"Turn Around" continued...

Rich's dr. at Vanderbilt had found that due to the breathing difficulties he has, the body remains tense and that happens throughout the body and pressure builds inside the bladder that will not allow the full release of urine.  The potential for kidney damage becomes more likely the longer that this goes on...and it may have been going on much longer than we even know.  He's had blood in his urine off and on for years and had numerous tests but this finally explains what seems to have been happening.  To make a long story short...they have tried medications, physical therapy, etc. with varying degrees of success.  But finally decided that they could put a pacemaker of sorts in, leads run along the sacral nerve and override the body and allow the bladder to release.  I don't really know exactly how it works...have sort of a rudimentary understanding...but suffice it to say...the decision was made to put it in on the 5th of  March.  It was to be done in two stages.  They implanted the leads through his back and rear with a line that connected it to a control box that he wore on his clothing, sort of like an insulin pump.  If it worked, the surgeon would do the second stage a week later which amounted to implanting a control box.  The good news was that it worked fabulously and Rich had felt more relief than he had felt in a very long time.

The sad part of this whole saga was that the day before he was to have the second stage done he didn't feel well, at all.  He didn't even get dressed or go downstairs at all.  I kept looking for infection but didn't see any and he wasn't running a temp either.  The next morning thought, I knew he was not doing well.  He slept all the way to Nashville, only waking when we hit a bump in the road or made turns.  By the time we got to the hospital and he had been taken back to the pre-op room his temp had begun to rise and his entire left buttock was red and hot.  They called the surgeon in and she believed that they would be taking it all out and cleaning out the wound sites due to infection.  That is exactly what happened.  He was in surgery for about an hour and a half and pull it all.  They cultured the infection and treated him for mrsa, believing that to be the cause.  It was a nasty infection, according to the surgeon and they gave him massive antibiotics and kept him over night.  I stayed with him and they taught me how to clean, pack and dress the wounds.  The next morning we returned to Oak Ridge.  He was really feeling pretty rough but I knew he'd be more comfortable a home.

We stayed home on Wednesday, just trying to help him get comfortable and some rest, but he was really in distress.  The next morning, after a rough night, I called his pulmonologist and asked if we could see him.  He had us come right in.  He took an x-ray, lung functions test, etc. and sent us to the hospital er for a work up and admission.  He had pneumonia and his heart had enlarged.  The dr. Was concerned about the "many moving parts" that needed to be managed in order to care for him and felt it needed to be done in the hospital.  They would need to give him lots if antibiotics and steroids.  The steroids would be a mixed blessing...they would help him with the pneumonia but would raise the blood sugars which would negatively affect wound healing, and they would suppress the immune system and potentially allow the infection to overrun.  In the meantime, the cultures from surgery had come back positive for mrsa.  He spent four days in the hospital.  The care was excellent and I felt especially grateful that he was getting the care he needed.

It has been nearly two months and the wounds have closed more in the last week and a half than they did the entire rest of the time.  The drs. believe that he is finally over the infection enough that the body can actually work on the wounds now.  I'm hoping that they'll be closed by the time I have my surgery, or Rich will be bringing alcohol, gauze, scissors and tape twice a day to my room.  Lol

Good news continues to abound on this front as Dr. DiMeo wanted him to see his cardiologist as he was concerned that the infection had harmed the heart and that we might be facing congestive heart failure.  We met with the cardiologist last week and he believes that the pleural effusion that Rich has is residual from the infection and pneumonia, rather than from the heart.  The heart has actually decreased in size since the hospital visit and he has dropped 13 # as well.  He believes that if it were the heart he would have gained weight instead if losing, and the heart wouldn't have decreased in size.  However, he is running the tests tomorrow just to be sure that all is well.   I'm extremely grateful for the continued evidence of the Lord's hand in our lives.  It seems that there have been miracles all along the way...I guess "seems" isn't really accurate...we've seen the miracles over and over.  It has been a long haul but Rich is beginning to gain some strength and stamina back and I'm beginning to him have enough energy to do a few things...he haswatched lots of tv and slept and slept and slept...but I suppose that is to be expected.

