Little by Little

Don't think I posted that G lost his voice.

It happened the Thursday when his
INR went to 10 (that is the test for how thin your blood is). It should be 2-3 for him,
being on blood thinners. I don't know what normal is without blood thinners. I guess
around 1.

Anyway, that caused him to have internal bruising, and sure blood was just seeping out
wherever there was a scratch. Since G had been intubated 2 times in a week, during
his surgeries, am sure his vocal chords had some damage, and got worse when the
blood went thin.

So he is very hard to hear at the moment. His son was to come visit this weekend, but
we have postponed it until G can talk.

At least G is getting better, little by little. He felt weak after dialysis yesterday, but
they took off a lot of fluid, to help with the fluid overload.

About 1 :00 AM this morning
he wanted to get up, which I helped him to do, but then he said he could get himself
back to bed. Which he did. So, he is once again becoming independent.

Thank goodness!

I know lots of sleep, and eating healthy foods will help him to heal.

Oh, the other funny thing, his blood pressure has not been high! I think after they cleared
out the carotid artery, his blood pressure dropped. Would make sense, the blood
can now go through a place it had to squeeze through before.

So we have to monitor his blood pressure closely, to make sure it doesn't go too LOW.

Just glad to have him home and feeling better.

Update on G

G is doing better today. I was really worried last evening because he was still
nauseous, even after receiving medicine for same.

This morning he managed to eat a bowl of cereal, and at noon some mashed potatoes and
a cookie, then he took a nap this afternoon.

I can tell he is feeling better, cracking jokes, wanting to talk, so that makes me feel
better.

His pulse was really high this morning, 132, when his is normally around 60, so they
were doing an EKG just a few moments ago when I spoke with him on the phone.

Will head back to the hospital in a little while.

Update on G

For all of you going "enough already, what's up with G?"

Oh, too much to even tell.

Here's the short version. I have made an appointment with the
best surgeon in town to do the special surgery G needs. He will have surgery to allow for peritoneal dialysis, which is done by yourself, at home. But, you need a catheter placed in your stomach area, and then you put in fluids, leave them for some time, and take them out.

They say it mimics the kidneys the best.

But G tried to have the surgery done for this in March 2010, but he had too
much scar tissue in his abdomen from previous exploratory surgery.
However, apparently one can go in from the side, around the organs, to
insert the catheter. It is much more complicated, and a real surgery, not
just outpatient.

The horrible VA surgeon claimed he could do this surgery, so
we couldn't get a referral from the VA, so G will have to pay for the
surgery himself. But, hopefully the surgery will be successful,
and G has Medicare part A, so he will just have to pay for the
surgeon and the anesthesiologist.

But, the first consult appointment I could get is Sept. 1.

That's OK. G really needs to have a sleep study done first, which I just
got scheduled for this Sat. G says he can't sleep on his back, and when he
is in ICU he must, so it's a big problem. G went for 3 days without really sleeping after that last botched surgery, and he was in bad shape. Of course that was
when he lost all that blood and they didn't give him a transfusion.

G's dialysis catheter is running OK, so I think it will work for another month, fingers crossed. He was also told by the dialysis center that another catheter
could be placed in that same site, if this one fails....but as G said "they probably are just saying that to keep me happy"....

Now that my brother is no longer here (may he rest in peace), the house is quiet, G and I can enjoy time together, and needless to say, the stress level is much lower.

Stress is a horrible thing.

Sleep is good.

Think I will take a nap.