Dad's going home

Talked to mom about a half hour ago and she was loading the car. Not sure they ever figured out what the problem was, but....

Hopefully they'll catch some breaks now and things will go smoothly.

Sent from my iPhone.
Sorry for any typos.

Monday update

Well, Sunday there seemed to be some backsliding and Dad was less happy and there was at least some upchucking (or as he called it when it happened when we were on the phone...burps...but it sounded like a chunky one to me) ,

Monday started out to be a good day and he was sitting up. There hasn't been any vomiting since yesterday. But spots were still growing is new places- such as his fingers, near the nails. They did not give him the last dose of antibiotics for the day, as I assume they are trying to determine which drug is causing the reaction. Mom is ransacking their place as I write, trying to find the records from Dad's first round of antibotics and to try to determine exactly what drugs he was on then, as he didn't get a reaction. Could be useful to the docs now.

Mom said that by the time she left. the spots on his arms were lighter by the time Mom left. No change on the feet as far as she could tell..... we will see what tomorrow brings.

Saturday's update- things are better

Well, I just talked to Mom and she sounded much better. Relieved even. She said that when she got there this AM Dad was sitting up reading the paper. While they still don't know a damn thing, he looks and feel much better. He did have to drink the chalk for the CT scan of the stomach this AM and he wasn't sure that it would stay down, but it did, at least until they took him away. Whether or not it would stay down in the machine, etc remained to be seen. They never did get to doing the scan last night.

She assumes that he'll be in the hospital thru Monday, at least, as the Drs who should be trying to figure out what is going on may not be back until then. I hope she's right, as knowing that the 4 IVs are providing whatever he needs and they don't have to worry about dehydration, etc. is a relief.

Neither of them was in his room when I just called, as he was having the scan and she ran out to the store, but they will both be back shortly.

That's what I know so far today.

Another bump on the road to recovery

Well, Mom & Dad didn't ask me (Heidi) to update, and I forgot to ask if they wanted me to, but I'll do it anyway. This will be in somewhat reverse order, as I try to recount the last few days (from my perspective). This picture is from probably a week ago- from what I understand, his legs (and more) are now black and I suppose unsightly.

Dad is is Flagler hospital in St Augustine. He's is room/bed # 7223. They took him yesterday as he was upchucking (their word) and had had diarrhea for the previous couple of days.

He is in pretty good spirits, considering the long term puking/diarrhea issues that persist. But, at least he's in a place where they can keep him hydrated, etc. They took lots of blood yesterday to help figure out what is going on. He's currently hooked up to no less than 4 IVs. And a heart monitor. He was seen today by a plethora of Drs including a hematologist, GI guy and who knows who else. They expect the GI guy to be back to tomorrow, after wading through the morass of his records and trying to figure out what's what. I spoke to them both at about 8:30 their time and they were still awaiting a CT scan tonite. Dad just wanted to go to bed. They were worried, as apparently you have to drink some liquid prior to the scan, and given the last few days' activities, they had no reason to think it would stay down, so they would have to do the scan quickly. Good luck to them all in that endeavor.

Mom said he has severe stomach cramps that I think bothered him all day, in addition to the puking (my word) contractions. I don't know if they were able to do anything about that or not. She theorized that if the blood has been seeping out of the venous system, and accumulating at skin level, and (I think) beginning to harden up, there is no reason to think that it wouldn't have seeped into/onto the organs and could have effects on them as well, such as the puking.

Currently, he's stable, though likely fairly uncomfortable. I presume there's nothing like diarriah when you're virtually tied to your bed with all sorts of tubes, etc....So hopefully, tomorrow, he will remain stable and even make some progress in arresting the puking, etc. Maybe they'll even learn something about what's ailing him. I did point out that at this point, the lack of a knee joint and its attendant pain is likely so far from his mind...the 6-8 weeks before a new one can be inserted will just fly by.

Kat and I are flying down 4/8-4/15, so we sincerely hope that he is recovered from some of these travails and will be up for some exploring. If all goes really well, we'll spend a few days in Orlando renting a condo and hitting a few parks in the criket.

Tuesday, they tried to go to the Gainesville emergency room, but after being there for several hours, along with 50 other folks, AND eight stacked up ambulances, they left. They went that time because Dad's purpura has worsened so that his legs were BLACK. I don't have a pic of that....can only imagine from Mom's description (considering from the description of the above pic, I was picturing chicken pox-like red bumps) how bad it must be. I tried to include a link on wikipedia, but was unable. I think it's spelled right, so you can look it up yourself.

