Dear family and friends,
As you might have figured out from the title, we're back to wearing yellow gowns when we are in Gary's room as well as gloves when we do anything for him. Although the C-Diff is back (or possibly never totally left), at least it's something treatable. The doctors feel that his body has become "resistant" to the antibiotic that they were treating him with so have changed to a different one.
The doctors really would like Gary to sit in a chair more and walk more to help with preventing the pneumonia from getting worse, but each time he sits up, the "sharp" pain in his lower abdomen and hips gets worse which makes him feel that he cannot sit up. Being overwhelmed and tired, I was feeling as if he wasn't getting the "attention" to that issue that he needed since this had just begun last night as something new. From listening to rounds this morning and feeling as if they were thinking it was not an issue since between the pain medication they gave him last night and his C-Pap machine he had slept pretty much the whole night and was still sleeping when I got there around the same time they were doing rounds I felt as if they thought the issue was resolved. By 1pm, when he had struggled for awhile and was still really struggling with pain 2 hours after the last pain pill and having taken a nap, I decided it was time to get some more answers and went to find his nurse to talk with her -- it's hard to make someone do something, even though you understand the rational for why the doctors want him to do it, when the person you love is in so much pain. Meanwhile, the infectious doctor came in and Gary started talking to him about it and the nurse went and talked with the residents about it. The resident came in and checked Gary out too. He decided to talk to the Doctor above him and it was decided that they would start with an ultrasound and an x-ray and decide later if they would also need to do a CT scan of his abdomen to try to figure out if they were missing anything which they didn't think they were. They found nothing wrong and feel that the pain has to do with the C-Diff which around the same time they received the results of the culture for that at around the same time.
They also did a chest x-ray this morning and feel that even though his cough was worse last night and this morning, the pneumonia has not gotten worse. This afternoon I haven't heard him cough, so hopefully that is heading in the right direction.
Drinking and eating are getting a little better, but he still has a ways to go on those, but at least that, too, is heading in the right direction.
Thank you all for "walking" this journey with us. It means a lot to us.
Love,
Nelly and family
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
~ ~ Matthew 11:28
Hard thing for me to always remember, but I keep working at it -- God is in control and we can rest in HIM!
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