08.31.2010 Tuesday Release Eve

Finally, all the staff are starting to agree that Dennis will go home tomorrow. This is to allow him 4 full days on the vancomyocin post op. So this day for Dennis was a restful day of knowing that he has 24 more hours of constant care and then facing the reality of being at home. The wound vac is installed and pumping away. Not as bad of a procedure as he anticipated and wound care nurses were very chatty and informative and willing to answer our stupid questions. Glad that is over.
We spent a quiet evening. I went to class because he was doing well just to hear the vernacular and get to know some of the students. My role as student has definitely taken a back seat to the role of well spouse/ill person's advocate. I really want to be the student. I'm feeling my grasp on keeping up slipping away.

08.30.2010 Monday Wound Vacs Suck! (Actually)

My hopes of spending Labor Day Weekend in Fort Worth evaporated today. The team of wound nurses descended on Den and his foot and gave me a tutorial on what to expect with this surgery. This is going to be alot of work. I'm trying to figure out how to get the house in order for Home Health Care to come in and not turn us into the health department. With James moving out, the studio moving to the new backyard shed, with the creation of the garden shed and cleaning out for garage sales, the entire place is a mess. I took the afternoon off of hospital duty to chase down a new bed for Dennis so that his foot will not be jostled. Called James to come and get the rest of his stuff from his room and cleaned it up to move the new bed in. Cleared a path through the library and rescheduled the wiring of the sheds for a week later. I've told family members how they could help, but no one has volunteered. Alot to get done in a short time. Creativity will be a necessity to make this work. Also, I've decided that creativity can be interchanged with survival in instances where it is called for...like in hospital settings. The "fun" aspect of creativity quickly subsides when it's a serious condition.

08.29.2010 Sunday Weak-in-the-Knees but not on the floor

Quiet Day. Dr Reed let us know that he would be coming in the morning. I wanted to see the surgical site so when he came, I looked over his shoulder. This doesn't sound like a big feat however, since the time I was 15 years old, I have had a very low tolerance for visual medical incidents. When I saw the "shark bite" I didn't faint, but experienced a new sensation...nausea. I managed to stay in the bedside chair until the doctor left, but IMMEDIATELY after that, I crawled into Den's bed and had to stay there for a while. I was basically weak-in-the-knees until about 3:00pm. Dorothy isn't doing well. Jane said that she had alot of swelling and was complaining about discomfort in her left arm. Ed and Jane are looking into skilled care facilities that will take her upon release in about 3 days. My dad stayed in the hospital for observation overnight, and was impatiently awaiting release. They decided to continue their vacation as they would rest better away from home. I have tried to keep up somewhat on school with internet access. Both of my laptops are at the hospital now, along with the camera, and Den's medical apparatus. It's going to take a pick up truck to take all of this stuff home. Den is trying out crutches. The wound vac will be applied tomorrow. He is still "not-out-of-the-woods" yet so no one is predicting a release date as yet. I'm really getting tired trying to keep the house going...and fight against the vaccuum that pulls you into the parallel universe that is medicine. It is very tough to maintain any kind of life outside of the 9th floor. Dennis passed a depression evaluation. I'm not sure how he did it, unless he flourishes with all the attention. We may have to find him his own nurse, because I can't devote this much time to him and be a student and wear the other hats. This is going to take some doing.....

08.28.2010 Saturday Dorothy's Stroke, Dad's Vapors!

Garage Sale! Slapped together a garage sale for the daughters and daughter-in-law. Dennis was doing well at the morning phone call and suggested that I come to BMH later. I put the quilter together by myself last night. That was a good feeling. Resumed the quilt that I was working on prior to moving the studio. Garage sale was pleasant but not economically successful. Took an overloaded truck to Goodwill and then went to the hospital to be with Dennis. He was in good humor and following orders. We received a phone call from Ed and Jane that Dorothy had had another stroke. They took her to the hospital but decided against more CAT scans or X-rays. She is a no code so they have made her comfortable with pain meds and will evaluate tomorrow. Later my mom called from Branson, Missouri and said that Dad had passed out at Silver Dollar City. They were in the ambulance in route and she sounded really rattled. I spent the rest of the evening calling people to notify them of both events and trying to figure out how to give Mom aid in another state.

