Everyone is trying hard to be patient, especially THE patient. Hoping, praying and waiting is the work of the day and we are grateful that you are on the team with us. We need to focus our prayer efforts in asking the LORD to DRY UP those drains! Of course that will mean that the anastomosis of the pancreas and small intestine is healed and that is the goal. Also prayers for when Dan eats (Monday maybe??) that the drainage DOES NOT increase and he can continue eating and healing and be OUT of the hospital!!!!!!!!!!!
Psa 27:13
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
Psa 27:14
Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!
saturday, january 30, 2010
We've already discussed this.
Well, it took me 3 weeks but I got a mild scolding from McGreeky. With everyone wanting to know a solid plan, it falls to me to do the questioning. Apparently, he is getting tired of it. He has been very patient, though, so his firm "we have already discussed this several times" didn't sting as much. To my credit, we have heard 2 different plans for the past couple weeks and we just want to know which one he's working with today!
Anyway, Dan's doing well today. The residents are all taking a huge test today, so doctors didn't bother us until 0930. Whoa. McGreeky and the nurse changed the wound vac again, and he was very pleased with the progress. He's making some modifications to the suction and sponges to help Dan's wound begin to contract. This is certainly a large step in the right direction.
The drains have decreased dramatically. The past few days totals: 250, 140, 120, 110, 85-ish. They MUST continue to decrease in this fashion for Dan to be able to eat. Labs have been ordered for every other day now and antibiotics might be discontinued tomorrow or Monday.
As for the "plan" I got in trouble for asking about, McGreeky really wants to do a feeding trial before Dan goes home. Accordingly, he wants to see the drains continue to decrease in output, let Dan eat a couple of days (Monday, maybe), then see what happens. Just like before, if the output stays the same, Dan is free to go home and eat. If the output increases, he has to spend a couple days "in-house" waiting for the TPN to start again. Either way, the surgeon says he should be home by end of next week.
For McGreeky's safety, I hope he lets Dan out before the Superbowl. Dan might get violent :)
Today will be spent with our sisters, Lise and Laura. They drove all the way up from SoCal yesterday to see Dan and I. So fun to spend time with people who don't live or work in the hospital. I'll be driving back with them tomorrow afternoon (I'm happy and sad about this, of course).
Prayer Requests:
* Release from the hospital earlier than the docs think (before Feb 7th)
* Decrease in drain output to nothing!
* Continued healing of the wound
* Feeding trial to begin on Monday and be very successful (no increase in output)
* Safe travels for me tomorrow and Tuesday night
* Comfort when we're apart
* Patience for McGreeky (too bad, buddy, we're asking questions)
* Confidence for Dan to go home to La Mirada soon :)
Praises:
* Wound healing
* Progress and improvement
* Good friends visiting (Lise and Laura!)
* A mighty God
Posted by Dan and Ashley at 10:52 AM 0 comments
friday, january 29, 2010
Another week?
The doctors must be getting tired. They arrive later and later every day. Today, McGreeky didn't arrive until nearly 11am, when Dan very kindly told him that he had hat head. The doc was in-between cases, so it was nice of him to come by and check things out.
Amazingly, he says that Dan is looking at one more week. Honestly, that is the 3rd or 4th time we've heard that, so who knows. Yesterday, it was 5 days. Today, it's a week. Tomorrow? Maybe he'll go backwards and decide on 3 days. Ha.
Anyway, he wants to change the wound vac tomorrow and Monday, while watching the drain output. He wants to "reassess" on Monday and probably try feeding Dan for a couple days. If the drain output stays the same, Dan gets to go home and eat! If the output goes up again, Dan will be have to re-cycle the TPN before going home. So, Dan could be home by Wednesday or Friday...but we have certainly heard that before.
To make matters worse, McGreeky is consulting a surgeon (McChief) who changes his mind a lot and could develop a new plan. (I'm not being impertinent or disrespectful; McGreeky actually told us that the other surgeon "changes his mind every day, so we don't really know, but I'll go with his advice.") We plan on asking McGreeky if "the plan" is changing or not, because it gets pretty old hearing his plans and then hearing them change due to another opinion. Of course, he keeps reminding us that dealing with this problem is stylistic...so, I'm hoping McGreeky sticks to his guns this time.
I think something has clicked in our minds that we can do absolutely nothing about getting Dan out of here. The nurses really don't think he needs to be here (nor some of the doctors), but I'm not sure we'll ever hear, "You can go home today" from McGreeky. Even when goals are met, new goals are made to delay discharge. Dan feels good, but it must be discouraging to not be able to get out of here even after great improvement.
So, I'm driving to LA on Sunday, then flying up north again Tuesday night. It's my last semester of nursing school, so I have to actually go (Dan's doctor seemed glad that I was coming back, so maybe I haven't bugged him too badly yet). I'm hoping, I'll be able to drive Dan out of Stanford before I go back to school again.
Let's just pray that Dan is home for the Superbowl...9 days.
Prayer Requests:
* The surgeon feels confident to trust his decision-making and actually commit to a "plan"
* Dan's release from the hospital...4 weeks is a LOT different than 10 days
* Complete drying up of drains (I mean NOTHING)
* Improvement of wound
* Successful feeding trial--no increase in drain output at all while eating
* Cooperative/flexible professors to allow me to keep spending time up north
* Dan going home to La Mirada SOON (before I begin clinicals on Feb 17)
Praises:
* Dan feels fine
* Families being helpful and coming to visit
* Financial security
* Ability to fly back and forth
No comments:
Post a Comment