~ Home ~

I'll go ahead and apologize to all the people that check this regularly and haven't had any updates in the last several days. We DID make it home safely.

The drive home was Kristin's worst nightmare. Every bump in the road was painful. The 5 hour drive turned into about 9 hours. She was never more relieved then the minute we pulled into our driveway.

Since then, the "nurse button" somehow got switched around and seemed to be directed at me. Even though it was hard work, it was fun to spend that quality time caring for Kristin. It was a full time job, however, hence the poor blog updates...

She has made big improvements over the last couple of days. She is starting to be able to do a lot of things on her own. She's starting to get a pretty decent appetite and she's also walking around the house a little without any help from the walker or a person. Some of the pain has subsided, being replaced by discomfort. Just the first step toward full recovery.

This is going to probably conclude my updates. Thanks to all who read and posted comments. They were very encouraging. The next update will probably come from Kristin herself...when she feels up to sitting at the uncomforatble computer desk chair for a while.

Thanks again.....

Doctor's orders...

Yesterday, Kristin was pretty groggy most of the day. I think it was due to having the catheter back in. When she finally got it taken out, she started acting a little more lively. So here's how it works...they took the catheter out of her at 6 pm, being sure to completely drain her bladder before they took it out. Then they tell her she has to pee before 12 midnight or the catheter has to go back in. It was already hard enough for her to pee, much less do it under pressure.

So the race was on. We called a couple of people to say special prayers for her bladder, then we set a schedule for her to try to pee every hour. By the time she had the first urge to go, it was 9 pm. So we had basically 4 trips to the bathroom before time was up. We started getting worried after the first couple trips resulted in an empty toilet. Then finally, by the grace of God, it all started working. From that point on, she was a whole new person. She just acted like she felt soooo much better.

We had the usual busy night last night, except with a few more trips to the bathroom added on top. But it was a good night. The closer it go to this morning, the longer spans she was getting between waking up. I think she had a couple of times where she might have had close to two hours straight of sleep.

The doctor came in this morning and was glad to see that she had pee'd well over the night. He immediately told her she could go home today, whenever she was ready. He answered her questions, wrote a couple prescriptions, then was off on his way. So now, we are waiting on my mom and grandmother to make it out here. They are going to bring us a more comfortable car for Kristin to come home in. Hopefully they'll be here sometime close to noon, maybe 12:30, and then we'll be back off to somewhere familiar.

Thanks to all who have prayed and continue to pray for her recovery!

The usual news...

So, in our first night in a regular room, I got to experience a little of what Kristin's nights have been like. I probably slept around 4 hours total, which was probably double what Kristin was able to sleep. I'm used to getting up after about 7 hours sleep and taking a hot shower and eating a tasty continental breakfast at the Holiday Inn. Last night left me wore out and glad that we were going home today...

Then the doctor came by...

He decided that the catheter should stay in a full 24 hours before removing it and trying to #1 naturally. That would put her getting it out at 6 pm tonight, therefore keeping her here another night even if everything were to go well. Oh, well. That's not too bad of news, considering that we figured if we were to be released today then we would have to stay in a hotel tonight and leave out in the morning. So regardless of how it worked out, we probably would have left tomorrow anyway. Of course leaving tomorrow is still pending that she is able to do her #1 business naturally. She told me yesterday "I never thought not being able to pee would be what kept me in the hospital longer..." So, although an odd request (and hopefully the only time in my life I'll ever ask for prayer for this), a little prayer for Kristin to be able to go to the bathroom would be nice.

On the other hand, I've got to take back my earlier post about her not having a walker. The nurse got her one last night but this one didn't have the two wheels on the front. It was just a regular ol' "big boy" walker. It was kinda heavy and wasn't as easy to get around on. She walked around with it once last night and then once again this morning. She didn't go too far...maybe just 10 feet or so farther than previous tries (probably about 50-60 feet). She told the doctor she didn't like the walker, so he made sure the physical therapist brought one with wheels with her next time.

A little later she got the one with wheels and you would have thought it came with a motor on it. She got on that thing and took off down the hall. I stepped it off a little after she walked it...it was right about 400 feet total of walking. Pretty big step. The physical therapist told her that the next thing she needs to work on is the speed of her walk. She's trying to get Kristin back to normal walking speed.

That's about it for now. I finally got to take a shower, so I feel better, and Kristin has been sleeping beautifully for almost 2 hours.

