Monday 11/9/09

Below is a post that I started and didn’t finish so I’m just putting it out there unfinished now.  Also Gary is back in the hospital.  He spiked a fever last night so off to the ER we went.  They admitted him because his oxygen levels were low and because of his comprimised immune system.  His white blood count is slightly raised which means he does have some infection, but it’s not pneumonia or anything to do with his intestinal tract.  They are checking for H1N1.  They have sent his test off to the CDC to have it checked so we will know for sure.

I will try to update you more and at some point I will get more posts on here and post pictures of Cameron’s birthday and the patio.  Things have just been really crazy.

Please continue with all your prayers and good thoughts.

Thursday 10/29/09

Can you believe it we have two more birthday’s in this house this week.  Our baby girl, who is not a baby anymore, turned 17 Tuesday 10/27.  She is such a wonderful blessing and she is growing up so fast.  As my youngest she has the unforunate task of helping me prepare to be an empty nester.  Since she is my youngest I also want to keep her close and hold on tight so I will always have my baby with me.  I know I have to let her test her wings and get ready to leave in a few years, but it’s hard.  She’s my baby.  It’s been easier to let the others go because I always had her around, but now it’s her turn.  I have to let go a little more this year because that’s the only way she’ll be able to learn the lessons she needs to make in the real world.  That balancing act of how much do I let go and how much is too much is harder with her than with the older ones.  Anyway she is beautiful and wonderful and I hope you had a great day.  Since her birthday was on a school night she is going to a halloween/birthday party for her at a friends house Thursday since they don’t have school Friday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE ONE.

Next Cameron turned 21 yesterday.  What do you do when a child turns 21?  Gary & I took ours out to Quaker Steak & Lube to buy him his first legal drink.  My niece Tiffany was here on leave from the navy so she went with us.  Our advice was eat something and drink lots of water with your alcoholic beverages.  I also invited many of mine & Gary’s friends who have watched this young man grow-up for many years.  We had a good time.  I kept track of things, but then Gary wanted to come home where Dakota was waiting to watch him for me.  Tiffany had to get back as well since her leave was up and she couldn’t stay any longer.  So I left Cameron at the Lube while I brought Gary home and Tiffany back to her car.  I was gone about 1 an hour.  By the time I got back to the Lube many more of our friends had showed up and shots were being bought right and left for Cameron.  Pacing himself when right out the window and I wasn’t there to remind him to slow down.  He was at that point where you could tell him to do anything and would do it because his sense of right and wrong were blurred.  Poor guy my friends all knew this as well so they took advantage of the poor boy.  They would want to say something suggestive to some girl and so they would tell him to go say it & he would.  They would laugh he would laugh and then he would tell me he was fine, just a little buzzed.  I had them bring out his birthday cake so we sang to him before anymore trouble could be found.  After that 3 more shots of various things appeared and he them without hesitation because he wasn’t drunk yet and he could handle his liquor just fine.  The last shot he had was tequila.  After that one I told him we needed to go for a walk because if he stayed at the table more shots would appear.  As we were walking outside on the patio he started swaying back & forth.  I could tell it was soon going to be the end of the night for him.

Saturday 10/24/09

The first thing I need to do is give another birthday shout out.  My niece Amanda had her birthday yesterday.  When she was little I was her favorite, what ever happened to there?  She always wanted to be in a dress and was just as prissy and girly as a little girl could be.  I don’t know what happened to her, but while she still likes to be pretty and look good, she not prissy anymore.  It’s probably because she is one of those navy brats.  Her Dad was a lifer in the navy and she had to learn to be as tough as any guy to survivor.  She is still beautiful and working hard in college.  I’m very proud of this young women and only want the best for her.