They had a good day on Wed, despite being unserved at the ER till 1:30 the night before. They went to the Putnam County Fair and Dad was eating and felt pretty good, so that's worth something.

That's the update from Seattle on event transpiring in St. Augustine.

Moving Along

Monday the 15th, was a busy day. We went to see Dr Dew. The knee looks good, he took out 8 of the 24 staples and took x-rays. He also ordered blood tests. We then went to arrange for blood tests, including a hassle with the employees, concerning a diagnostic code number. From there it was back to see Dr Limeres who squeezed us into his schedule. He reviewed the many drugs, we are taking and eliminated the anti-biotic prescribed by the emergency room Doctor of last Friday. He also re-instated the 2nd water pill, which has somehow been reduced to one.

We finally got home to do our IV, and this became IV #5.

Today, Tuesday, Chris, our visiting nurse from Omni- care came and replaced the dressing for the PICC system. While she was here, we got a call from Dr Dews' office that the latest blood test showed the indicator numbers going down, by a lot. Finally, some good news.

Last Saturday, Jerry and Lester completed the ramp for the back porch, so the"Cricket" can go up the ramp to the porch and I have only to come out the door and get on it and go. This eliminates having to go up or down stairs on crutches, and so far works well. The only problem with this system is that it has to be turned around. It has a rather large turning radius, so requires multiple turns to turn it around. Today Laura did something wrong and backed it right off the deck. Fortunately, there was stuff on the ground at that location to help support it and a chain and come- along soon corrected things. No damage done, and a protective railing will soon be installed.

Sunday update

It is about 4:45 and I am currently hooked up to the antibiotic flowing through my arm. This is treatment #4. Tomorrow, Katie, the nurse assigned to us, is supposed to come and replace the dressing, which is then replaced every 7 days.

Tomorrow, we go to see Dr Dew, and have some blood work done. At least things seem to be slowing down, and we can get back to the process of healing the knee.

I need to mention that Jerry and Shirley Burkley left for home this morning. It was surely different this year as the weather was bad almost the entire time they were here. I was suffering the entire time, and acted as a great anchor on their activities the whole time. The good part was they completed the purchase of Don and Lorettas' place and now have a place of their own.

SURPRISE!

Well, we were home one day and then: early Friday morning, I started to have some "chest pains".They were in the center of the chest and amounted to small pains on inhaling, then ok on exhaling. We discusssed what to do, then waited to see if anything changed. We decided to go to the emergency room at Palatka Hospital. A short wait to get into the system and then about 4 hours later, we were allowed to go home. They did an EKG, chest x-ray, blood test, and some other basic tests such as blood pressure, oxygen level, etc. It turned out to be, essentially, a small amount of fluid in the bottom of the left lung. Copies of the chest x-ray from Flagler showed the same fluid. So the nice Dr said we could go home, or stay in the hospital. We took his prescription for another antibiotic and went home. The pain went away, and everything has been fine since.We did not take his antibiotic, because we wanted to check with our regular Dr, about the wisdom of taking 3-4 different antibiotics at the same time.

When we left the hospital, there were 25-30 people in the waiting room as opposed to the 2-3 that were present when we originally arrive. It turned out there had been a fight at the high school, resulting in 25 people being sent to the emergency room. So although we spent the day at the hospital, it could have been much worse. We got home in time to meet with Katie, and have our second training session with the PICC system. I forgot to mention that Norma gave up her day to be with us at the hospital, and she also received some training in how to administer the antibiotic.

Today is Sunday, the 14th and everything appears to have settled down.

Going Home

At this moment, I am Home. We arrived home about 7: 00 PM on Wednesday eve. We had tentative approval to go home on Tuesday, but there were lots of loose ends to deal with, so we waited until yesterday, and even then there were some issues. Here is a summary of how things are supposed to happen:





I need about 8 weeks of an anti-biotic drip, before all infection is supposed to be gone and the normal knee replacement fixture can be installed. We had a choice between driving to Palatka Hospital every day, or having a home service come to the house and perform the service. The choice really depended upon insurance. Our insurance covered the home service, 100% so we chose it. Supplies will be delivered here, and a nurse will come to the house, to adminster the first doses. The nurse will train Laura and she will do the actual work, unless there are problems, when the home service nurse will be called in. Having the home service gives us more freedom. They installed a PICC system which is a dual port intravenous system for administering the anti-biotic directly into the Heart.