"Turn Around, Turn Around"

Time seems to have flown by and nearly every day I vow that I am going to do better about recording our lives...and that seems to be the extent of my efforts...a vow.

Our year started off without much fanfare.  We had Joey and Carlie and their family, and Phil and Hannah and their family visit for Christmas.  It was so much fun for me.  I'm so grateful that they were able to come.  Joey and Carlie have received orders and will be relocating to Monterey, CA in June.  The time that they have been this close has been so wonderful.  I will really miss them as I know that other than Levi's birthday, we probably won't have much opportunity to get together as a family.  The extended family is getting bigger by the month and we are so far flung around the country that the expense and time are beginning to take a toll.

Joey had to get back to work so they left the Monday following Christmas and Phil  and Hannah left a few days later so that they could stop over at Joey's for New Years.  The house got very quiet, very quickly.  I remember a talk that President Packer gave many years ago about the most wonderful site in the world...the headlight of your kids coming to visit...and their taillights when they leave.  I laughed then and I laugh now because it is so true.  We just LOVE having the kids come and HATE having them leave but also realize that we have really gotten used to quiet. Lol. I so wish that we could all live within a 1/2 hour drive from each other and could see one another regularly.  But, I guess we have done pretty well at getting together these past few years...just hard to think of that coming to an end.

For my birthday Rich gave me an iPad and I have loved it!  I thought I would and I have not been disappointed.  I think I've turned on the computer only a couple of times since getting it.  Perhaps now that I am attempting to use it for the blog and it seems to be working, I'll post more often...at least I hope so.

In November I saw Dr. May about my knees.  She referred me to an orthopedic doctor that she has confidence in and in January I had my first appointment with him.  He x-rayed them and told me that I was a candidate for total knee replacements.  I talked to him about doing them bilaterally but he said he no longer does them that way.  He prefers to "stage" them, saying that in his experience if there are going to be complications it is always in the bilateral.  Unfortunately complications are a real possibility and so we set my surgery for May 14th and the second will be done six weeks later.  He gave me a packet of information and a list of things that need to be done prior to the surgery and I have been working to get those done.  For example: allergy testing for metals and cements used commonly in the procedures...I learned that I am allergic to nickel...but I had already suspected that.  I have been to the dentist, had my teeth cleaned and I'm good for the next six months.  He gave me exercises to do twice a day to strengthen the muscles that will be affected as a result of the surgery and I have been doing them as well as meeting with my trainer 3-4 times a week.  I need to donate my blood in case they need it during the surgery.  I have made alcohol/water ice packs, and will be ordering an icing machine, loose fitting clothes, shoes, shower stool, and toilet risers in the next few days.  All in all I think I'm getting prepared...just wish I didn't need to have it done.

Joey and Carlie and kids came back down the end of January for a weekend.  Again, it was so lovely to have them and I'm really feeling the pains of them moving.

February was spent just doing the normal activities of life and was also the first year that I didn't have dad to call for his birthday.  It was a bitter-sweet day.  Felicia and Tom purchased some flowers to put on his grave and headed to the cemetery.  They called me several times, asking if I could give them directions for his grave.  I was rather baffled by this as I knew Felicia knew where it was.  It wasn't until I read their blog that I understood why they had such difficulty locating it...the entire cemetery was under at least a foot of snow!  Poor Tom cleaned off many plots in order to find Dad's!  They sent me some pictures and somehow I'll try to post them.  I was very glad they were able to go to the cemetery and felt especially grateful that they were able to commemorate his birthday...even though it was their effort, I felt a little bit a part of it.  It is hard for me to realize how much time has passed and I'm grateful that he is with Mom but sad at how much he had to endure.

On March 5th Rich had a surgical procedure done at Vanderbilt in Nashville that was to help him with a bladder problem that has been giving him difficulty for a few years.  His dr there had run all kinds of tests to discover what was happening.  She believes that his breathing difficulties keep all muscles and