UM Days 3-4

My last post was written at Tracy's bedside.  Todays catch up blog is again written bedside, but from a hallway.

Well after I wrote last time, I went back to my room and slept for 3 hours or so.  When I woke up my brother was there.  I showered and we went over to see Tracy.

When we got to her room our neighbor, Dante, was there waiting.  Inside her room was the nurse's assistant Kristen, who had bathed Tracy and was exercising Tracy's arms.  Kristen was awesome; she would be with us all day.  Which was fine by me.

We all went down the elevators again to have PET scan.  However it didn’t happen as Tracy had not been off of the feeding tube long enough and anesthesia didn’t want to chance it.  But while we there I had a moment with Tracy, she yawned and opened her eyes and looked at me.  I said “well hello there” and she flashed a wide smile at me.  I told I’m going to give you a hug and when I did she nestled her head next to mine.  That was the highlight of the week other than another one I’ll tell you about later.  We then headed up in the elevator again to her room. 

Once there we left for lunch.  It was nice to sit and talk with Dante and Ron.  I already had quite a bit of wind in my sails, but the helped set the course for the afternoon.

Later that afternoon it was just Tracy and I again.  I just sit and talk, try to comfort her.  Once again she yawned and looked me in the eyes and I said, “there’s my girl” to which she smiled at me again.  I asked her if she knew where we were and she said “yeah, um, um, um, yeah, um nah” and turned her head and went back to sleep.

I left about 8:45PM and went back to my room to eat some left overs that Ron had brought to me from the wonderful people supplying dinner back home.  It is so appreciated, thank you to all of you for signing up on takethemameal.com.  By the way I will be opening the schedule back up, as it appears I will be in Ann Arbor another week.

Needless to say Tuesday was a great day.

I went to bed Tuesday night with great expectations for Wednesday.

Well I woke up Wednesday morning about 6:00 and called to see how Tracy’s night was and they said it went really well.  I told them I didn’t feel well and was going to sleep in and be over around 9:00. 

The phone rang a little after 8:00.  It was the lead Doctor’s assistant; she said that Beaumont would not release some medical slides and that the only way to get them was for me to pick them up.  So I got dressed grabbed a quick bite to eat and I was on the road to Troy by 8:45.  I arrived at Troy Beaumont by 9:45 signed the paperwork and then waited for the slides.  Ron came up and met me with my favorite SoRo Starbucks and a few provisions from home.  Our discharge nurse, Shelly, saw me waiting and was furious that I had pick them up myself and told me that I should have called her and she could have got them.  She has worked so hard for us.   Well hour later I had everything and was headed back to UM.

I got back to the hospital around 11:45, hustled my way up to Tracy’s room with the slides and some extra reports.  When I got there she was gone!   I frantically searched for a nurse; only to find out they had taken her down for a PET scan.  They told me where I needed to be and I went down the elevator I had just come up and Tracy’s prep room I just passed moments earlier.  I got to sit with Tracy for about a half an hour before they took her to another room that I could not go to.  They said the whole procedure would take about hours and a half.  So I figured I had until about 2:30 to see her again.  So I went back to the room and changed clothes and showered.  I got back to the waiting room and the board said that she was still in pre-op.  I asked one of the assistants if there was some kind of problem and she said let me look.  She informed that there was a problem, I held my breath and then she said the board was the problem it had updated!  I started to breath again and said it’s 2:30 they told me she should be through by then.  She just shrugged her shoulders and said I am sorry.  So off to Starbucks I went and ordered my favorite again, only to be disappointed.  Nothing compares to my SoRo Starbucks, nothing! 

Ten minutes later I was back again in the waiting room.  This time the board said she was in recovery.  I was told I would be able to see her once she got to recovery, so I when and asked about seeing her.  The assistant said, “oh you just missed her, they took her sitter back to see her”.  I said what about her husband?  “Oh the sitter can aid the nurses in recovery, you can have a seat over there” she said.   I was furious, but bit my lip.  About 20 minutes later I was able to see my girl in the recovery room for about a minute before I and the sitter, who was suppose to be able to help, were escorted out into the hallway and told they would bring her up to her room right away.

I didn’t realize meant 40 minutes.  So needless to say I was agitated again.  Finally she arrived, but had not had her medications since 10AM and they were due at 2PM and she was starting to get agitated even more.   The nurse said that she couldn’t give them to her until the doctor released them because they may have given them to her downstairs or she may not be able to have them do to the anesthesia. 

The doctor showed up at 5PM thanked me for my trip to Troy and told me she had nothing new to report other than that Tracy had urinary tract infection and that there might be some contamination with her PICC line, but that the antibiotics she would prescribe would take care of them both.  I told her about Tracy not receiving her meds and she said she would let the nurse know it was ok to give them to her.  Well half an hour later I called for the nurse as she had still not administered the meds, only to have a nurses assistant show up and ask me what I wanted.  When I told her that she needed her meds, she told me all the nurses were in a staff meeting.  So I said to please page the doctor.  The doctor was back within 5 minutes and asked what I had wanted and I told her that Tracy still didn’t have her meds and she could see how agitated she was and that I thought she had a fever.  She agreed and went and got the nurse from the meeting and had her administer the meds she needed.  The squeaky wheel was oiled.

The sitter left for lunch while stayed with Tracy.  When she returned I stuck around for another hour or so and then headed back to the room for dinner and sleep.

I don’t remember if I told you or not but it is a nice room, a little pricey for one person but it is very convenient.  I can see Tracy’s room from mine and be there in less than 5 minutes, elevators willing.  It is a two-elevator ride to her room.

Well that gets you through yesterday.  God willing I will get you updated on today as I will have time to blog.  Stay tuned to till the next blog to find out why I have time!

God Bless and Keep the Prayers Going!

Rob

“Don’t Give Up…Don’t Ever Give Up!”

Jimmy V. (probably my 2^nd favorite Coach)