Check Up

On Tuesday we took JoDee in for follow-up chest x-rays prior to her check up on Wednesday. JoDee is doing very well at being able to get in and out of the car. We had no problems getting her to and from the hospital for the x-rays, which is great. The x-rays themselves were pretty uneventful except for the technician who started to panic, upon seeing the pictures, that JoDee had swallowed some metal. He was quite worried and kept asking her if she was ok, and if her doctor knew of anything or was concerned in anyway. Obviously the palladium coils that the interventional radiologist inserted into the arteries feeding her hemorrhaging spleen gave this technician a reason for concern. The “metal pieces” appear to be in or near the stomach area on the x-ray. We couldn’t help but laugh, and JoDee just told the guy to relax.

Wednesday was our follow-up visit. It went well and JoDee is healing. Dr. Platnik (trauma surgeon) was impressed with her mobility and overall condition. He examined her abdomen, which was quite painful for JoDee, as he pushed and prodded on her stomach area. There is obviously a lot of damage done to the internal organs, not to mention the shattered spleen, which is still causing a lot of pain. The x-rays didn’t show any further fluid build up, which is great. The doctors feel like we are getting past the risky stage of internal infection etc. and there isn’t really anything at this point that concerns them. They told us that it will be a good 6 to 8 months before the ribs are feeling “normal” and quite a few months until she will feel like her lungs are “normal”. Our next check-up is in a few weeks, so we are glad to be done with doctors’ offices and hospitals for a while.

Overall we are doing well, and JoDee has made tremendous progress since her return home. The kids are managing better each day, and, as I have said before, it is nice to have all of my family in one place. JoDee’s parents are here until next Tuesday, December 8th at which point we will see how we can manage with out their tremendous help. We continue to be blessed by great friends who care and support us so well. We thank all of you, and truly appreciate your thoughts and prayers. Here’s to a better tomorrow…

Nice chair

JoDee invited Sadie to sit in the recliner with her today and Sadie made a funny comment…”mom, you are lucky to be able to sit in a nice chair like this all day!” Obviously kids have an interesting and refreshing perspective. For those of you who know JoDee, sitting anywhere for more than five minutes is agonizing torture. Speaking of torture, she is noticing that the pain meds are making her really itchy and this is really starting to annoy her (her words, not mine).

Today has been a quite day for JoDee while mom and dad and I spent time with the kids, and took them to church. I think JoDee is playing catch up a bit today given how much she did on Friday and Saturday. She has a bit more pain today than she has had the past few days, but overall she is doing well. We are looking forward to this week as she has follow-up x-rays on Tuesday and appointments on Wednesday. Hopefully these will show no more fluid buildup in her abdomen, and decreased fluid in her lungs.

A step at a time

Thanksgiving was a peaceful day at home. We spent the day with the kids going for walks, bike rides, and playing at the park. JoDee was able to get out and walk about a block to the local park, rest for a while and then walk home. The whole trip took us about 45 minutes. It was excellent for her to get outside in the sunshine and take in some fresh air. We had a wonderful meal delivered from local friends which allowed us to spend quality time together as a family, something we hadn’t been able to do for quite a while. Thanks to all of those who helped make our day a little brighter. We are truly grateful for wonderful friends.

Friday was another great day for our family. JoDee directed as we began to decorate for Christmas. It is great to see her more active and able to be up and about. She is not able to move very fast, but can actually manage quite well on her own. She is able to do stairs slowly by herself now, which is amazing progress in the four short days she has been home. All of her walking along with practice on the incentive spirometer is paying off and her lung capacity has increased by about fifty percent since she has been home. She is now able to use about a total of thirty five percent of her total capacity.

In general JoDee is feeling much better. The pain is still quite intense and we have to manage it so she can get through the day and rest at night. She’s getting back to her sarcastic and humorous self more and more each day. It is painful for her to laugh, but we are laughing more every day. Laughter is good medicine for the soul. JoDee has mom help her with her hair most every morning now, and she is able to wear something other than pajamas. We had to change the dressing on her incision for the chest tube yesterday. I got about half way through and about tossed my cookies, so I had to go get mom to help finish it up. JoDee has a waterproof dressing so that she can shower daily, which is a good thing.

We have had a wonderful thanksgiving together as a family. As I stated, this has been due to our great friends who have taken such good care of us. We thank all of you for your love and support and join you in having so much to be thankful for. Happy thanksgiving and Merry Christmas…more tomorrow.

