Emotional Ride

Dear Family and Friends,

I was a bit discouraged last night when I left Gary to come home, because he was in a lot of pain, still nauseous, and was running a temperature.  The nurse wasn't too concerned and said this is common, but I as his wife, worried.  I know he's where he needs to be and I know I need to look at all the positive, but I feel so bad for him.  Knowing how painful some of my surgeries were, I'm guessing his pain is probably even more from where he was cut to add his new kidney and pancreas. 

Knowing that I am a very emotional person, I was very proud of myself that Gary didn't see me upset last night and the tears didn't start until we were on our way back to the car.  We've already found that it is good for us to go home to sleep since the chairs are not sleep conducive and I, too, have to watch my health and sleep is something that I need and am not great at doing, i.e. getting restful sleep because of some of my health issues is very hard.  Peter, Bradley, Laura, Andrew, and Stephanie have all been so supportive and helpful.  God sure has blessed Gary and I with wonderful children!!! 

  He still is not allowed to have anything to drink or eat -- everything has to come in through a tube in his nose that goes directly to his stomach or through one of several IVs. Having to sleep with his C-Pap machine on top of that, makes his mouth even drier.  Yesterday we were able to wipe a wet sponge on a stick in his mouth when he wanted it, but he's not allowed to drink water or have ice chips.  The newest change that we as his family have noticed is his wonderful blood glucose readings.  I don't recall them ever being this great and this steady.  The goal is to have them under 150 and his have been staying between 110 and 130, I think.  They have been checking his blood glucose every hour so he still is having the finger pricks. 

This morning I called to see how he was doing, and they said that they had walked him around the unit already -- WOW!  He's going to be one tired person today.  I also understood from her that they had him in a chair for a couple hours during the night.  Yesterday they had him in the chair when we came in the morning for a couple hours.  Movement seems to be quite painful so I know when he moved back to the bed, it really hurt, but it looked like the nurse made him do a lot of the work with Peter and Andrew standing by Gary and her if needed.

He doesn't like using his breathing exerciser -- taking deep breaths and blowing out.  Quite painful and hard for him to do.  Yesterday the nurse had him try breathing while holding a pillow over his incision.  They also had his bed shake for quite a while that is supposed to help his lungs from behind -- I told him to imagine he was on a trip riding on a very bumpy road with in a very bumpy van, but he didn't think that was too funny.  We had seen the person in the room next to Gary in a shaking bed, and in my mind I wondered if something was wrong with the bed, but apparently not.  These things are all done to help prevent pneumonia. 

The nursing staff has been wonderful.  I chuckle, they all struggle with pronouncing our name, and we struggle with pronouncing a lot of theirs or understanding sometimes what is being said so I often repeat back to them what I think I've heard to make sure I'm hearing correctly.  I don't think I've ever seen so many wall hand sanitizers around -- I think Bradley said he counted 24 on his way out one time and stopped and used each one.  I have to say I appreciate that everyone uses them and uses them frequently.  The other thing I've been amazed at is how many boxes of gloves they must go through.  They can be working with Gary and change their gloves for each thing they do with him it seems.  In case you didn't know, Gary is in the Transplant Intensive Care Unit.

We are so thankful and have often thought and prayed for the donor's family.  I had already been praying for the family of whomever Gary's donor might be since he had been placed on the transplant list middle to end of August, but it really has hit me since the phone call we got on Thursday that now there is a very specific family that we are praying for even if we don't know who.  So, please continue to keep that family in your prayers too.  What a gift they have given Gary and us.

What a week.  Sure didn't expect this all to be happening a week ago.  It was quite a shock receiving a phone call on Thursday (which today seems a long time ago) that our lives were going to really be changing.  The last few days have been quite a rollercoaster ride of emotions and a lot of "hurry up and wait", but through it all, we have felt the Lord with us.  We are so thankful to you for your thoughts and prayers.  It's been so encouraging seeing your messages to us on facebook and e-mails as well as telephone calls.  I apologize though if I haven't been to good at corresponding -- be patient with me.  I don't know what people do without the Lord, their families, their friends, and their church.

Love,
Nelly