August 20 Monday

A most stressful weekend.  Joe's feeding bag connection port into his small intestine was getting unplugged Saturday and Sunday continually.  It scarred us and required constant troubleshooting. WE tried to find someone in this myriad of people involved with transplants to correct the situation.  Lsst night a call in nurse with what is called home infusion service, recommended a nurse named Michelle who works not far from us on Kasota off 280.  So we all piled into the car this am and drove to the office/warehouse to find the right coupling/gizmo.  She brought out a cardboard box and we went through to find one that would work.  Michelle is now ranking right up there on our list of amazing help. 
A million dollar operation with a gizmo problem.  Jim said a plumber could of fixed it in one stop at Frattalones Hardware on Lake Street.   
Joe's home nurse Monica stopped by to see Joe (Joe really likes and trusts her).
She showed us how to change bandages on the four body ports Joe has had for all the tubes etc. and lots of tricks and ideas for managing all the requirements needed at this point in his recovery. 
Good new 2 body ports have scabbed up and will not require bandaging much longer.
Now 2 1/2 weeks since Joe has had food or water by mouth.  What a trooper he is.  This procedure is not for slow minded people!! We have set up a very sophisticated charting system to track meds, blood sugar, and various physical activities Joe is supposed to do.  It is all pretty overwhelming. Joe continues to feel all around shitty and fatigued.  We keep in mind several months down the pike when we can all go to Its Greek To Me for dinner on his birthday.
So hats off to Nurse Michelle, Joe, and Nurse Monica for their tireless work and efforts.  There truly are some wonderful people in the world.  BTW, Karen and Marty both dropped off some food for Jim and Suzanne which were greatly appreciated.
Tomorrow Dr. Dunn will see Joe at clinic for a checkup.  We shall see what we shall see.
More soon......
Our at home partial hospital  set up.