~ 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