Now I have a whole story to tell about getting Gary home but it ends up funny.  On Wednesday I was on Facebook as had become my custom in Gary’s hospital room, there’s not a lot else to do, and Cook’s cousin Donnie Welker and I had been IM’ing each other every day about him.  He told me that he had actually prayed that morning for his cousin who had been through so much already.  He said it was the first time he had ever prayed.  I was humbled that he said his first prayer for the man I love.  After he told me that I prayed for God to answer Donnie’s prayer so he would know there was a God and he does answer prayers.  Then on Thursday as usual I was sitting at Gary’s beside, and I was beginning to get a little down because it had been a week and still no BM from him.  While sitting there my daughter, Dakota, texted me that she was having a bad day and all she wanted to do was cry.  If she had to stay at school she was going to go crazy, so she asked me to get her out of school for her mental health.  Now I know this thing is wearing on her as well as me.  So I get her out of school, and then the nurse case manager came in and told me that the Dr. had requested a consult about putting Gary into a Long Term Acute Facility.  Not a nursing home a long term hospital.  I told her I needed to talk with the Dr. to find out why when I had been taking care of him for so long.  I didn’t agree with the Dr.  Then I get a phone call from a friend who was in a car accident several months ago, and is finding out just how injured she really was in the crash, so I listen to her and tell her I would continue to pray for her.  By this time I’m feeling pretty down and feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders, but I knew that as a christian I had a way to help myself feel better.  So with tears in my eyes I make my way to the hospitals Chapel.  Even though I pray everyday I needed something more now.  While sitting in the Chapel I just talked with God and told him I was giving him all my burdens.  I knew I couldn’t handle anymore & I really needed to give it up to him.  I sat in the Chapel crying until I felt like I had unburdened myself.  I felt like a whole new person as I walked back to Gary’s room.  I was no longer crying and I felt lighter.  I get back to Gary’s room and take my spot sitting beside his bed.  He was sleeping and slowly opened his eyes looked over at me and said “I pooped”, rolled his head back and went right back to sleep.  I immediately pressed the nurse button & told them, and started almost singing and dancing.  I was never so happy to hear those words in my life.  I sent out text messages to the kids and left the room so they could get him cleaned up practically skipping down the hall.  The hospital staff said they had never seen anyone as happy as I was about Poop.  The Dr. came in about an hour later and she checked him out and said he could go home since he had a large BM and his stomach felt good.  We got home about 8:30 that night.  Gary’s colon and bowels have woke up and are working again.  That’s a great thing.  Now you may wonder could this happen again?  Yes, it could.  Because Gary can’t move himself he can’t work the muscles like like people who can move around so this could happen again.  If it does we will do the same thing we did this time.  I was told I am doing everything I can possibly do keep things moving so they had no suggestions for me about anything else I could do.  As a matter of fact they said I had thought of things they hadn’t even thought of, but they like my idea’s & would suggest them to other patients.

Please continue with all your prayers and good thoughts.

Wednesday 9/21/09

We came to St. Ann’s Hospital on Thursday of last week.  I really didn’t think we would be here long because Gary was constipated and boated and so I thought they would clean him out and send us home.  I didn’t realize just how bad things were.  I told you that on Sunday they were going to put a tube in Gary and hoped that would wake everything up and things would start working again.  When they went in they got 2 liters of water out of him, which is a lot, while putting the tube in.  His stomach went way down and he looked a whole lot better.  As of this point in time he still has not had a bowel movement, which is not good.  Before we’re even allowed to think about getting Gary home he has to have a couple of bowel movements to make sure his colon is working again.  Please pray that his system responds to what the Drs. have done and begins to work again, otherwise we’re looking at major surgery and a colostomy bag.

Sunday 10/18/09

How about them Buckeyes, didn’t they look horrible?  I don’t know because St. Ann’s doesn’t get the Big 10 network so I had to listen to it on the radio, but it sounded UGLY.

