2007-05-04 - 9:39 p.m.
Here's the latest update on Alan. He's finally been moved out of the ICU into a more regular room in the cardiac care unit. All the tubes and wires have been taken off except for one remaining IV (I think he actually had four of them at one point.) But other than that, I feel like we're treading water. He hasn't progressed too much, and he's still having a lot of breathing/coughing problems. It seems like an endless loop. He's supposed to cough, but it hurts to cough, so he tries not to cough, but then things build up and he gets a major coughing fit. Of course this results in major pain, so he tries even harder not to cough.....etc. and so on. And this cycle exhausts him to the point that he's too weak to get up and walk which would help his air flow and circulation. They tell me not to worry and that this is common, but that is not much consolation to me.
Originally, when they first checked him in, they said he'd probably be going home on Wednesday of this week. Of course, I knew that wasn't gonna happen. Then they said he'd be going home today. Yeah right! Now they say by Sunday. Nope. Nada. I won't allow that. I need him to be wayyy stronger before he comes home. Hopefully we'll see some progress over the weekend. Wish us luck.
comments??? (3 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2007-05-02 - 9:56 p.m.
Well it's been a long hard haul since the surgery. There have been many ups and downs. One minute we think he's ready to move on to the next step, the next minute there's a new complication and we're back to square one. And of course, it doesn't help that we've had our share of evil, incompetent nurses. Most have no clue about how to deal with his diabetes. Which is shocking to me. How can these people even be in the medical profession, yet act like diabetes is something new? *None* of the nurses have ever seen an insulin pump. We are constantly having to explain how it works. This is not a new device. It's been around for over 20 years!
And on top of that, the nurse last night insisted that Alan do his coughing/breathing exercises for so long and so strenuously, that he actually broke one of his internal sutures. When he told her that he thought something had broke, and that he was in intense pain....she said he was just being a wuss, and that he was being a quitter. OMG!!! It wasn't until the morning crew took over that they realised he was right, and something had broken. Fortunately, they think it's going to be Ok. But they're keeping him in the ICU until everything is certain. And, fortunately tonight, we got a really good nurse who realized that he really needed to be on a different pain med. So after he got that, everything started to get better. When I left for the evening, he seemed much better and much stronger.....but extremely exhausted. (That goes for me too....exhausted.)
So....I want to try and change my mood and lighten things up a bit around here....so here's a few gazillion photos from our last trip up to Oregon. We were out on some highway in the middle of nowhere and ran across this abandoned property, formerly known as " Junk Boat Landscaping." I always love finding places that are completely trashed yet completely picturesque at the same time. Inside the main building I found a handwritten note next to a half empty vodka bottle that said:
"Yo Tweakers! It's never too late to begin respecting yourselves--then you'll be able to respect others &their property--think about it--then be it."
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comments??? (2 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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