08.27.2010 Friday The piggy goes and A Cat Comes Back

REALLY the surgery day. On the schedule for 2:00 so they even let him have breakfast, but of course, brought a non-diabetic one so his glucose is just about off the chart. Kristen, Kelly and Holly wanted to be there during the procedure so we marched off to the waiting room while Den went to happy-anethesia-land. Kelly worked during that time on a log of the hospital missteps that had occured over the last week. (This is important because that was also the end of the Dell laptop. D.O.A in the waiting room) Dr came to fill us in about 2 hours later saying that Den wasn't "out of the woods yet" but we had definitely gone in the right direction. The procedure was more extensive than planned. The entire metatarsal was involved so it was removed. Wound is left open to facilitate drainage. Dennis came through well and was not in much pain thanks, in part, to the neoropathy in his feet from diabetes. Spent a quiet evening with him. I'm exhausted. No mention of a release date. We found out the infection was not MRSA as was previously suspected by a measly little strep. Lots of damage from such a whimpy bacteria. Kristen's last day at Macy's was marked by the embracing of a skinny gray tiger kitten that is living at the dumpster. Joe raised great alarm at the idea of litter box bacteria and feline leukemia. So, Toe Jam (TJ) is living in the garage or outside. Kristen wants to find him a home and is already working on a Facebook post. We're certain that TJ has fleas and is definitely hungry. It's really good that there is another focus besides illness. Dennis really wants Kristen to have the kitten. He is not concerned with the issues raised by Joe. Interesting that the microbiologist is not afraid of microbes!

08.26.2010 Thursday Decision Made

Surgery Day! Our constant stream of medical personnel have pointed us in the direction of amputation. What sealed it was the question "What would you do if this were your foot?" Every one of them said "Take it off" followed quickly by a "it's your decision though!" Talk about double-talk!! So the nothing-after-midnight order was made and Dennis seems resolved to enter the futures market with the donation of a digit to science. He was in good humor when I arrived this morning (very early). Since we didn't have a hard/fast surgery time, I didn't want to find out that I'd missed that window to send him off. I have used every media available to keep family/friends updated on his condition and treatment. This is a full time job being the communication hub for messages and updates. After early morning passed and noon passed with no guerney going to surgery and no staff being able to tell us anything, I finally started to research information on my own. (After all I had a testy diabetic who hadn't eaten and drank for 14 hours getting pretty squirrely in a bed he was tired of anyway!) After some calling and phone tag it was discovered that the front half of our medical staff parade had not communicated with the back half (the surgical half) that the procedure had, indeed, been scheduled. So no surgery today. Again with the lavish of apologies that will be added to the blog of misteps we have experienced. After a late lunch tray and glucose at a reasonable level, Dennis drifted off into exhaustion and frankly, so did I. At least the surgery should happen tomorrow and the whole parade now knows the route. Still not 100% consensus, still not entirely sure this is the right thing to do, but it's going to be done. Tomorrow.....