How’s Gary doing?  The short answer is not so good.  He has what is called Ogilvie Syndrome.  This mean that the colon is enlarged and basically has gone to sleep and won’t push bodily waste out of the body.  As we all know the body has to get rid of its waste or you will get very ill.  So what have the Dr. here at St. Ann’s been doing to help Gary.  At this point in time they have used every method available to get all fecal matter out of Gary’s body, and they are taking x-rays to see if the colon is releasing the gas and shrinking back down to normal size so it can start to work again.  After watching him for a few days they have found that the problem is not resolving itself and he is still full of gas and his colon is stretched much larger than it should be.  So what’s the next step?  It looks like they will do a surgical procedure and insert a tube in his rectum so the gas has a way to escape.  The tube is not left in, it is only in long enough to resolve the problem.  If this doesn’t work I will talk with the Drs. to figure out the next step, so please pray this works.   As you can understand Gary is very uncomfortable and isn’t sleeping well.  I feel so bad for him.  They give him laxatives and all sorts of stuff to make him go and so he doesn’t get a good solid sleep.  Also he has abdominal pain because of this Syndrome he has.

Please do not feel bad if you don’t come and visit because of this flu problem we are having here.  As a matter of fact they have signs up warning about coming in to visit.

So what have I learned from this situation?  I’ll tell you what if someone passes gas around me again instead of laughing and telling them how gross it is, I will clap and cheer because that means their body is working well and getting rid of bad stuff it doesn’t need.

Please continue with all your prayers and good thoughts.

Friday 10/26/09

If you remember Gary was just at St. Ann’s for aspiration pneumonia and his colon not moving things through is body.  Here it is two weeks later and we are back in St. Ann’s.  Thankfully his pneumonia is doing good and has not reared it’s ugly head again, but more troubling is his stomach is bloated (distended) again.  I noticed his stomach was slowing getting big again since he came home, so a couple of days ago I called the Dr. to see what we could do to fix this.  When they got back with me yesterday I had just taken Gary’s temperature and he had spiked a fever of 100.6 for no known reason so the Dr. told me to bring Gary to the ER.  About 5:30 yesterday we load up and head to St. Ann’s again to find out why he has a fever and why his stomach is so distended.  The chest x-rays showed that his lungs look good the CT scan showed Gary is full of gas again.

Today I have talked with a surgeon who doesn’t believe it is a surgical problem and I’m waiting to talk with a gastroenterologist to see what they recommend.  I guess for people in Gary’s situation, not able to move around much and stuck lying on his back a lot, this is not uncommon.  They do have a name for this and I will let you know what it is called.  This may be something new that we will have to deal with for the rest of his life.  You know me though when I find out there some new medical problem with Gary I will research it until I know as much about it as I can and I will make an informed decision about a plan of treatment.  I may even choose a less conventional method of treatment if it doesn’t put Gary in any danger and has a chance of helping him.

Hey, there was another birthday last week on Friday I forgot to mention and I feel like a big jerk for forgetting it.  Gary’s brother Dave, who comes over every week on Thursday to play sequence with Gary, had his birthday one week ago.  The funny thing is I don’t think of Dave as being 62 years old.  When I think of 62 it sounds so old, and Dave doesn’t look or act like a 62-year-old man, but then how do I know how a 62-year-old should act?  Anyway bottom line I hope he had a great birthday and other than something to do with motorcycles I don’t know what to get you for your birthday.  I tried to convince you about something that would make your tatoo look new again, but you told me you wouldn’t use it, so back to the drawing board.

I know I keep promising  pictures of the patio, but everytime I get ready to take the pictures something comes up and I don’t get them taken, but rest assured I will get some taken and show you the patio one of these days.

Please continue with all your prayers and good thoughts.

Sunday 9/4/09

Since coming home from the hospital we have had some wonderful things happening for our family.  First today is Lindsey & Joshua’s one year anniversary.  Your Dad & I are very happy for the two of you.  Also, tomorrow is our sons, Jared, birthday.  Happy Birthday buddy, we love you and your Dad wishes you a Happy Birthday as well.  Another weekend happening is Dakota went to Westerville Centrals Homecoming yesterday.  Didn’t mean to miss out on my brother Mikes birthday.  His birthday is the 6th.  Hope you have a great 51st birthday old man.

