After a very big day Nan is back, resting and hurting!

Dear Friends and Family,

At noon today transport knocked at the door and started the challenging process of moving Nan to Mt Diablo, Concord. I have included photos which sort of tell the story of her move. We arrived there and rolled to the CT scan room for the first procedure, drawing fluid from several points in her belly, then an hour later she was rolled out through the hall to yet another operating room where they removed the existing nephrostomy tube and created a new tunnel and installed a new tube. Each time I waited trying to make the time pass quickly. A kind older nurse came and found me after the second surgery and I was able to see Nan in the hall. The hospital called transport and they were already there, same team as brought her over in the first place. Excellent people, two emts and a registered nurse. Amazingly they were called in from Marin, many miles away but no other units were available. Nan was in terrible pain and told me quietly that she screamed a lot during the process. I told her that was fine, they needed to know how she was feeling. The whole process of being flat on her stomach causes incredible pain plus their poking and prodding.

When she got back to room 111 her temp was 97.5, she was shivering and freezing (I knew a fever was on its way), her heart rate was 151 and her blood pressure was 138 over 30. Nan asked for some quick pain meds and in spite of the low blood pressure they gave it to her. They also gave her two heated blankets, well you know where that would take her, so now the temp is 103 and she just got 650 mg of tylenol. Her feet are hurting terribly at the moment and she is trying to sleep but can only do so for a minute for a minute. She keeps having me gently rub her feet with lotion and now I have a cool cloth on her forehead trying to break the fever down. We took away the heated blanks and have just one blanket over her now. Its a tough evening, these are hard because she is pretty much out of her head with fever and I need to go over to Brentwood to pick up her Rapamune and then come back but I hate to leave her, I don't think Nan is alert enough to push the call button if she gets into trouble right now. So I'll wait until later to go.

When we got back today the TVs were once again working and the cable was restored so while she tries to sleep she has the TV on, sleeps better that way. And now this moment the tray just arrived with dinner but I doubt Nan is ready to try eating at this moment. Just so much pain and suffering.

I have included several photos from today and the beautiful flowers are from Shawn and Donna Want. Shawn helped build our present home in Discovery Bay and the prior one in Tracy and his mom has been a powerful prayer warrior for Nan since the surgery in Boston last June. The flowers and Sees candy were waiting for us when we got back from Concord, lovely arrangement.

Now its 6:50 and latest vitals look better, 100.1 temp, 136/56 blood pressure and 148 heart rate. We have turned in the right direction. She is resting better now with only occassional bouts of pain in her left foot and toe.

I have spoken to Mary late this afternoon and she says she can come to spend some time with Nan in the morning. I am set to see a house in Tracy at 8:30 in the morning, then on to SF and then to San Anselmo before returning to the hospital. These are appointments we put off from today once we knew for sure that the transfer and procedures were going to take place.

We are looking forward to hearing the results of the fluids they drew from the various pools in her body. We hope what happened today will result in rapid healing and a quick release from this lovely place.

Please keep Nan in your prayers this evening, she faces some real challenges in the next couple of days, lots of back pain from the new nephrostomy site, painful feet and a healing tummy from the needle sticks. When she smelled the food that came in she lost it so I had the soup and the rest went back, not very appealing on the best of days.

Now Nan is feeling better, resting more easily and I think she might like to take a phone call or two if you feel so inclined. We are relieved that this day went as well as it did and now we pray with our whole hearts that results will be positive.

Sending love, I may blog more later as the evening progresses.

tim and nan

ps thanks Shawn, Donna and family for the wonderful Sees and the beautiful flowers. Our room smells good, has lovely flowers and is a cheery place.