It has been a really busy couple of days and there
has not been a moment to update the blog. Joe is doing OK, but he was
supposed to be discharged from the hospital last Thursday Aug. 16. Suzanne and Jim
were in classes all trying to understand all of the home care involved as well
as administering some pretty high powered pain killers, as well as feeding and
all stuff entering the bpdy can only go through a feeding tube. Joe had a number
of very patient nurses who tried to bring Jim and Suzanne up to speed on all of the
overwhelming stuff. It was for sure that Jim and Suzanne made Curly and Moe look
like a couple of real smooth characters. Poor Joe just watched with a certain
degree of resigniation. After almost 2 weeks in the nuimber 1 hospital in the
Twin Cities his attitude was "get me out of this circus." Unfortunately, the
feeding kept coming undone, what a frightening scene, and the staff had a devil
of a time fixing it. It seemed that a good auto mechanic could have fixed it
with a good clamp, but all the high priced help couldn't figure it out. So Joe,
with Jim and Sue's agreement, said he wanted to stay another day to make sure it
didn't come unglued again. So Friday came around the tube stayed in
place and Jim and Sue took Joe home on Friday. The first thing he saw when
he came into the house was flowers from Tesia.
The three have scratching heads on getting the
correct dosages on all of the drugs and luckily a home care nurse stoped by for
the afternoon to help with the correct dosages and how to change the dressings.
Joe has been unbelievably strong in the face of uncertainty and intense pain.
The scar on his stomach is about 14 inches long and he has a feeding tube
leading into his intestine and a drainage tube leading out of his stomach. And a
long road ahead, the feeding tube is expected to be in for another 6 weeks. And
his blood sugar is kind of crazy. So the correct testing for blood sugar and
insulin is really important to keep the islet cells healthy. Joe has been in
prettty good humor, he sat on the deck yesterday afternoon, and went for a 10
minute walk with Suzanne today. It is really hard for him to get enough rest
with all of the stuff going into his feeding tube and blood sugar tests and
isulin shots. But he is hanging in there.
Wow what a guy!!!!
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