Dakota ready for Homecoming

I guess they don’t make a big deal out of homecoming at her new school, so she went to her old schools homecoming and she looked beautiful.

Gary, Cody & Me

The patio is making progress and it should be finished in the next 2 weeks.  There may need to be some tweeking done on it, but to be honest we should be able to start using it for Gary Tuesday, unless it rains again tomorrow.  Then it will be when the rain finishes.  I amd going to start to put my furniture out on it by the end of this week,  yee hoo!!

Gary is doing great.  I had to learn to hook him up to an IV and we now have a pump for his tube feedings.  I feed him all night from 9:00 pm until noon the next day.  This gives us the entire afternoon to be free and do things without worrying about feeding him.    There is no way we could take him out to a movie if he had to be hooked up to the machine all day.

Please continue with all your prayers and good thoughts.

Monday 9/28/09

I know you’re wondering about an update on Gary.  Things seem to going well.  We’re still at St. Ann’s, but the hospital is working to get things ready for us to go home sometime today.  They’re not sure they will be able to get everything together, but they’re going to try.  When we go home we have to have nursing care because they are sending Gary home on IV antibiotics.  They will have to put a pic line in for that which scares me because just after Gary’s accident, while he was still in his coma the hospital put a pic line in and it caused blood clots, so since then they have always decided not to send him home with a pic line in the past.  The reason for the change is because of the problems with his slow stomach and gas build-up.  That is a bigger concern now than the blood clots because he’s been on blood thinners for a long time and they feel that will keep the clots away, and the pic line is only for 4 days.

Another change will be the way Gary is fed.  We have always done what is called a bollis or gravity feeding.  What that means is every 6 hours we would feed him the proper amount of food by pouring it into a special syringe that would allow it to run down the tube into his stomach followed by some water.  The new way we will be feeding Gary is using a machine that does a continuous feed.  What this means is Gary’s food will be hung up like an IV and will be hooked up to a machine that will feed Gary at a much slower rate, over a long period of time.  The reason for the change is because the Drs. feel this will not allow as much gas build-up to occur in Gary’s stomach and intestines which in return will help keep Gary from throwing-up as much, and by not throwing-up as much will help keep his chances of catching aspiration pneumonia down, which also means it keeps his chances of catching CDIF down.  I hope they’re right.  As far as CDIF goes, so far so good, no sign of Gary contracting CDIF this time, yea!!!

Please continue with all your prayers and good thoughts.

Update:  Gary will be discharged tomorrow.

Saturday 9/26/09

I’m not sure but I think Gary has a thing about hospitals because we’re at St. Ann’s again with pneumonia.  Gary had thrown-up a couple of times during the week and Friday morning he threw-up again.  The difference this time was his oxygen levels dropped extremely low and he spiked a temp of 102.  I decided to bypass our doctor and take him straight to the hospital.  I’ve been taking care of Gary long enough to know when he needs to be admitted.  I even know all the test’s the Dr. will order and I was so right.  Everything I knew that was going to happen did.  We went to the ER, had chest and stomach x-rays done, blood work done and an IV started.  Aspiration pneumonia was diagnosed and I told them he also has a history of CDIF after being treated for pneumonia so please do something to head that off, and they are giving him the antibiotic for pnemonia and the one they give him for CDIF.  The only surprise was when they told me the stomach x-ray showed what looked like a blockage in his bowels.  I have seen enough of Gary’s x-rays to know what pnemonia and gas looks like on an x-ray and saw those.  They told me they were having a surgery consult come down and look at Gary and a CT was ordered.  After talking with the surgeon he didn’t feel it was an actual blockage.   He felt it was what is gas not solid and the CT scan confirmed that to be true.  Gary had so much gas built up that it caused his colon to enlarge and on an x-ray you can see the colon, but you can’t see substance that causes the enlargement.  That’s what a CT is for.  What a relief to find out surgery wasn’t needed to fix the blockage.

