Dear family and friends,
This morning as I was walking down the
hallway to Gary's room, I could see that his bed was empty and the
sheets all off, so thought that he must be sitting in his chair. As I
got close, Gary came walking towards me, by himself with the walker,
minus his GI tube, catheter, and IV pole. What a wonderful surprise!
Much to his dismay, although he is very relieved to be rid of most of
the added attachments, he's still limited to 1 cup of ice for each 8
hour shift. They took an ultrasound of his new pancreas and kidney.
They said it would take about 20 minutes and that his room would be very
dark. I went to grab a cup of coffee and when I came back to the room,
he was fast asleep -- I'm glad that it must not have been too painful
of an experience. I can tell that his pain level is considerably better
then it has been. Today was the first day that he started receiving
some of his medication in pill form. That made him happier, because he
was given some water to take them with. I can tell he's getting better
because he's getting antsy. He even read the sports section of the
paper today and I tried to distract him for awhile by having him help
with the crossword puzzle although he quickly lost interest and has a
hard time finding what he would like to watch on TV (all 3 are things he
normally enjoys doing). We also reread some of the information about
kidney and pancreas transplants that we had been given when we met with
the transplant team our first time the beginning of June 2013. Not
expecting that the wait (he was listed the end of August 2013) would
only be 7 1/2 months rather then the 2 years we had anticipated although
hoping for sooner then 2 years, and with other things going on in our
lives, we had only read it the one time in June. We are slowly finding
out what changes and restrictions we will encounter. When I left, this
afternoon, he was going to be laying down again, and as soon as the last
IV bag was empty, they would be taking out his central line and putting
a new IV line in his arm. From my understanding from one or his
resident doctors, if all continues to go well, they will probably start
him on a liquid diet tomorrow. The resident doctor also said that he is
really doing well -- that he's on the fast track, part of it may be
because he thankfully has never had to be on dialysis and part of it may
also be the good match of organs he received. Some requests for prayer
and Thanksgiving include:
1. Thanksgiving for how well Gary is doing already. That has been very encouraging to see.
2.
Thanksgiving for family, friends and our church family and many people
we don't even know who are praying for us. I often wonder what people
do without the Lord, their family, their friends, and their church
family.
3. Continued prayer for the family who gave Gary and us this wonderful gift.
4.
Patience for me as I have been getting frustrated feeling that we are
not getting all the knowledge and training we need. Sometimes it feels
like it is 2nd nature to the staff and that they forget it is totally
new to us. At times there also are communication barriers which don't
help.
5. I want to there when any training occurs, but, no one
seems to know when things will happen. Wisdom to know when I should be
by Gary and when I should be at home taking care of myself and spending
time with Peter, Andrew, and Stephanie.
6. Patience for Gary when he's uncomfortable, in pain, tired, and thirsty and patience for me in supporting him.
Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Nelly and family
No comments:
Post a Comment