09.03.2010 Friday Wiring and Winding Down

Dennis is home and settling in to a routine. The electrician was able to come this morning to review all that needs to be electrified. He was surprised that we have another structure to illuminate. He came about 10:00am and then left to get an assistant and supplies. Jane called to let us know that Dorothy had taken a "turn for the worse" and also to let us know that they would be heading to Wisconsin to assist with childcare after the birth of their second grandchild in the north. Kristen and Kelly would like to visit with Dorothy. Dennis did not know whether to risk the nursing home germs or if his mother had a need to be in his presence at last time. We all decided to drive in caravan to Avilla since Kelly's children have expressed some curiosity about which great grandma this is and what exactly she is doing. Kelly is at a loss as to an age appropriate explanation so she hopes that the visual will suffice.

The electricians have returned and are hard at work to extend the trench we dug and make the wiring a reality. It turned out to be quite a hot afternoon and I have been kept busy keeping them hydrated. Kelly and Family have decided to leave at about 4:00pm (with Dennis) for the Sacred Heart facility so that they can "visit" and then return to Muncie at a decent hour. Kristen, Holly and I will travel north after the wiring is complete. This plan works until about 8:30pm when the wiring still is not complete and I don't know what is best. To leave nearly complete strangers with the run of our house or to be up all night on the highway. Dorothy won't know what time we are there and the nursing home has no visiting hours. Finally Kristen forces the decision by becoming intolerant of any further delay. The electricians overhear our discussion and share that they, too, lost loved ones to alzheimer's and that they will lock up when they are finished. We pay their bill and head out. The Gnaps plus Dennis are on their way back to Muncie. Dennis is not effected but Kelly is deeply upset with seeing her grandmother so close to death. They warn us what to expect which helps. We three have a nice drive and chat the entire time. Seeing Dorothy is quite a shocking experience. We really haven't seen her since Mother's Day when she was in great physical shape, and not unpleasant. She just peppered us with the same questions. Kristen, like her sister, was too upset to speak and cried continuously the entire hour we were there. Holly had a vested interest the nursing care and since she wasn't very close to Dorothy, this clinical curiosity helped her through the evening. The ride home was more therapeutic than fun, but we made good time and were home by about 1:00am. The electricians finished about midnight and even moved the studio items back into the quilt cottage because they were afraid of rain in the morning. What great people!! A long hard day, but we all fell into beds, glad that it is over!

09.02.2010 Thursday Saying Good-bye to the Laptops

Got through the first night with no incidents. Glucose numbers were good. I spent the entire day cooking no carb foods and counting out meals for him that were satisfying and not hard on his glucose. A long day. I don't know how I'm going to do all of this.

Went to campus armed with both of my non-working laptops hopeful that the Tech Time gurus can fix them and get me back into the student role. After about 3 hours of tinkerings, the verdict came that the Dell has a dead motherboard. They were able to transfer my files from the hard drive to a portable hard drive I had taken with me. That's good. The netbook also is d.o.a. It is so full of cookies that the teeny little harddrive is too full for the processor to boot. No boot...no way to clean out the cookies. Bummer!

Missed the first football game. Could hear the excitement from the patio. I felt badly that Kristen didn't have anyone to go with. Dennis and Lucky (the kitten formerly known as TJ) have made very good friends. He loves it tht Lucky and Chewy frolic all over the house.

09.01.2010 Wednesday Busted Outta' BMH!

Hurry up, hurry up ..... wait, wait, wait! Again, no one seems to know who's got the final word. Dennis had his clothes on early this morning. He's ready to be gone. He's tired of a hospital bed and the interrupted sleep and hospital meals and being in the same room all the time. This is all good because he now has the motivation to not come back. I spent the afternoon cleaning out all the nooks and crannies where Dennis has stashed "goodies...in case he goes low (hypoglycemic)" Yeah right! He had alot of things that hidden that aren't necessary and even though it kills me to throw away foodstuffs but I had to do it ...for the good of Dennis and his foot.

My early prediction needing a pickup truck to drag all of the stuff home turned out to be true. I did drive the truck because I thought it would be easier for him to get into and have more room for his tootsie....and it did, in fact, take the entire bed of the truck to bring home all of the medical supplies, etc. The transfer from hospital to home was smooth for him and a ton of work for me. I took over as pharmacist, nurse, laboratory, dietician, endocinologist, wound specialist, press corp, cook, and adult day care! Den started his new life with his own room and new bed and private space to rest and heal.

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.