Remember that "tee-tee prayer."

Corner room with a view :)

Good news...at 4 pm when I went back in to visit, they were packing up her stuff and getting ready to move her to a new room. They took the catheter out and wheeled her on up. We moved up to the 5th floor and she's been getting around good. She no longer has a walker to help her walk, so now she'll have to get used to holding on to me to help her keep her balance.

She's had a little problems doing the ol' #1 since she got the catheter out. The nurses don't know whether it is her just "feeling" like she has to go due to the irritation of the catheter, or if she really has to go but can't. The nurse finally got some bladder checking machine and determined that she probably really did need to go and is gone to talk to the doctor about what they should do.

But anyway, other than that, she's been doing great. She's been getting up and walking back and forth to the bathroom with only minimal assistance from me. A fill-in for Dr. Sachs came by and checked up on her right after she got to the room. He said that unless she has any problems or gets sick from eating then she'll probably go home sometime tomorrow! Wow, I figured if she was in the ICU for 3 days, then she would need at least 3 days in a regular room. But I guess, noting the vast improvement she's had just this morning, she's on pace to be running by next week. ;)

Well, the doctor ordered the catheter for one more night. Hopefully that fixes the problem.

-Bradley

Day 4 - What a good morning...

Great news! When I went in her room for the first time this morning, she was sitting in the chair beside her bed. I said "oh, you're already up?!" She said "Yep, and no chest tube!" Sure enough, there was no tube. The doctors had come early this morning and taken it out. While I was there, they brought in her "breakfast." You know, the usual liquid diet: Jello, chicken broth, etc. She ate a little of that, which was the first time she had eaten anything since the night before the surgery (3 1/2 days). They've also taken her off of the morphine pump and moved her to pain pills. These seem to be less potent, which allows her to stay awake longer. We actually had several pretty good conversations this morning.

She got tired of waiting around on the physical therapists, so we asked the nurse if she could just get up and walk around on her own. She said that would be great, so we unhooked most of the cords from her and she walked around the hall....just her same normal route. She spent a lot of time this morning sitting up in the chair. I think she's getting tired of that bed.

It was only a couple hours later and she was ready to walk again. She got up and walked about twice the normal distance down the hall. Being off that morphine pump is also making her more active. She still has some pretty good pain in her right side (where the rib was removed and where the incision was made), but she really seems like she is feeling a good bit better.

About 2 pm, the nurse gave us a regular menu that she can order off of. She said it is time for her to be off the liquid diet and she can eat whatever she wants to. As much as she would like to probably throw back a big slice of Cheesecake Factory, I think her appetite is still pretty suppressed and she's fine eating a few graham crackers and sipping on some water.

The only thing that's left for her to get rid of is the catheter. I'm pretty sure the plan is to take that out as soon as the Dr. moves her to a regular room. It doesn't seem to be bothering her too bad, but I'm sure she's ready to quit having to worry about lugging that ol' bag around with her.

Speaking of moving to a regular room, we're just waiting on Dr. Sachs to come by and give the OK. They took an x-ray of her lungs earlier and the nurse said it looks good. So, once Dr. Sachs comes by and approves, she can move on up to the east side....to that deluxe apartment in the sky. Dr's often don't have a "come by and check up on patients" schedule, so it could happen any minute now, or it could be late tonight. I'm pretty confident, but still depending on when the Dr. comes, that she'll move to a regular room by tonight.

Anyhow, the morning brought us great progress and I'm looking forward to the progress made over the next couple of days.

-Bradley

Another night in the ICU

Well, during the 12-2 visit, Dr. Sachs came back by to visit. He gave her the bad news....she's got to stay in the ICU another night. Her drainage from her chest tube is still too high to remove it, however, it has gotten better every day.

She got up again and walked around the hall a bit, just about the same way as the first time. Then she followed that up by sitting in a chair for an hour. While she was in the chair, she had a little more problems with the IV again. They couldn't tell if it was infiltrated again or if it was right, but since they couldn't draw blood out of it, they decided to put in another one. This time they moved it up to the crease of her elbow on her right arm (the normal place people draw blood from). It seems to be strong and secure there, so hopefully it'll stay in place there. It's not really a big deal that she's had these problems, medically speaking, but I know it is making her hands and arms pretty sore. Just one more thing that hurts and that she has to deal with. The fluid that infiltrated on her right arm still hasn't all absorbed into her body, so it still looks very swollen. They say it could take anywhere from a day to almost a week for it to fully absorb, depending on how much fluid actually ended up leaking under her skin.