A day at home

It has been great to have JoDee home. She has done very well at making her way around the house and spending time with the kids. She has actually been able to manage the stairs quite well. I find it amazing how quickly you can forget how crazy three kids can be. I guess our time in the hospital was a lot quieter than I realized. Today has been full of errands and to-do lists which have been neglected for nearly two weeks and needed to be done prior to the thanksgiving break.

JoDee was able to shower and put something on other than a hospital gown, which I think helps her feel a lot better - we’ll cut her some slack for wearing pajamas all day. She has been able to sit and watch the kids play, and it has been funny to see her try and get after them if they do something wrong. She obviously can’t move very fast or talk very loud, so it is really quite funny for us, but frustrating for her. We have been able to spend some good time together as a family and we look forward to enjoying Thanksgiving together. We definitely have a lot to be thankful for.

Home at last

JoDee was finally able to come home today. Her chest tube was removed this morning at about 11AM, we had follow-up x-rays this afternoon along with some more discussions with the doctors and nurses, and she was home for supper at about 5:30PM. Though we are nervous on how to tend to all of her needs at home, it is truly a relief to have come to this result. As you can imagine, there were many times on that cold and snowy Saturday night when I did not know what the morning would bring. It is a great feeling to have my family safely in one place, a feeling I hope to never take for granted again.

JoDee seems to be handling the oral pain medication better than we thought. She was quite nervous that the medication would make her nauseated, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem right now. It does make her quite sleepy. It has been great for the kids to see her back at home, I think it gives them a sense of relief too as it has been difficult for them to grasp the gravity of her situation. She's now relaxed and sleeping in her own bed...with about a thousand pillows.

With JoDee home we now have a different set of challenges and needs, so it will be interesting to see what this next chapter in our experience brings us. I cannot say thank you enough to all those who have shared, offered or given of their time and resources to help our family. We truly appreciate all that has been done for us, and I’m sure there will continue to be more opportunities to help as we move forward. Today has truly been a great day for our family. Thanks again to all who have made it a little easier for us to get here. More tomorrow…

Slow but good

Today has been a slow but good day. JoDee was finally able to get the stitches removed from her head injury. Mom was able to bathe JoDee and wash her hair again. All of the walking is paying off as it is allowed JoDee to finally get off the oxygen which has been driving her crazy. She is progressing well enough that they have stopped her IV pain medication and have resorted to oral pain meds, which is obviously a necessary step in our preparation to get her home. Unfortunately these orals cause her to feel quite nauseated and dizzy, which makes going for our nightly walks a bit difficult…or at least interesting. We were only able to do three quarters of a lap tonight (had to take the short cut back to the room). I know these drugs are designed to help with pain, but they sure have a lot of other undesirable side effects.

JoDee is resting now, and my only hope is that she can have a restful night. It’s amazing how difficult the daytime can be for her if the night is rough. She is in pretty good spirits and, like I said before, it is great that she can recognize her own progress. There is a pretty good chance that she will be able to get the chest tube out tomorrow, it has already helped drain about 1800 cc of fluid. I can’t imagine how difficult it would have been for her body to rid that much fluid, I’m sure it would have caused a lot of problems. I think she will feel much better after the tube comes out; it causes quite a bit of pain in her chest and actually up in her left shoulder. We will be happy to get rid of the “garden hose”. Here’s to tonight…and tomorrow.

Epidural troubles

We had another rough night as JoDee’s pain started to drastically increase around 2AM or so. We had just spoken with the anesthesiologist prior to JoDee going to bed at about 9:30PM. He looked at her back and the epidural and mentioned everything looked great. He saw no problem with leaving it in until after the chest tube was removed in a day or two. Needless to say, we were a bit confused why she was so uncomfortable last night.

At about 9:30AM we were able to finally get another anesthesiologist to come and discuss JoDee’s condition with us. This doctor was concerned about the mild fever JoDee had developed and actually wanted to take the epidural out as early as tomorrow. Upon inspection of the insertion point, she (the doctor) had found that the epidural was no longer in the correct position and had all but been pulled out. This explained the pain JoDee had all night. In short, they had to remove the epidural and resort to IV-administered pain control. JoDee is now resting again and able to relax a little. The systemic nature of the IV-administered drugs makes her quite sleepy, which is good, as she needs all the rest she can get.