Day 12 evening update

So Jennie still continues to do well and they will be discontinuing her TPN when the current bag finishes in an hour or two. This will mean that the only thing the IV is being used for is the antibiotics, and I think those will be stopped within the next day or two. Hopefully she will begin to get an appetite and we can actually try something other than cheerios and apple juice tomorrow.

I also have an update on Charlotte, she has been out of surgery since about 7pm. They were able to get a good islet cell harvest, so hopefully that part of the surgery will be very productive. Unfortunately she had a lot of damage to her intestines and colon, and they had to remove a portion of both. She will be going down to the ICU floor tonight, although they haven't said exactly where at. John said that they had anticipated some type of problem like this due to several surgeries she had previously, and every other aspect of the surgery did go pretty well. Needless to say though, Charlotte could use a lot of prayer as the surgery is now over and she will begin the recovery process.

Recovery Day 12

Again today Jennie is doing pretty well. We have gone on several walks and they have Physical Therapy came in today and Jennie tried stairs for the first time. She did very well, and I am sure will improve even more with a little practice. I really feel like Jennie will be able to get around without any assistance when she is released, she will just have to be careful not to over do it for a while.

And just a brief update on Charlotte. I talked to her husband a few minutes ago and her surgery is going pretty well. The doctors came out about 2:30 and told them they had completed the main portion of the surgery (Jennie's surgery started somewhat earlier, so it is difficult to compare the times) and are just waiting on the islet cells to be harvested. He felt that they would be able to get a good harvest with her also, so that is very good news. She did have some previous damage from some other surgeries, so the doctors felt that they may still have to do some more repairs to her colon and intestines, but they haven't decided exactly to what extent yet. All in all her surgery is also going very well, they anticipated some additional issues do to the prior damage, and I hope to be able to post a good final update on her surgery late tonight.

Continue to keep Jennie as well as Charlotte and her family in your prayers, they still have many hours of waiting before they will know the final results, although it sounds very promising so far.

Update day 11 and Prayer Request

So Jennie's pain meds aren't working as well as the IV was, but she is trying to tolerate it to try and get it down quickly. They also adjusted her insulin somewhat trying to better prepare her for when she really starts eating again. Although she was allowed to eat today, she didn't have much appetite and only at a bite or two of mashed potatoes and a few bites of rice krispies. We don't know if this is because she is still getting nutrition through the TPN in the IV or if there is something else, but tomorrow they will be stopping the TPN so we should know more then.


I also wanted to briefly ask for a prayers as I have a distant cousin (I believe a third cousin if I did the math right) that is actually up here and will be having the exact same surgery tomorrow. I went and met with her tonight and I think was able to provide some insight into the surgery and the recovery, so hopefully they feel a little more at ease now. Her name is Charlotte Ryan, and I know that she would appreciate all the extra prayers as tomorrow will be a very tough day for them (if anyone understands, we do).

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.