The 4-6 visit was pretty uneventful. She slept pretty much for two hours straight, only waking up one time for a few minutes. I'll have to admit, I caught a few Zzz's while she was sleeping. She woke up right around 6, before I left. She thought it was morning time, probably hoping that she had just slept through the entire night. She did a little breathing treatment thing and told me goodbye.

That's all there is for now. Hopefully my next update (probably after 10 am tomorrow) will have good news about that pesky ol' chest tube!

Day 3 - ICU Morning

The nurse said she had a pretty good night last night. She slept a pretty good bit. Just 30 minutes or so before we got to go in and visit again today, her IV infiltrated and they had to try to move the IV to her other arm. They had to stick her 3 times before they finally got it to go in right. She was a little grumpy this morning due to all the poking and prodding. However, she was doing pretty good and she told me she had a pretty decent night.

One of the doctors came in this morning to check on her. He reiterated the point that her getting out of the ICU was totally dependent on when the fluid coming out of her chest tube dropped below 50 cc's per 8 hours. From the way they are acting (you never really know for sure) it's getting better, but I'm not sure they are confident that it will be to the level it needs to be by the end of the day. As much as I hate having to leave her all throughout the day and at night, I understand that she really needs to be ready before she leaves out of ICU and goes to a regular room.

There was a wonderful sight today. The physical therapists came back in and got her up again. This time, she walked out of the room and down the hall a bit. It was probably a total of about 30-40 feet. She was going pretty slow, and still using a walker to help out, but she looked really strong when doing it. After walking, she sat down in a normal chair for about 20 minutes before returning to the bed. So, like I said...she's looking really good. If she'll just start draining less fluid from her lungs, she'll be in great shape.

We are in a different waiting room right now...one with a TV and a lot less crying people. It feels good to rest in a comfortable chair, but I am ready for 12 to get here, so we can go back in.

Thats about all for now. I'll update agian later.

ICU Nights

The 4-6 visit went pretty good. The doctor ordered some Valium for her which she got at about 2:15. I think it helped her a good bit....mainly to just relax and sleep. So, she slept most of the 4-6 visit. She did talk to us a bit, telling us that she walked to the sink and back (about 3 feet). I think I forgot to mention that earlier. The physical therapists got her to stand up and take a couple side steps. She stood for about 1 minute her first time up. It was a wonderful site to see. It was about right at 24 hours after she got out of the surgery. Pretty wild that they can do that these days. But anyway, the walking trip to the sink was the second time she had been standing up today.

We left to eat at from 6-8, since visiting hours were up. When we came back at 8, she woke up for us but said very little. The respatory therapist came in and did a few breathing treatments with her, which she is struggling with, but working really hard on. Then, she ate a few ice cubes and received her usual head rubs and kisses. Other than that, she slept the whole 2 hours.

I'm really ready for the morning to arrive. I'm assuming that the 8-10 visiting time isn't going to reveal much, but I'm hoping the 12-2 is going to bring good "improvement" news and that they'll be able to move her to a room. However, I kinda am now spoiled to the extra treatment that she's getting and all the extra monitors that keep watch over her. I might be a little more paranoid when she moves into a regular room.

So, as you can see, pretty boring stuff. It's been a pretty slow half-day. However, I'll take that. I'd much rather a slow day than a what-in-the-world-just-happened kind of day.

Thanks again...

Day 2 - Noon

Well, I know it's been a while since my last update. I got a little less bored when I could actually go in and talk to Kristin. Anyway...I'll try to give a quick timeline of what's happened so far.

About 2:30 I finally got to go in and see her. It kind of felt like one of those "Wife Swap" moments where the husband and wife run through the parking lot and jump into each others arms, spinning around. Of course, it was without the running and spinning around.....well, also without the whole wife swapping thing. It was great to see her, though. Her left eye was a little swollen from lying on her side through the surgery, but she looked great. She had only been "awake" for probably 30-40 minutes. I put quotes around "awake" because you almost can't even call it that. She could open her eyes for about 2 seconds at a time then they would fall back shut. She was having some pretty big complaints about not being able to breathe. I think it was just scary for her because she knew her lung was collapsed during surgery and she couldn't get a deep breath when she woke up, so she thought her lung was still collapsed (or that's what I think). But once she got past the "scary" part of that, I think she calmed down a little and got to rest. They also hooked her up to a PCA pump which has been her friend for the last 24 hours...the power to control pain, all at her fingertips. :)

After that, we have only been able to see her in 2 hour increments (8-10, 12-2, 4-6, 8-10). She's not a fan of this ICU rule, and neither are we. But, we know it helps her feel better and gives her that much needed rest that she would be fighting if we were in there the whole time.

