fatcook

My Husband is doing much better. He can walk, sort of, with a lot of assistance. I keep bugging him to go see the torturers but he wants to wait until he’s out of pain. Which I think is dumb, because he needs the help now. I’m concerned that he is not going to get full use of the leg back if he doesn’t see the PT’s soon.

He’s down to 228 pounds, which is almost where the BMI says he should be for his height. We are going to have to go on a major shopping spree when he is able; everything is too big, including his shoes! A fact I find very funny.

 My MiL thinks he is way too thin and keeps trying to get him to eat more so “he doesn’t fade away”. She’s still having issues with the whole sodium/liquid thing.  As consequence of that My Husband is sick to death of salads. He’s getting them at two of three meals every day. And he is even sicker of oil and vinegar dressing. I’ve been making low sodium dressings for him but they don’t last very long.

I’m doing better personally; I’ve finally figured out the right timing for my drugs and now getting about 6-7 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night. That is helping a lot. I have also discovered that I like what the Zoloft does for and to me. I’m not crying at odd moments or at no reason. I can actually think, instead of this over whelming blackness that was covering my mind.  I like this me. The Zoloft is also helping in other ways: things that use to drive me nuts don’t bother me anywhere as much. I can also let things go much easier, the things that use to eat away at my brain and keep me up at night, running around in circles through my mind, don’t anymore. I think they are still there, because my shoulders are still tight and I find that I’m gritting my teeth but not to the point of pain any more. I’m hoping that the drugs will help me to learn the difference between things that I need to be concerned about and the things that I should let go without the glands getting involved.

Since I’m not so desperately tired, I’ve been cleaning, a lot. I’ve also rediscovered some old friends. I’ve read all theVorkosigan books and am currently working my way through all the Discworld books. We have all but two; this should keep me in books for at least a month if I’m careful and only read one per day. Much to my annoyance I seem to be missing the third Ozark book. I know I have, I just can’t find it.

He got out of the hospital last night!!!

I can't take him home though. He still can't walk on his leg, it won't take his weight. So, he gets to spend the next 4 to 9 weeks at my in-laws. They have a single story house and one of the bathrooms has a walk in shower. These are very important things.

The hematoma is 4x4x7 inches and has started to release the blood. He has what looks like a bruise that is tapered in shape. It's currently about 9 inches at its widest point and about 12 inches long. According to the doctors its going to get worse but it really is a good thing.

The wheelchair that our friend lent us is too small but very light weight. The chair that the insurance has provided is the perfect size but is heavier than sin. I'm going really get some muscles getting this thing in and out of the car.

I went to bed last night at 8:30 and slept until I woke up, which was 9am. Best night sleep I've had in a month or more. If you want to see My Husband's version of the past  4 weeks go here. Please forgive the grammer and spelling, he's still on morphine.

 

Good news:

We now have 2 wheelchairs! One is a loan from a friend who needs it back by September (I really hope we don’t need it that long!), the other is from the insurance (100 % covered, yay!) and is ours as long as we need it. A girlfriend is getting her dad’s old walker (he was 6’6) for him to use. Another friend has lent us one of his spare seat cushions, “he’ll need it, the only way a chair is comfortable is with a cushion or if they graft the damn chair to your butt.” It’s a very nice cushion, with honeycomb weight distribution and micro pressure points. His white cell count is down 1400. He’s off the liquid morphine and on MS Contin every 6 hours with Percocet as needed.

We’ll see what the CT scan show tomorrow but he might get to leave the hospital this weekend! I have told him if he ends up in ER again in the next 30 days, there’s going to be a homicide.

He was admitted back to the hospital yesterday. He had been having problems with his right leg. At first is was just tight but by friday morning he couldn't straighten it , it would't support his weight and in massive pain. He saw our GP friday and was sent for x-rays and a CT scan. Which he got, don't know the results yet. They he went to get is first protime (3.9, so for right now he's off the lovenox and warifin). Then he went to his mom's (she'd been driving him around because I had to go work) and things got worse. We had to call EMS because he couldn't walk or crawl. He has no feeling from the hip to the ankle and no control. The foot resposnds but the leg doesn't. We spent about 7 hours in ER while they figured out what was going on.
The short list of what might be wrong (in no special order): A stroke in the leg, an abcess in the Sosa(sp?) mucsle, a blood clot in the leg or a muscle strain (yeah,right). Things that have been ruled out: slipped disk, viral infection in the quadrecipes and cracked hip bone. He's had an MRI, 3 x-rays, a CT scan and an ultrasound. All while in the ER. He also got something for the pain. Our GP gave him extra streinght vicoden but it did nothing. So in the ER they gave him Dilation(sp?)

I have to go they are paging me.

He’s home!!!

I got to take him home late Tuesday night. I spent most of yesterday getting drugs ($200 for 12 scrips. THANK YOU insurance!), getting fruits and veggies he can eat (blood thinners and sodium restrictions) and trying to get some sleep. Oh, and 2 low sodium cookbooks. The sodium restriction (2 grams per day) looks like it will be less of a hassle than the liquid restriction (a 1500cc per day? In Phoenix? In the summer?) He’s on restricted light duty for the next 6 months but his boss and his team is so thrilled to have him coming back they will make it work ( his boss called 3 times to ask him questions and his lead twice.)

Oh and he’s lost 30 pounds, over and above the water weight. He’s down to 239 and none of his clothes fit. He borrowed my leather belt to keep his pants up because his are too big.

I’m so happy right now I could cry.

I'm going to have to re-learn how to cook. When My Husband comes home (soon,oh please make is soon!) he's going to be on a 2000 mg sodium per day diet. That's not a of sodium, especially when you start adding up some of the things he likes to eat the most. *sigh*

He's lost another 2 liters, making it a total of 13. not counting what he got rid of in the ER. That's a lot of fluid. His heart has responded really well to the drugs. He got more tests tomorrow, I'm going to go into work of half a day and try to get my desk into some kind of order. I just stopped and ran on Thursday. Sleeping in sounds really nice though. I'm so very tired.

I've discovered I should try and doing things when I'm this tired, I did some laundry, I washed a pen, some money, an inhaler and his car keys with the alarm pod.  I'm not sure it still works, I'm drying it out the best I can but I won't know until later if it works. Oh,well, the keys still work.

I hope this post makes sense, the spell checker just told me I mispelled "with".

 

I’m incredibly worried about My Husband. I know that the doctor said he would just have to ride it out and he would get better but…

 He stayed home from work on Friday, didn’t go out all weekend, stayed home yesterday and again today. The last time he was out of work for 3 days or more is when they cut his chest open. He also isn’t eating and that is really worrying me. He has turned down Welsh rarebit, tater-tots with brown gravy, hot and sour soup and last night it Matzo ball soup! He didn’t turn that down when he was on IV’s and morphine!

I’m worried enough to give myself a migraine yesterday. That, at least I could sleep off, thanks to good drugs. Nothing really seems to be him though, heck, the cough syrup isn’t working and it’s got codeine!

I’ll post a recipe tomorrow.