Thursday evening, doing better

Dear Friends and Family,

We are winding down this evening after a busy day. During this day Nan has walked down the hall successfully with minimal pain. After discovering a slight infection in her left nephrostomy insertion point yesterday the wound nurse was called. She came today but was unwilling to apply the new perkustay since she had never seen it before. After some consideration Anita, our beloved picc line lady was called and they applied the perkustay together. Anita also did a rotorutter in her picc line attempting to clear it. While Anita was working suddenly Teri, our beloved home health nurse appeared in the door. We had wanted them both to meet and here they were finally meeting. As it turns out they may be able to do business in the future with Teri assisting with picc line work on days Anita is off. I have included a photo of these two marvelous health givers that have helped us so much.

This afternoon after Nan was back in the bed after being in her chair for 3 hours and asleep I left for a job in Benicia. That went smoothly, a little condo with a view and marvelous sounds of the freeway. I battled traffic back to the hospital and got to talk to both Nikki and STeve on the way.

When I got back dinner was delivered and Nan began to eat. The soup was decent along with the veges and iced tea. I found a sandwich and cottage cheese at the cafe and then we enjoyed eating together. Nan is able to eat without nausea, yet they battle at keeping her fully hydrated since so much fluid passes out the colostomy bag, sometimes 1,000 ml in about an hour. That is hard to keep up with intake wise. At this point no one has had any discussions of when Nan will be released but I sense we are closer to that point than a week ago. It will be interesting to know what we do with a tpn supply at home for an entire week that has not been touched!

We got sad news today regarding our dear Uncle Jim. He has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and our hearts and prayers go to this dear man. He is married to Aunt Ann and they live in Oklahoma.

Today they have been giving Nan a huge dosage of albumin, I suppose that means something showed low in the blood work. We are not always told the plan in spite of our being very involved in the process. One of the oncology team is a new doctor unfamilar with Nans case except for what she reads in the case file, that has caused us some unneccessary problems at times.

So now we live and wait until people in charge decide that it is safe and prudent for Nan to be able to come home. We are patient and just want what is best for her. Our care level today has been great and we are getting used to our little isolation room.

So this evening we seek God's healing, His guidance and His blessings. We thank each of you for your outpouring of support and prayers over the past few days.

love

tim and nan