Now my concern is what is the cause of so much gas build up?  The believe that the gas is the reason for the vomiting as well.  This morning the Dr. said they feel his pain medicine is the cause of the gas situation, which brings up another problem.  If he can’t have pain medicine how do we control his pain.  Poor guy he has a lot of pain because of the HO and he can’t adjust himself to relieve the pressure and keep the pain at bay.  So now we have to get creative.  Find us some sort way to keep his pain in check without causing such a drastic gas build-up.  It’s a horrible circle, Gary is in pain & needs medicine to help him, but this causes gas build-up, he needs to be fed to survive, but when the gas gets so bad it causes him to get sick, when he vomits he aspirates, which causes pneumonia, which means he needs an antibiotic, which causes him to get CDIF.  So you can see it’s a never ending battle.  Gary cannot go without pain medicine so we need to figure out a way to stop this snowball effect.

On a good note Gary has once again taken charge of his care here and knows everything they are doing for him and why they are doing it.  When I came in today he was sound asleep.  When he woke up just as the Ohio State game kick-off happened he told me he didn’t sleep well at all last night, but he also told me everything they had done for him while I was not here.  The nurses also told me so that is how I knew he was telling me the truth.  So mentally he’s on top his care.  Other things he lets get by him, but not his care.  That’s truly awesome.  We are sitting in his room watching the Ohio State game.  He predicts the score of the game will be Ohio Sate 28, Illinois 13.  We’ll so how close he is.

Finally the patio is really coming along fast now.  I will post pictures next week since Gary is in the hospital I’m not thinking about getting pictures to show you right now.  Next week if we don’t have any other issues I will post new pictures of it.

Please continue with all your prayers and good thoughts.

Tuesday 9/22/09

There are 2 special girls (I mean women) who came into my life at different times but are the same age.  My niece Tiffany was the one I knew first.

She's the one with the sun glasses on top of her head

I’ve known her since the day she was born, but didn’t get to meet her until she was a little older because she was born in Norfolk, VA.  She has grown into a wonderful woman who is smart and funny and beautiful.  It scares me that she’s in the Navy and could have to go over to Afganistan or Iraq anytime, but it’s the choice she has made and she’s happy with it.  She takes great care of her mother (my sister) and her little sister, Jerica, who is not so little anymore.  I’m proud of you Tiffany and I hope you had a great birthday.

The second girl I didn’t meet until she was ready to graduate High School, but she has become near and dear to my heart.  She is also a wonderful woman that is smart, funny and beautiful.  She has so much of her Dad’s personality in her that I just can’t help but love her.  I’m proud of the woman she has grown in to.  She is wise beyond her years.  In case you haven’t figured it by now it is our oldest daughter Allison.

Alcat with her Dadoo

I thank the Lord everyday for blessing me with such a fantastic new daughter.  I bust at the seems with pride when I think of her.  She has this inner glow about her that makes her even more beautiful because it comes from the inside not the outside.  I miss her because she’s in Scotland with her husband, who is getting his PHD in Systematic Theology, but I love that the two of them have taken this on and are succeeding in a whole different country.  I’m hoping that James will have enough of his thesis written by the new year that they could move back to the states, but I know that it’s going to be what it needs to be.  They have come too far to quit now, but I know that quit is not in their vocabulary.  When they do move back to the states Allison has degree in graphic design and has experience from all over the world so keep your eye’s open for any job oppertunities for her.

Happy 20 something birthday girls (I won’t tell your age unless you want it known).  I’m proud to related to two such fantastic young women.  By the way Allison when can we expect some young ones to be coming (ha, ha)?

I don’t even want to talk about the patio.  I have had sense of humor about it, but now it is getting rediculous.  The project has had nothing done to it for a week a now and not because of weather.  They have to take the firepit completely apart and rebuild the whole thing because it wasn’t done right the first time and they can’t seem to get any mason’s here to do the job.  Can you believe it.  I think it’s just an excuse, but I can’t prove it.  Other than being a squeaky wheel there isn’t anything else I can do.  I was hoping to have an Ohio State party, but at the rate their going I won’t be able to have one until next fall.

