So Far, So Good!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Hope it's been a good one for you.  As the post title says, so far, so good with my hubby!  We've found a solution that has worked the past few mornings for his nausea in the mornings. You'll never believe this, but it's chicken broth with saltine crackers!  And he has his cereal and milk for lunch.  Isn't that a scream?  He did vomit a little last night, but nothing like he used to. So that means that his stomach is NOT retaining its contents and the intestines are finally doing their job.  Thank the Heavens above!!  All those LONG days in the hospital are finally paying off.  That and the Jackson-Pratt drain he has connected has made a big improvement, since the hematoma inside the intestine has a someplace to drain instead of inside his stomach and creating another bowel obstruction, because the fluid can't go past the hematoma.  I sure do hope that sucker is getting smaller by now.  We'll know more when he has the CT scan on Wednesday.

Frankie has been so incredibly tired and sleepy lately. He hasn't even fought me for the computer or to drive the car!  He says he will drive again when his drain is out.  He hates going out in public with that thing hanging down and I don't blame him. I wouldn't want to go out with a bulb containing bodily fluid dangling down either!!!  I think he is so tired because he didn't sleep very well in the hospital and now is "pay-back time" AND because he is anemic.  I brought that up with his primary care doctor and he said he would leave that issue up to his oncologist, which we see on Monday.  Doctors! They are so darned specialized now they have you going here and there for different things.  So I will bring it up with the oncologist, then, on Monday.  We've started him (and me) out on Super Complex vitamin B and sublingual vitamin B supplements to build immunity and energy.  It's too soon to tell, but I think I'm starting to feel a tiny bit energetic.  Not too much, yet, though.....I don't feel like climbing up to the roof of the house or anything..geez, doesn't that make a hysterical image in your mind???  Hehehe!

I've been hanging in there.  Now that things are starting to level out for Frankie, it's all starting to hit me now.  All the long days in the hospital with him, doing errands, lugging my walker in and out of the trunk and all the long nights without Frankie and all the worry.....it's all catching up with me and putting me into quite a flare.  My back has been just horrible.  And to make matters worse, I can't use my TENS too much on it because my sweat mixes with the conductive gel I use and has created an itchy rash on my whole backside!  I've been just clawing at my self and I can't help it, it itches so bad!  So I've been using this expensive cream my dear sister gave me and that helps the itch and brings it down to a dull roar.  So how I'm working the TENS is by placing the electrodes high up on my back where there is NO rash and it's been working OK.

My legs have been pretty bad, too.  They feel like Jell-o when I stand and are weak and painful with cramps.  I've upped my Magnesium supplement with some relief.  I also use my "Myoflex" cream on it and that really helps.  But with all the driving I've been doing, it's no wonder my right leg (the one I work the accelerator with) is more sore than the left.  Stop lights are the killers for me, especially those that seem to be painted red.  My leg will cramp up if the light is too long, so I have to rub out the cramp with my hand until the light turns green.  I tell ya, it sucks to be me sometimes!!!

I don't know if I mentioned this previously-and if I have-please forgive me! We'll blame it on "fibro fog."  I signed up for the August 24th seminar for the lap-band procedure.  My hubby is far along in his recovery that we can move ahead and I am sooooo ready!  I'm so tired of laying on my back all the time.  I'm hoping that just the fact of losing a lot of weight will help my back so much it won't need surgery!  Wouldn't that be nice?  I really don't want surgery on my back, but I'll do it if I must just to get back to work and my life again.  After the seminar, I'll make an appointment with the bariatric surgeon and go from there.  Please pray my insurance will cover this.  I hope, I hope, I hope!!!!

Well, that's the news from our neck of the woods. Hope your neck of the woods is doing OK, too.  Thank you for everything...for your thoughts, prayers, well wishes, comments.....your friendship and reading my blog!!  I appreciate it ALL!!

