It's early Sunday morning...someone asked how I am doing, so, me first! I got antibiotics immediately and am fine, praise God---could not afford to be sick NOW! Never had such a quick recovery cause I always try to fight it first myself! I've had wonderful support from my kids, from my sister, Juli, from Paula, Benita, Gail, and John's sisters, Ruth and Esther. I did sleep all alone last night and it felt scary so I called first my brother and then my sister and then finally went to sleep around 10 and slept till 3, relieving Ruth and Esther about 4.
Deb asked about Paul. He hasn't been here, just Ruth and Esther came on Friday and they are so glad they did!Sabbath (yesterday) was busy for me...Esther and I got up and relieved Ruth at 4 am. John had wanted someone with him cause some of those nights had been awful for him. Esther kidnapped me about noon, took me for a long walk in the park next to the hospital; enjoyed the ducks in the water, seeing the ice rink, and just being active. Then we went to a nice lunch with Ruth.
Esther has four great kids. David, her oldest, is a Family Practice physician at Loma Linda. He told her yesterday to take care of me....so I reaped the benefit!
Came back to several visitors, most of whom I chatted with briefly and sent away. Even I can no longer deal with them...though I appreciate their interest. But I did have a group of three or four from Rolla that I had planned on and we cozied down in the TV room at the lodge where we drank tea, opened some packages they had brought, they rubbed my feet and I cried...then we laughed! Bev read Psalms 31 with John's name inserted...it was so touching that I insisted we read it to John. He nodded and smiled as she read it.
Another family brought us supper and our kids and I and Ruth all ate together with them. And most important of all, we had a D & M--a deep and meaningful discussion--that was really needed. These girls of ours are so wonderful and their men are top-notch...I am so proud.
I got to bed around 10 and both John's sisters stayed with him till I got back around 4 am. But they have come up with a plan...no more staying all night with John; he may want it but he is well taken care of and to take care of ourselves, we must sleep regular hours. Plus I have to let his caregivers work with him because he will expect me to do too much for him. I keep saying, you can do this for yourself, John (like suction tube, or feeding...simple stuff), and he says I am mean. He will actually perform better for others than for me.
The nurse said he made about 10 ml of urine per hour last night and this has been improving. Perhaps his kidneys are starting to awaken. Right now the biggest problem is getting him to swallow his pills. Most of his meds had gone to PO (by mouth) but last night they started IV amiodorone again--shucks. He's been in A fib again for a while. He is off all IV narcotics.
Physical Therapy worked with him Sabbath and will again today to get him strengthened. So, we are seeing progress, the trend is finally upward, but oh so slowly.
Doctors explained that for an extremely active person to go into ICU like this is very difficult. John cannot detect night and day and has lost all control even of his bodily functions....enough to make anyone crazy! So the hope is that soon he will be able to tolerate normal dialysis and be moved to the Step-down unit again perhaps by tomorrow.
Well, this has turned out to be a long message. But it just kept flowing out of me...thanks for hanging in with us. Your questions are always welcome. Blessings!
Love you all, Becki
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