They gave her some medicine that knocked her out, and she fell asleep at 8 pm last night and slept solid until I left at 10 pm. I left feeling pretty good that she would sleep well, but this morning, the nurse said she had a pretty rough night. She had a hard time with the pain.

The doctor told us this morning that they would like to keep her in the ICU for another day. They wanted to get a better grasp on the pain management for her before they let her go to a room. Mainly, though, they said that they will move her once she starts getting an acceptable level of fluid draining through her chest tube. Right now, it's about 160 cc's per 8 hours. They will take the tube out when it's only 50 cc's per 8 hours.

During the 12-2 visit, Dr. Sachs showed up and checked in on her. He answered some of her questions about the pain...explaining that it hurts to breathe because it's basically worse than having broken ribs (since they took one out to use in the surgery). He decreased her IV fluid....which they think will reduce the amount of fluid coming out of the chest tubes. He's going to check on her agian in the morning and hopefully he'll be able to take the tube out sometime tomorrow.

It's getting close to time for me to go in for the 4:00 visit, so I'm going to wrap this up. Please continue to pray as she is dealing with this pain.

--By the way...she's received a whole lot of flowers! She absolutely loves them and wanted me to tell everyone THANKS!!! I'm sure she'll tell everyone herself as soon as she gets a chance to.

Surgery is over!

Ok, so the call finally came. Surgery is over. Dr. Sachs came out and gave us the run down. He said everything went very well. They were able to get a really good correction on the spine and she lost very little blood while doing it. He said the general surgeon was just finishing up the final stitching and that they should be waking her up and moving her to her ICU room pretty soon (not for any critical needs, but just normal procedure after following up this type of surgery). It should be less than an hour from now when we'll finally get to go in and see her. They want to make sure she is fully "awake" before they let us in.

There was no need to use any donor blood. The little blood that she did lose, they were able to put it back in her.

Great news to hear...but I'm not going to get that "big sigh of relief" until I get to go in there and see her. I'll post a little after that and if I'm lucky, I'll try to get her to write a post tonight (don't count on it...).

Thanks again for every prayer and act of kindness. That's what got her to where she is now.

Time for the screws

Update: 11:10 - Well, 3 hours went by and the ol' Chinese woman didn't have anything to say. So I finally had to go ask them to find out something and give us an update. The Chinese woman got the nurse to call back and I actually got to talk to the nurse this time. Unfortunately, she was pretty quick with me...but I don't really have a problem with that, since that means she was trying to get back to work reshaping Kristin's back to be "straight as an arrow" (that's not an actual nurse quote, but more of a Forrest Gump quote). The quote from the nurse was "Sorry you had to call me for the update, but she is doing great! We are putting in some of the screws right now...so you can go get some lunch." Mmmm, just what I wanted to hear to boost that appetite.

But anyway, it is good news and I'm thrilled. I'm just ready for them to be through and for her to wake up. I'm REALLY ready to see her, but if they just called me and said she was awake, that would definitely do.

Hopefully it won't be another 3 hours before the next update. I'm sure I'll post again at that point.

Meanwhile, a Rook game has broke out in the waiting room. It's kinda like a Parker vs. Wawrzyniak game...but so far the families are still friends. :)

Surgery has started...

So, we got here at 5 am and there wasn't many people here. In fact, the whole second floor was lit by only one or two lights. Come to find out, the regular staff doesn't even show up until 6 am. So we sat back, turned on the plasma hanging from the wall, and watched over half of "3 Musketeers."

Finally, 6:00 rolled around and they went ahead and called her back into the preparation room. They put her into her gown and these elastic compression stockings (to help prevent blood clots during and after surgery). She had a little 30 second crying spell when the nurses walked out, but that was cut short by the swarm of nurses that came in to prep her. Shortly after that, her parents got here and got to spend some time with her before it all started.