God bless ya,
Until next post,
Missy

Code BROWN

Aye-yi-ya!!!!!!!  That about sums it up!  The man who always is constipated up to his eyeballs and requires enough stool softeners to choke a horse (seriously, before the surgery, he used to take eight (8) stool softeners a day and he STILL would require something more like Miralax to get things going!) has opened up the "colonic" flood gates and we had quite the mess this morning. I don't need to get graphic, nor do I want to re-live the experience again.  You get the picture.  I think one of the antibiotics Frankie received in the hospital has given him diarrhea.  He's gone twice yesterday and once so far this morning.  This morning was the worst.  The poor guy had to completely strip and hop into the shower, abdominal drain and all, to clean up.  My mother-in-law is so nice, she helped me clean up the mess in the bathroom. She mopped the floor and is now in the process of washing clothes.  We leave pretty soon to go to the doctor and I'm a tad worried about what to do if he has to "go" in the car.  I'm taking plenty of towels and padding him down!  Unless anyone else has an idea in the next hour or so!!  I've already given him 2 anti-diarrheal pills.  I hope I don't, in the long run, end up constipating him again.  I'll drive down that road later, though.

We finally got the blood pressure problem licked, I think. I've been taking it every four hours and he's had a good reading ever since he came home from the hospital.  And NO temperature.  Poor guy, he probably feels like he's back in the hospital with me hovering like a helicopter over him!  I can't help being a mother hen, though.  And a nurse mother hen at that!!!

Other than what I've described above, we've have a good first night home.  I was nervous all night and didn't sleep a lot, and I kept making sure Frankie was still breathing (that nurse in me, again!) so today I'm paying the price for not sleeping.  I can't wear my TENS yet until I get new electrodes, so after we leave the doctor appointment, we'll stop off and get some at Active Forever.  This morning I was sooooo stiff, I had to sit at the side of the bed for 45 minutes to "loosen" up enough to go to the bathroom, and then Frankie had his diarrhea episode then so I couldn't use our bathroom anyway!  I had to use my in-laws.  Thank goodness for two bathrooms!  My right leg is getting worse with the numbness, pins and needles and pain.  I don't think my medication regime is working anymore, so we'll have to "tweak" it when I see my doctor again.  I don't know what more we can do, but there has to be something!!

As soon as I get "humpty dumpty" Frankie put back together again and STAYS  put back together, then I'm going to go to the lap-band seminar required by the bariatric doctor.  I can't even see him until I attend the seminar first.  So I'd love to get that going, but I want to make sure Frankie is OK first as I can't go through two big things at once right now.  I'm so run down from him being in the hospital for so long and this whole ordeal.  Frankie and I have started on B vitamins to help with energy.  I wish I could strap a motor on my back or something to help me get going...wouldn't that be nice?  I just want to get the lap band procedure done and over with and start losing weight.  I'll bet I'll feel tons (excuse the pun!) better and maybe won't even need surgery.  I hope so!  And I can get back to work again and my husband and I can rent an apartment and be out on our own again.  That's my game plan, anyway.  I hope it works out like that.  So far I haven't had a good track record with things working out with plan A.  It's always plan B or C I have to rely on!  Then again, sometimes plan B or C is the better plan anyway. :0)

Alrighty, gotta run (again, excuse the pun....me, run?! That's NOT a pretty sight!) and get ready to take Frankie to his appointment.  Hope you all are happy and as pain free as you can get.

Thank you so much for all your love and support, everyone.  I've gained a lot through my blog sessions; I hope you have as well.

God bless!
Missy

Home On The Range...Again

Howdy, everyone!

Ever have one of those days that just stretch into infinity? It goes on and on and on and on and it's like a merry-go-round that you can't ever get off of.  Or you are on a bus or subway and say, "this is my stop" and the driver ignores you and zips right past where you want to get off?  That's how I feel today...and the day has barely begun.

