Tuesday evening in the hospital

Dear Friends, Family and Fellow GISTers,

Its about 6:30 and Nan is resting after an interesting day. I am just back from fitting in an appraisal of a property located near the hospital and the owners were gracious enough to see me last minute. We are here in the room as the days light slips behind the coastal range of mountains and night arrives. Nan's phone just rang shattering the quiet of the moment but the sounds of Nan talking with Sharon are even nicer than quiet. Nan can talk and be sort of awake today but really does not want to be awake at all. She would describe it later as being loopy. The Adavan really did a number on her awareness and she has not had any since 4 am this morning.

Our prayers regarding the fluid in the wound are being answered I think. We have been visited first by Dr. Showba (sp), a young oncologist with extensive training and with a huge heart for patients. She was the one that urged us to come and had mom admitted today, she felt that it was time to deal with the fluid instead of put it off for more days with no relief in sight. So a CT scan is going to be done to determine if there is something that is putting out the fluid. As the infectious disease Dr. talked with us we pretty well determined that this is not fluid from a bowel tunneling through because the fluid is clear and does not look like bile which is green. Instead it looks more like pure urine so tests have been conducted to see if it has creatin in it, that would prove it is urine. We also discussed the fact that in January a new stent was put into the right uriter, a stent that is usually plugged and needs replacing about every 3 months. Well it has been 9 months this time and perhaps it is plugged and could be causing this problem. So the urologist is being called in to consider removing the possibly plugged stent and to even consider having the interventional radiologist use a scope and medical super glue to patch the leak in the uriter. So we will see what is proposed in the days ahead. Meanwhile I am not sure what to do myself, do I make appointments to see properties? None of the ones I have left are ones that can be passed to another appraiser, people are getting restless wanting their reports back, hard to know what to do and when to do it. I'm sure others have wrestled with the same kind of issues and there are no easy or nice answers. Boston made it simple, I just got up and went and sat with Nan until bedtime or after. Here life is different and yet has to be dealt with. Many have helped make it easier, Art was there today to meet the appliance repair guy and the washer is fixed for just $160. Seems someone (me) has been loading it much to heavily and a coupler broke between the transmission and the motor. It saved the motor and the transmission in the process by breaking. Now I need to be more careful with it. Art made a deposit for me today that was sorely needed in the bank. Mary called and had made soup for us but only to find out we were not there after all. I have call forwarded the business line to our friend Jean today. She will be helping with doing writeups in the future and is a long time friend.

Pam Whitted is going to make it over if she can but its a very long way to drive and she has not been feeling all that good lately herself. If she comes we will be glad to see her and if she does not we certainly understand why not.

I'm not sure of our duration this time here in the hospital. I think they are going to want to see this fluid flow pretty well stopped before she leaves the hospital. My prayer continues to be that God will plug the leak, either through good medical people or by His own divine intervention. How Nan longs to be up and active again, to be able to go to Apple Hill, CostCo, Olive Garden, Chilis, drive her own car, feel good again and strong, gain weight and prosper.

I'm tired this evening, we were up a couple times during the night and sleep was sort of wispy after the last time around 5. When I climbed out I went very quietly in my new robe Sharon bought and sipped a hot mocha and quickly wrote an appraisal that was due today and emailed it in. Then back up to care for Nan as she was beginning to stir. Changed dressing, helped her dress, loaded the car with everything I could think of we might need, brought this computer and my briefcase with work, my meds, her TPN and an extra one on ice for tonight in case they did not get one prepared here in the hospital. All day they sort of poopooed the idea of using the one I brought but Nan says they may have to since it takes some time to get a bag together and we start the next bag in about an hour. So we will see. After seeing Nan go without any nutrition in Boston for two days because of a TPN bag foulup I take no chances. One of the two picc lines she has is once again plugged up right now so no hydration all afternoon as they wait for the clot cleanser to do its job. My hydration was going in just fine when we arrived. Anyway we do what we have to to take care of this precious lovely woman.

I may blog again tonight since I suddenly have time on my hands. The nurse just came in and found the clogged line is now free. The meds worked on the clot. yea!!

Well I didn't expect to be back here again so soon but we are and we'll make the best of it. Barb Lammerding tells me that Marilyn went crazy with love shopping and has lots of stuff for us which they planned to bring down. Now we are not sure when Nan will be home to enjoy Marilyns kindness.

I plan to head home about 9:30 tonight so I can rest and get an early start. Right now I'm heading to the snack machines to find a drink of something cold and healthy, dial that in, not a coke Gerry Lammerding. Gerry and I like to sip cokes once in awhile!

Donna Want really came to my rescue today. I was not sure how to reach the appliance repair guy who Shawn Want had lined up for our washer, to let him know we were not going to be there, Donna jumped on it, found the repair guy and got him in touch with Art at our house and everything worked out perfectly, Thanks Donna, thanks so much. Friends are precious.

Can I say a word about health in general. As I look around when I am walking or driving it seems everyone else in the world is healthy, happy and without a care in the world, it seems like that when your situation is tough. I want to urge you to thank your Heavenly Father tonight for your health, for your ability to walk, to breath, to laugh and talk, to share secrets, to share love. These basic things are the building blocks of our lives and we pay so little attention to the foundation that all else is built on. We are pretty amazing creatures. I have diabetes, high blood pressure, colesterol issues and a fairly steep level of on going stress lately, for about the last 6 months and yet I sleep pretty well, feel pretty good overall and am still breathing fairly regularily. I ask the Lord daily to keep me from a stroke or heart attack, Nan needs me right now to be there on duty all the time.

Thank you for being our friends, I think Nan will appreciate short phone calls tomorrow during the day on her cell. If she sounds sleeply that is the meds talking.

Seeking your help with prayers,

love

tim and nan