At this point, the Dr's started arriving. We went over things with the general surgeon, the anesthesiologist, then the back surgeon. They have all been very helpful...I'll list their names at the end of this so any prayers can call them by name.

At roughly 7:25, the anesthesiologist came back and gave her the "feel good." It was time to go back to the waiting room for me....but not until I waited around for the show. :) She started the mumbling and saying something about how she "wasn't a druggie, so she's never really felt this way before." As they weeled her away, I could still hear her just a talkin' to the doctors. They had told me it would take nearly an hour before they actually started surgery from that point.

At 8:10, they called and said they had just started surgery. The nurse said they would call and give me updates probably around every 2-3 hours. It's now around 10:00...so I'm getting anxious to hear something soon. If I had it my way, they could do it a little better... If I had it my way, when the nurse called, I actually talked to her. Instead, the nurse calls the "volunteer desk" and the "volunteer" lady...who just so happens to be Chinese...comes and says "Docta' say surgwy starded an eveyting goin' goot." Of course, she says that while standing with her feet together, her hands cupped in front of her, her back ever so slightly bent forward, and that little grin that only the Chinese can do. Oh well, at least she's not rude. :)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Back Surgeon - Dr. Sachs
General Surgeon - Dr. Moore (lady)
Anesthesiologist - Dr. Ruben
Nurses - Lisa and Annette

Well, we're in Plano now

Well, we're in Plano now. We've done the whole "registering" thing at the hospital, Kristin has given a vial of blood so they can match her to some good donor blood to have on standby, and we even had time to take her out to a good ol' Japanese hibachi grill for that "last good food for the week" meal. She's still doing pretty well. She's only had one "moment" so far....when we were up at the hospital going over everything with a couple of nurses.

Anyway...it all starts tomorrow at 5:00 am (surgery at 7:00 am). The surgery is estimated to last around 5 hours, so hopefully she'll be up around noon. I hope to post another post a litte after then tomorrow to let everyone know how she is. It's scary, yet exciting for her. It's like turning a whole new page on her life. The next couple of weeks, maybe months, are going to be pretty painful....but she's been focusing on the final result.

Thanks to all who have spent time with their heads bowed for her. God has given her an incredible peace about this whole thing...and we know He'll be wearing his "Physician hat" come 7:00 in the morning.

It's getting near....YIKES!!!!!

Alright, we have finally come to a decision about surgery. After 3 opinions, $64 of requesting x-rays & Dr. notes from TX, and numerous conversations b/t us we are going through with it. This has been a long road and I know that it is going to be even longer after next week. What do ya do with so many choices? I 100% feel that God has led us in the right direction, now all we need to do is trust HIM even more so and know that HE is taking care of us!!!! As the time gets closer, it gets a little more overwhelming and scarier by the minute. We are leaving next Thursday to pre-register at the hospital and have more blood drawn. We have to be at the hospital at 5 a.m. Friday and the surgery will start at 7 a.m. I was told that it would be a 5 hour surgery and that we would be in the hospital for 5 to 7 days. I even had one doctor tell me that it was going to hurt like hell! Now I could be wrong about this....but this doesn't sound like something you tell a patient.

Want to hear a funny story? It's not really funny it's just a story that I think is somewhat odd! Im supposed to give a unit of blood just incase it were needed. Well I march my happy lil self over to Lifeshares Blood Center and find out it is going to cost me $300 to donate MY own blood. Needless to say, I called the dr.'s assistant and asked how important it is to donated my blood. When I wanted the x-rays from TBI I had to pay money as well. Why should I have to pay more money for my bones and blood? It just doesn't make sense to me?!?!

Anyways ,I ask and beg you all to keep my family and myself in your prayers especially on Friday. I know it gets a little harder for everyone as it nears!!! I know nothing is going to happen to me, but it's amazing how much you learn when talking to your spouse about the death topic

On a happier note....we are leaving today for 6-flags. We are going with 5 other couples and are coming back on Sunday. We are looking forward to this. To be honest, there has been so much to think about that we just remembered we were going to 6-flags yesterday. If I can remember correctly we have had this trip planned well before school got out. Anyways, we will let you know more about 6-flags and hopefully we will have pics.

Also, I think I heard Bradley say that he is going to try...key word being try to post while we are in Plano next week. This way if anyone cares to know how things are going you can read all about us on this blog. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their summer!!!!