I woke up to Jack meowing his head off (which he has a really sharp meow when he wants something and it goes straight through my head!) and my right leg just absolutely killing me.  I went to walk on it and almost fell. It alternates from pain to numbness within seconds and I really don't know what is worse! With the numbness, then comes that "pins and needles" sensation.  I'm using my last two electrodes for my TENS machine (I lost a perfectly good pair as they fell in the toilet yesterday at the hospital!), and they are the really small ones that don't work too well.  I can get more tomorrow as its payday for my hubby.  Thank goodness!  I'll run over to my favorite PT store...Active Forever.  Here's my lil' sales pitch...they really do have all kinds of neat stuff.  Check out their website: www.activeforever.com.  Whatever your poison, they are sure to have it.  TENS, pain gels, ice packs, walkers, ect.  At the store here in Phoenix, I'm on first name basis with the cashier and she knows all about my hubby and me and we know about her, too.  They are so friendly there.

Anyway, back to my morning.  I hobbled to the bathroom, then took care of Jack (he wanted food...what else! I'm just a walking bag of Meow Mix) and then hobbled to the computer room.  I took my pills and then my husband called with the latest news: his electrolytes went wonky in the middle of the night.  They had to give him magnesium and potassium and I guess his heart rhythm was very irregular (he has chronic A-Fib).  While they were giving him the medications, his IV came out of the vein and they had a lot of problems restarting it.  His veins, I think, are really tired of being poked at so they run and hide when they see the needle coming.  Frankie had everyone try it out...and finally one of the charge nurses could get it.  But, this morning, the IV came out AGAIN and needed to be restarted.  Then he tells me that his hemoglobin is 8.2, lower than what it was yesterday!
It just seems like everywhere I turn, there is another problem I can't fix.  I just want my husband back to how he was BEFORE the stupid surgery!!! Or send me off to some tropical island where I can be totally FREE...to have a tsunami come my way, knowing my luck!!
Going back to my analogy above, I wanna tell the bus driver "THIS IS MY STOP. IF YOU DON'T STOP, I WILL HAVE TO DO SOMETHING DRASTIC!!" Like eat a whole cheesecake or go out and shop until I drop. Everything thing I shouldn't do, I want to do!!  Okay, deep breath here, calm down......I do feel better getting it out into the open, though. I'm just one very frustrated, exhausted, mystified & depressed wife.  I feel for poor Frankie, having gone through what he has gone through this past month.  He REALLY has been such a good sport.

I was on the computer checking my email when my husband called me again and said the magic words...."I'm coming home today!"  I was like.....hold the phone....total shock. How can he come home with a hemoglobin of 8.2?  How's his BP or temp? Will he crash again when we get him home and have that really low blood pressure or high temp?  We can't take him home yet!  My mother-in-law and I trooped down to the hospital and discussed the situation with his nurse for the day.  She said the doctor was satisfied that he was ready to come home and that they don't transfuse until UNDER 8.0.  The nurse said his pressures and temps are normal and he will be on one antibiotic and one antifungal (his last CT scan showed a portion of inflamed bowel) medication that should cover a broad range of "bugs."  He should be OK is what she said.  Well, everything made sense and Frankie does have a doctor appointment a day now...tomorrow he sees his pain specialist, on Wednesday his primary care doctor, on Thursday his surgeon and the following Monday his oncologist/hemotologist.  So he and I will be one busy couple, shooting all over Phoenix and Scottsdale!

So Frankie is home now, again, and resting. His vitals are good (Thank God!), we are pushing fluids on him, and he will start his antibiotics with dinner.  He still has the JP drain and will have home health come out and check it, but the nurse today gave me a handful of saline flushes and a specimen cup to empty the drain fluids in it.  So I'm all set to take care of that drain!  Our biggest goal will be to keep him home longer than two days....can we do it? I sure hope so!

I think I will go and join my husband on the bed and take a much needed nap. I am just exhausted, all my energy stores are tapped out. My in-laws are going to Costco to get some B complex vitamins for us to help with our energy and to help build Frankie back up...we hope.  We're also going to pump him full of protein rich foods and see if that helps.  If you or anyone you know has had anemia and has a suggestion, please float it my way. I'm open to any and all suggestions.  And I've been meaning to add that if you have a blog you'd like see listed in my "Cool Blog" section, please tell me your URL and I'd be happy to add it.

Hope this note finds you happy and well.
Until next post,
Missy