston, about a 2 hour, 15 minute flight. first they talked about surviving this terrible, terrible bullet to her brain. then secondly, it was being able to breathe on her own without a ventilator, with the use of a tracheostomy to help her breathe. now the third major milestone, carol, her ability to leave this medical center and then head off to houston where she will start this very arduous rehabilitation. one of the amazing things, thelma, is the number of people calling congresswoman giffords office asking where they can stanned along the route her ambulance will take, so they can send her well wishes somehow, pray for her. yes, absolutely, carl. we re talking about a ten-mile route. it s been a route that s been fairly well publicized, at least here in the local media. and so we can expect people who will line that route.
request. so these are all good things. as far as the breathing tube, i think given the nature of what was going on, what i am going to try to do, because she ll require additional surgery is i ll probably do a tracheostomy in the future, but as far as her lungs are going along, they re doing well, she could probably breathe well on her own. i m worried whether she ll be able to swallow well and have issues about controlling her airway. but this is a normal course. what are the instangables as recovery progresses, assuming there s a normal progression. wlar the hardest thi eses eses k track. she s following commands. she can hear us, she can