Big Steps

So Jennie was switched to oral pain meds last night, although they left the Duladid PCA pump hooked up so she could push the button for additional pain relief if needed. So far she has needed to push the button occasionally, but I think her pain level is somewhat below where we were afraid it was.

Today seems to be a good day again, and we will be trying a low-fat diabetic diet today (solid food for the first time!!) They just brought the tray in, so hopefully we can get Jennie to try several things. I am sure her blood sugar levels will go a little crazy with this change, but hopefully it will go pretty well.

Unfortunately Jennie was up a lot last night, the nurse was new and woke her several times. She is tired today, but at least she was up for some reason other than being in pain.

Thank You

I just wanted to put a quick update on here to let everyone know that we got our first group of cards and gifts today. I didn't count but I would guess that there were more than 30 cards, which is very humbling. Jennie and I both really enjoyed reading the cards and wanted to thank you all for sending them. Knowing that there are so many people out there praying and thinking about Jennie gives us a lot of comfort, Thank You!!

Another day of Progress

So again Jennie has made some good progress today. It is now about 4 pm and she has already gone for 3 walks, and I am sure we will get one more in today. Her blood sugar has been better today, and she has been up out of bed most of the day so far.
Unfortunately we did find out that they found MRSA in one of her samples, but we really aren't too concerned about it, that culture was from early in the week and she has been on Vancomycin since then that should have taken care of it. They will check it again, but we think that may have been the coughing she was having.

The doctors also talked about trying to get Jennie off of the IV pain med and back onto oral meds within the next few days. The only problem is that she hasn't really experimented with anything other than water, so we have tried some Jello and Apple Juice today to see how that goes.

Now let me explain real quick why the blog hasn't been updated all day. Yesterday afternoon some wonderful little thug broke into Rita's Van and stole the GPS, leaving the drivers side window shattered all over the place. We were really very lucky that there was nothing else taken, her camera and several other valuables were in the back seat. So this morning Rita was having to deal with getting that taken care of and I was by myself here at the hospital (go figure I ran out without the laptop). All is taken care of now, but it just made one more thing for us to have to deal with.

Day 9 Recovery

Let me begin by saying that today has been better than yesterday, thank goodness. Jennie is still hurting, but her pain level is back down to the 6 or 7 range it was two days ago. We went for a long walk today around almost the entire 6th floor of the hospital, all of which Jennie did without any assistance (other than me helping keep the IV pole going).

We got to see Dr. Sutherland today, and he thinks that her fluctuation in the blood sugar is due to her not being on constant TPN (an IV feeding), so he wrote orders changing her TPN to a lower but constant dose. He also is going to have an Endocrinologist come in and talk to us about the blood sugar and how to regulate it when we leave the hospital.

Unfortunately Jennie didn't sleep very well last night so she is pretty tired, but I think she if feeling much better. Hopefully we can get some more walking in today and let her get some more rest.

I Spoke too soon . . .

So I am sad to say that I may have spoken too soon earlier when I said that today seemed to be going well. Jennie has been out of it most of the day just generally not feeling good. She will be freezing cold one minute, then burning up the next, or her arms will be hot and her legs freezing, etc., etc.

She only managed to get out of the bed for one walk early this morning and to sit in the chair for a short while this evening, which was much less activity than we were hoping for, but she has been very tired and in pain all afternoon and evening.

Even though she has been able to have clear liquids all day, she has only felt like drinking small amounts of water, and in fact was unable to keep that down. The nurse gave her some compazine shortly afterwards, and her nausea has been better since. Jennie also has been in more pain all day, and is in fact moaning in her sleep now which she hasn't done since the first night or two.

The doctors and nurses had warned us that there would be some bad days mixed in with the good, so hopefully today was the worst of it. I know as sore as Jennie's abdomen is vomiting must have been very painful, and I hope that this was the last time for a while.

Please pray that tomorrow will be a new day fresh with progress and less pain.

Day 8 of Recovery

Again today Jennie is doing pretty well. The doctors came in this morning and told us they are pleased with her progress. While some have recovered quicker, she also has had no real complications aside from the mystery infection that she is on antibiotics for.

The doctors have also ok'ed her to try a clear liquid diet, which is the first step towards getting her back on regular food, and one of the biggest hurdles left. She continues to walk several times a day and is spending a good portion of the day out of the bed and in the chair. She is very tired today, but we wore her out pretty good yesterday and the doctors said energy will very greatly until we get her insulin shots more stable.

That is probably the other difficulty we have had, is that her blood sugar has been high much of the last day and a half since we started the long-acting shot instead of the IV. Again though the doctors say that it will take several days to get it regulated, and when she starts on solid food it will begin to vary again, all of which is normal.

Keep Jennie in your prayers, hopefully recovery will continue to go well and we can get her onto solid food in the next few days.

She's doing well

This morning the Doctors came in and removed Jennie's NG tube from her nose as well as the drain from her abdomen, which I know will make her much more comfortable.

Her blood sugar levels are still fluctuating quite a bit, but they said that is to be expected now that she is off the insulin drip and only taking shots to regulate it. They also said that they will be increasing the dose of the long acting insulin some to try and reduce the variances some.

Other than that, they started her on an extra antibiotic for pneumonia, they saw some fluid in an ultrasound they did yesterday and want to stop it before she gets full pneumonia. Her liver function has come back to the normal range, so they aren't as worried about infection but they will still be monitoring it.

Yesterday was the first day that Jennie has actually been awake most of the day, and we got her out of bed several times, including a walk with Physical Therapy around the entire floor of the hospital. Other than that we watched a lot of TV and movies, which she really seemed to enjoy. If fact when we got here this morning, Jennie was already up and watching Finding Nemo with Stitch at her side :-)