Month: October 2009

That was his goal on the board in his room Thursday night. Kevin has 2-3 superficial (meaning none life threatening) blood clots in his arm where they had put the blood pressure cuff one day, and his heart rate is still a little higher than they like it to stay long term, but he's getting stronger by the day, and Friday about noon he made his escape, and is now on the regular medical hospital floor. He's in room 400 for anyone who wants to visit him, but I warn you he's pretty tired, so don't wear him out too much.  He'd love visitors.  Just remember, if you have any cold or flu symptoms they need to be gone without medicines to stop them for 48 hours before visiting, and…

My hubby is amazing!  He's weaned off the oxygen, went on two walks today, and made several other strides that help him feel like a normal healthy human being again.  Maybe just a few more days in the ICU, then hopefully just a few more on regular hospital care.

Surgery #4 went well.  They were able to close up his abdomen, and things are looking good there.  They were able to wean him of the sedation and let him wake up giving him power to breath on his own.  It took about an hour of me helping him slowly wake up, we didn't want him to wake up too fast or else he could have gone into shock again.  He's now able to have ice chips, and is enjoying that.  He's doing a lot better emotionally, lastnight was a pretty scary night for me.  He's alert, but can't speak very well yet, but he's patient and resting. I can't beleive it's been a week. The scariest, fastest, and slowest week of my life, all rolled into one.  There's a…

Kevin had surgery #3 tonight, it went well, it was just to check on things and to irrigate the cloudy stuff that had gathered.  We hoped they could go ahead and sew his belly together, but he's still too swollen, so PLEASE pray that his swelling will continue to decrease, and they can seal him up with his next surgery.  The gap gets smaller with each time, so here's hoping... He's doing nicely, as well as can be expected for all he's been through. I was going to stay the night with him, but realized it wouldn't make much difference to him, but it would make a difference for me to sleep at home and be with our kids in the morning.  Plus I know he's in excellent hands, I…

Thank you everyone for your responses and well thoughts, they're appreciated SO much. Kevin came out of surgery this afternoon about 4:40 (went in about 2:30), they've been able to reattach his bowels, and then they left him open with a wound vac because he's still really swollen and because they want to go back to check out that the bowel is attached well and healing.  He's very heavily sedated, but is still trying to wake up and remove his ventilator again. I'll try to answer questions as I can, but I'm kinda swamped, and overwhelmed.  Feel free to ask again, or email me.

Kevin is in the ICU.  Short version- ruptured intestine (Crohns related), sepsis infection, kidney failure, BP 55/22, emergency surgery 1:40 AM Saturday morning, ICU, ventilator, sedated, wound vac (meaning they didn't close him up), I stepped out to get some rest, Kevin pulls out ventilator, because Kevin can (almost) breath by himself they let the sedation wear off, Kevin wakes up, labored talking for about 3 minutes, BiPap (aka respirator), now Kevin can't talk, but is wondering what on earth is going on.  Kevin still desperately needs his rest to keep his vitals OK so he can continue to heal and fight the infection, but he needs to know what on earth is happening (wouldn't anybody?) bad games of sherades... Going into another surgery tomorrow (Monday) afternoon, looks like it's…

Last Friday Kevin had a day off, so we decided to get away one last time before life changes, and we're on our own again. Thursday night we went to Salt Lake and checked in at the Plaza at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  We got a room on the North West side, and this was our view from our window.  I thought the room was a little pink and outdated, but comfortable and we had a mini fridge and microwave. This view was significant to me because my grandparents lived in the building straight ahead on the left, or straight west from the conference center, for 21 years.  My other grandparents served a mission here, and lived in a condo in one of the slanted high rises, best…