08.25.2010 Wednesday Pros and Cons

Rallying the Troups! School is a distant memory. All of my energies, creative and otherwise, are now focused on the ninth floor of BMH. Yesterday's parade of medical staff was increased by our lack of decision making abilities as well as the lack of consensus among the aforementioned staff. What to do....call in more opionions, so that's what we've done. An infection expert, an osteo expert, our own internist and WEBMd. Will all of these experts bring about clarity or just more voices with different messages and expertise? Dennis remains compliant and cooperative. The kids have confronted their own fears of losing a parent and seem dedicated to his welfare and emotional support. I am still engaged in the battle of "save the little piggie or send him to market". The traditional pro/con list yields equally weighted results on either side of the scale. (never a good instrument for me...I can see too many possibilities in any argument...also not handy when cleaning out a closet). Anyway, I am starting to see why I "wasn't ready for school to start". Academics are about the farthest things from my mind. My research is limited to medical websites. I'm thankful for the wireless connection, nonetheless and hope to stay somewhat abreast of my studies when we actually have a direction for theraputic endeavors. All of my professors have been supportive of my absence from their classes and encourage my focus to stay here. It helps to be an adult learner in that regard. I do feel sorry for Kristen because she too has to deal with all of this (though to a lesser degree) but in addition to the rigors of undergrad classes and work. Since I never had an ailing parent (and really still don't) it's hard to know how to help the kids work through this. I didn't think my parents had any flaws well into my 30's. Interesting topic to explore with them when this settles down.

08.24.2010 Tuesday

(taken from paper journal at BMH)
Michael Phelps' illustration of the idea that everyone can be creative (from class yesterday)

If Micheal Phelps was not allowed to swim -- or rather -- not allowed to swim fast and was forced to swim the average of all the speeds of every other swimmer in the pool -- would he still swim? Would he swim "averagely" only for a period of time after which he would become bored or so frustrated that he would no longer swim at all? Is that what happens to creativity of the vast majority of people? Do they become so frustrated that they towel off and leave the pool entirely?

What if creativity were valued in the medical community? What if the only protocol was to make the patient healthy, no matter what the treatment, or insurance coverage, or history of the treatment's success, etc? Would there be fewer unhealthy people because they would seek treatment sooner? Would fewere people fear the system and the ridigity of medicine? Would there be more creative treatments geared toward the individual rather than an average fix for the masses? There are many industries (beside education) where creativity could be utilized to make thing much, much better.

The word "creativity" so often conjures up fear. Creativity necessitates the artsy/fartsy genre, but much creativity is problem solving and that is functional and industrial and mainstream. Why are creatives thought to be outliers when they should really be the norm?

Missed TCOM 601 due to the lack of communication in the medical parallel universe where the patient (and his family) have no schedule, no agenda and no life other than to be available at the medical staff's beck and call. How hard would it be to provide at least a general idea (morning, afternoon, night) of when a physician's call may occur? This may be novel, but wouldn't that ... shouldn't that just be common courtesy? Why do we let "white coats" do this to us?

08.23.2010 Monday

(Taken from paper journal started at Ball Memorial Hospital, room 9014)

•Get a cheap notebook ☺
•Do an entry daily ☺ (good plan but it didn't happen yet!)
•Be reflective ☺

TCOM 601 Should be a great class. With all students eager to share ideas - not just ideas, but great ideas, the synery in the room was almost measureable. The question posed about formal education squashing creativity of our kids was a trick question. As a broad generalization YES the system favors the medium student who can follow rules famously and maybe go a bit beyond -- BUT, there is the exception in formalized education who can recognize potential in students and nurture that spark. Creativity can and does happen in any environment, but it may be easier with encouragement, resources, and mentoring.

Rough start to the school year. Den's hospitalization hopefully will be a fast one, but the fact that he didn't fuss or fight about being admitted indicates the severity of the condition to me. We'll have to see happens. I really wasn't ready for this semester to begin, but I wanted it to be on MY terms not with additional complications of an already complicated life.

The Family Blog becomes an Educational Blog!

The good news is that posts will be daily, the bad news is that if that is too much information you will have too much to sort through! I am in four classes this semester and each one requires a journal, educational journal, creative journal, or Critical Incident Questionnaire, so in the effort to be efficient, I will post my ramblings in one place (rather than repeating them four times) and populate a lonely, forsaken blog simultaneously. Since this is a blog versus e-mail, you are on your own with reading it or not. It is what it is!!

Mackenzie's 5th Birthday

The celebration commenced at Royal Oak on Sunday August 8th. We decided to continue the Redneck Waterpark theme with an actual blow-up waterpark. Kenzer requested a Snow White party so that too was incorporated.