Anyway to escape from the asylum, we had to have the approval of the infection specialist, our orthopaedic specialist, and the GP assigned to us. All of them ok'ed our escape, leaving it up to the hospital staff, with their computerized info, and the home service to make their arrangements.



All of this came together about 6:00 PM and with some misgivings, as to whether we were making the right move, we left the hospital. We had a couple of prescriptions to pick up on the way home. We have a ton of medications to deal with, some changes, in strength, etc.



So now we are home, using "canadian" style crutches, which do not reach the upper shoulder. As soon as the PICC system was installed they told us no more conventional crutches. Laura saw somebody with the "canadian" version, talked to somebody with the home service , and by mid after noon, we had a brand new set in our possession.



We also have two sets of walkers, one narrow one which fits our doors and hallways, and one which does not.



This afternoon, we did our first anti biotic drip. Laura, Lester and myself . It amounts to ensuring that the ports are clean, the drip is properly hooked up, and the equipment is properly cleaned. We have to do this everyday for at least the next 20 days. So during the the hours of 3-4 PM ,we will busy doing "the Drip"









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Not too much to report, apparently

I talked to Mom and Dad today and they are still having trouble getting online at the hospital.

The udpate is that Dad was sitting in the chair, and was picking at his lunch. Mom said he even ate a piece of mac & cheese (that wasn't Kraft dinner!). And that he had not had any pain meds today and maybe not yesterday either. That's impressive.

Dad said that when he first gets up to walk (they've had him walk around the room with a walker at least once each day), or do anything, it's very painful, but then the pain abates. I suspect that his pain threshold has increased dramatically in the last few months. And the rest of us wimps would not be handling it as well.

The infection specialist was in today and said that they were still growing the cultures and so far had found staph (again) and two other bugs, names had not yet been determined. But already they know that he will be back on the IV drip of antibiotics at the hospital daily for 6 weeks for the staph. Again. So they will have to plan their days, for some time, around the daily hospital visits. No word on what other measures will be taken for the other bugs yet, but I'm sure there will be some.

He sounded pretty good, considering that he's being held against his will and forced to endure numerous indignities. Including eating hospital food.

Someone will update when there is news to report, I'm sure.

Dad is doing well- he's crossing to the other side

This is Heidi, now channeling Dad, as they were having trouble picking up the wireless in the hospital and Mom wasn't able to update last night.

When I talked to Mom yesterday, she said that the Dr said everything went well, that there was still infection in there, but it was mostly inflammation. They took out the partial and put in a spacer (OUCH, I'm guessing) and I think some antibiotics to disperse over time.

I just spoke to them both. Dad is doing fine. He sounded good and was harassing the nurse about being from Tallahassee. The surgeon was by this AM and said everything looked good. And that last night would have been the worst pain-wise. And Dad said that it wasn't too bad, so that's promising. He was negotiating for his next pain meds when I left him.

Apparently an infection specialist will be handling the antibiotics, and they cultured the infection cells yesterday to determine what kills them. And related to this, or in general, Dad is currently receiving 2 litres of blood, which is allegedly from a 20 year old track star! They said he would feel much better once the blood was in and speaking as someone known for not having enough blood, I'm sure that they are right.

I think Dad wanted to title this post 'crossing over to the other side'. But I get editorial control, as I'm writing it. But he is optimistic that this will be the turning point and thus he will be coming out the other side of this nightmare soon(ish). Originally the plan was 6-8 weeks without the knee hardware and I think yesterday/today they've had indications that it MAY be sooner- really dependent on how it heals, I think, but I'm sure he would not argue with sooner.

Kat and I are planning on heading down there for a week or so once he gets home from the hospital and starts moving around. The rough plan is in 2-3 weeks and that, if he and his new criket cart are up for it, renting a place (handicapped accessible) in Orlando for a few nights so that we can hit the parks. And have whomever wants come to stay with us while we're there.

That is the update and all I know. I will update as requested. Hope everyone is well.

heidi

IT Is Time

all of the prequalifications are done. the arrangements are mostly done, we are ready to go. The ending of a terrible period, and the beginning of a new era. Today is the long awaited, yet dreaded surgery to repair the left knee so that I can walk again.

Fasting started last night, we are to arrive at the Flagler hospital about noon, get registered, and then be ready for surgery about 2-4oo :clock. Laura will report on progress as we go along.

Update

I'm just practicing, getting ready to put an update after Ron's surgery tomorrow. We are going to the Drs this afternoon for pre-opt stuff, after which we should know what time surgery is supposed to be. will let you know.