Thursday 11/26/09

Today is a holiday that I wish could happen everyday.  On this day every year we remind ourselves to think of things we are thankful for.  I try to do this everyday not just once a year.  It’s not always easy, but it’s something important to me.  This year we did something different, we went to my brother Mike’s house for Thanksgiving.   Since Gary & I have been together we have always had Thanksgiving here at our home.  Before his accident we always invited both sides of our families to our house and had a big Thanksgiving feast.  Then after his accident we just stayed here and had a small Thanksgiving meal with our kids, so this is the first time in 11 years I haven’t cooked on this holiday.  My sister-in-law, Tammy, did a wonderful job and everything was very delicious.  Thanks for having us and feeding me Mike & Tammy and everything was amazing.

Another reason we went to Mike’s is none of our kids were going to be here for Thanksgiving.  Since the 3 oldest are married none of them live close to us and the 2 youngest went to Las Vegas with their Aunt Dreama, cousin Candie and Uncle Chuck.  Now that Cameron is 21 he’s old enough to gamble,  I just hope I’ve prepared him for his first trip to Vegas,  always see what the dealers up card is before deciding if you want a hit or not.  I miss the kids like crazy, but I guess they have to grow up sometime.

Talking about Thanksgiving you may be wondering what I’m thankful for.  I’ll just list a few things because it would take a very long time to write down everything and you would get bored reading about it.  I am thankful for the love I feel, not just from my family & friends, but from the Lord as well.  I’m thankful for Gary’s sweet heart and that I still get to spend Thanksgiving with him.  I’m thankful for all of our children and that they have married wonderful people and have great in-laws.  I’m thankful for the roof over my head, food in my stomach and clothes on my back.  I’m thankful for my health and the ability to be able to take care of Gary.  I’m thankful for all of you out there who care enough to read this and to take the time to pray for us and/or think about us.  I’m thankful for the grace of my father in heaven.

Gary is doing really well since we’ve come home from the hospital this last time.  Please continue to remember him in your prayers and good thoughts and I hope all of you had a good Thanksgiving as well.

Friday 11/13/09

I know this is suppose to be a day of bad luck but to me it’s a day of good fortune.  Gary was discharged from the St. Ann’s hospital today.  I know you wondering what we found out about his right pupil and I’m afraid I have bad news regarding that, his eye corrected itself before we went down for the MRI, and the MRI showed nothing as well.  I’m glad his eye is better, but I don’t have an answer as to what caused this problem in the first place.  Hopefully it will never happen again, but I will keep my eye on that to see if I notice a pattern and will take him to our regular neurologist and them see what they can find out.  I’m just glad to be home and I pray we don’t need to go to the hospital again for a very long time.

On to other things.  I have been promising pictures of the patio for quite a while now and haven’t posted any.  Guess what, your wait is over.  The rest of this post is going to be pictures of the patio.

Wednesday 11/11/09

When I took Gary to the ER Sunday evening I didn’t think he had H1N1 because no one in the house had been around anyone with the Swine Flu.  As usual I ended up being right.  He did have an infection but it was not H1N1, they don’t know exactly what it was, but the antibiotics they gave him took care of it, unfortunately it also caused him to get CDIF again.  It’s a never-ending battle.

Then Monday when they took some blood work they found the platelets in his blood to be low.  What could be the cause of this.  St. Ann’s didn’t waste anytime getting a hemotology Dr. in to see Gary.  After looking over Gary’s history he said it looked like he had developed an allergy to his blood thinner, Lovenox, so they have changed the blood thinner we have Gary on.  I’ll let you know the name of it when I learn what it’s called, but his blood platelets have returned to normal.

Then yesterday his blood pressure dropped dangerously low so they gave him stuff to help with that and then in the evening after I returned from dinner I looked at Gary’s eyes and I noticed that his right pupil was dilated.  This was odd and it has never happened before, so they scheduled him for a CT scan immediately.  It showed no new damage done to his brain so now I’m thinking something is wrong with his eye.  The regular Dr. came in before I left for dinner and told us Gary is doing well and after he’s looked at by the neurologist then he will be able to go home if everything checked out.  After I got back from dinner this evening the neurologist was there examining Gary.  I’m glad I arrived in time to talk with man, just let me tell you I didn’t like him.  He did a few things and started to tell it was no big deal.  So I started to ask questions and basically he told me not to worry about it.  I told him I was going to call Gary’s neuro-opthomologist and have her look at Gary’s eyes to make sure nothing was wrong.  He sort of blew me off until I mention her name and then he looked a little closer at Gary’s eyes, but once again told me it wasn’t anything to worry about.  I told him thank you, but when we got home I would make an appointment and have Gary checked by Dr. Bennis, his neuro-opthomologist.  When he walked out of the room I look at Cody and said “I don’t like him”!  After about 10 minutes he walked back into the room and said he may have made a mistake and was going to order some test’s to be run on the arteries in Gary’s neck to make sure there wasn’t some type of blockage causing this to happen.  One thing I have learned over the years in dealing with Drs. is they don’t know everything and I will ask questions and push until I get answers that are appropriate, I will not accept a Dr. telling me not to worry about something new that is happening to my husband.  If it’s happening and it has never happened before there has to be a reason and I want to know what it is.  Even after they look into some other things they think might be the problem I’m going to take him to our Dr. who I really like and trust.  This Dr. can run the test’s, but he will not treat Gary.  That will be done by a Dr. I have already seen and have a rapport with.

So to recap this hospital stay, took Gary to the ER with a fever of 102.4, body aches and congestion.  They said it could be H1N1 but they had to run a test to be sure but just in case they were starting him on antibiotics by Tuesday they knew it wasn’t H1N1, but he contracted CDIF and his blood platelets had dropped, but they came back up.  His blood pressure and his right pupil dilated, but he’s over the original infection that he came to the hospital for in the first place.  Fun week.  I’ll let you know what we find out about his eye as more tests get run, and don’t worry I will not stop bugging Drs. until I get answers.

Please continue with all your prayers and good thoughts.

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.