Some new developements with Gary are that he seems to be remembering things better than he use to and we are working really hard on his contenance.  He tells us when he needs to pee and can hold it until we get him the urinal.  That’s really awesome.  He has had a few accidents but for 1 week to only have 3 accidents is great.  He is dry more often now which is much more comfortable and hygenic.  We’ve only been working on this for 2 weeks now and he is doing really great.  I told him when he reaches 2 weeks without an accident we will put him back into regular underwear with just a dribble pad in them.  He really liked that idea.  Something else that he does is when we’re watching a movie and he see’s a big star in it that he knows, but can’t remember their name, he’ll ask us their name over and over until he starts to remember it.  He’s so cute because he knows that he should remember people’s names but has a hard time with it.  He will remember faces, but names are hard for him to remember.  He still has that aweful cough, but it is slowly getting better.

Please contiue with all your prayers and good thoughts.

Monday 9/14/09

Last week. on Friday, we received a phone call with a very happy girl on the other end.

Lindsey & her Daddy the night before her wedding. He was proud of her then too.

Lindsey called to tell us she was promoted to visual manager at her Anthropology store in Charlotte, NC.  She told me first and then I handed the phone to Gary and she told him.  Normally when you talk with Gary he is very monotone and doesn’t have much inflection in his voice.  When Lindsey told him about her promotion he definitely had inflection.  You could hear the excitement in his voice for her.  He just smiled and his whole demeanor was one of pride.  This was a very proud Daddy!  Before anyone gets upset he’s always proud of all his kids, but this was a special thing and his pride was bursting from everywhere.  What you may ask yourself, is a visual manager?  I’ll tell to the best of my knowledge.  You know how the stores have displays to show off their wares, there is a department, the visual department, that puts those together and Lindsey figures out the look of the display and tells people how to put it together.  Of course she helps with the work also, but she is in charge of the look of the inside of the store, neat huh!  If I have gotten anything wrong with this please correct me Lou.

What a heartbreaker for us Buckeye fans.  Just when we think we just might be able to beat USC, they come back with just a little over a minute left in the game and score a touchdown beating us, 15 to 18.  Why is it that we can’t seem to win the big games?  Are we too conservative with our play calling or don’t we have the killer instinct it takes?  Who knows but I hope we figure it out soon.  I’m tired of getting beat in the big games.

The patio, what’s going on with the patio?  Work is getting done, be it at a snails pace, but it is getting done.  The bad thing that happened was while they were filling in around all the beautiful mason work.  The guys on the bobcat were not careful and they hit the firepit and broke it.  So now they have to redo the firepit.  What a mess!  I have also found out that they are 3 weeks behind and not because of weather, but because of workers not showing up.  Once again today it’s a beautiful day outside and no one has shown up for work.  I hear about people complaining they need work, and here I have work, and people not showing up to work.  What’s wrong with this picture.  It makes me think people want the money, but they don’t want to put the effort into working for it.

Ramp and the firepit is in the back ground

Not only that but the mistakes that have been made, forgetting to drain sleeves in, forgetting to put the downspouts back into place, hitting the just finished firepit, being on the cell phone more than working on my project, not cleaning up after themselves,  this makes me want to scream.  Oh, well unless I’m willing to take over and do the work myself, which I don’t know how to do, I’ll have to put up with the incompetence and slow pace.  I wish I would have had an end date put into the contract so the contractor would be a little more on top of things.  Oh well I can’t do anything more about it than I have so I’m going to have to let it go.  No sense in stressing about it, that doesn’t help me or my family.

On to Gary news.  His cough seems to getting under control better and his talking is more clear so that good.  I have him back on his bowel program which keeps him and everything else cleaner and easier to care for.  We are now going to work really hard on getting him to tell us when he needs to pee so he can use a urinal instead of just wetting himself.  If we can get him recognise when he needs to go and hold it long enough for us to get him a urinal that will be huge.  He’ll be much more comfortable and the work for me will be less.

Please continue with all your prayers and good thoughts.