Course Change!

Just when we were getting comfortable with Woody's new medical "routine," there is a change in plans.  Just when we thought that all that we had to do medically tomorrow was an antibiotic infusion, there comes a call and that has changed.  Just when we thought that we were through with Vanderbilt for several weeks, a call comes to say we have to go back...as in go back in the morning!

While I was at the church library working, Woody received two phone calls.  I left him with the phone next to him with instructions to be sure to get all info needed...as I was expecting at least a change in scheduling of the antibiotic, if not a change of antibiotic.  The first thing that he said when I came in was that we were going back to Vanderbilt in the morning!  I was hoping that he was kidding, but...no!  The infectious disease clinic called and said that the doctor wanted to change antibiotics as the vancomycin was starting to cause his creatinine level to rise more than they wanted it to.  The new antibiotic is administered differently so I have to go find out how to do it.  Plus they will give his first dose there and then observe him for a little while to make sure that he doesn't have a reaction to it.  One good thing?  We don't have to leave as early as we did on Tuesday.  Our car should know the way.  Woody and I drove to Vanderbilt Tuesday.  Nathan took Graham in our car to Vanderbilt yesterday for a procedure.  And, here Woody and I are heading back tomorrow.  Three trips to and from Vandy in one week...oh, boy!  Guess there is good in the fact that Woody and I "only" have to make two of those trips and that Nathan and Graham "only" had to make one!

Shortly after the infectious disease clinic called, Woody got a call from the company who is handling his infusions.  They called to tell him not to take the vancomycin infusion tomorrow since the doctors  were going to change his med.  At least everyone seems to be on top of things in informing us about changes.

So it's "on the road again," tomorrow.  New antibiotic tomorrow.  Learn new way to administer the antibiotic tomorrow.  I guess this is just part of the adventure that our lives seem to be on here of late...just a little change in the course that we have been on.  But I have pretty much decided that there is no reason to plan anything routine around here...something is sure to step in and take us out of routine.  Such is life!

Day After Vandy Appointments

For me, at least, it has been a typical day-after Vandy.  I had school in the morning with the children and then pretty much the rest of the day didn't accomplish a lot.  I just don't have the energy to do much.  I did manage a good nap this afternoon!  Woody seems to go along as usual no matter what he has done the day before.

Today the home health nurse came to do the weekly blood draw. (Will he have any blood left?!?). Yesterday both the infectious disease and melanoma docs did blood work...so two blood draws and then another today.  Many of the "things" checked were the same.  We still haven't heard what the next plan for his antibiotics will be.  Yesterday we received one more infusion pump ball to get him through till the doc decides what she wants to do next after all the blood draws.  I figure we will hear tomorrow...if not we have the med at least for Friday's infusion.  They have been very good at keeping up with orders so I am sure that they will be again.  They overnight the meds to us.  We had a box on the front porch when we got home yesterday with just Friday's dose in it.  We have plenty of the infusion pump balls left, but they are only good for a week...so today was the last day we are supposed to use the ones we received last week.  The reason we have them left over is that they changed plans mid-week to have him take them every other day.

Woody Got His Exercise In Today!

We awoke to no snow...virtually dry roads.  So it was smooth sailing all the way to Vanderbilt. New left the house at 6:15am and pulled back into our driveway at 3:30pm.  So another long day, but it pretty much went like clockwork.  We arrived even before the office opened.  It sounds like Woody was assigned the doctor who had been at Vanderbilt in the infectious diseases the longest.  She was very nice and explained things very well.  She is changing the strength of his antibiotics depending on lab results today.  When Wes got home we had one dose of his infusion antibiotics to get him through till the doctor gives the latest.  She might even change the antibiotic.  She lessened another antibiotic and told him to take it every other day.  They are watching his kidney function and liver panels deciding on how much, what kind, and when he is to take them.  He will continue to take two antibiotics even after the 42 days.  One, Ciprofoxacin, he will probably take for a longer period of time and then she will put him on another antibiotic that he isn't presently on and he will be on that for the rest of his life.  The fact that the bacteria are in the bone, there isn't a good way to tell if the infection is totally gone...plus even though it might be gone at a point, there is a likelihood that it might return.  She was pleased with the way his leg looked on the outside.  She said that there was no sign of infection and that the incision was healing very well.  We go back to see her in three weeks.

As soon as we finished in the infectious disease clinic, we headed over to the main part of Vanderbilt to the radiology department.  He was in and out very quickly...CTs without contrast are quite fast.  Then we headed to the cancer clinic for his labs.  We were ahead of schedule for both of these appointments.  After his labs, we headed to the waiting room to see Dr. Wyman.  We knew that even though we were early, it wouldn't make any difference as he doesn't see patients till after lunch.  So we had quite a wait to get into his exam room, but once there he came in quickly.  I will say that we don't have the results of the CT scan.  Dr. Wyman is supposed to call us with the results.  I am also watching the "My Health at Vanderbilt" for Woody's results...all results from both doctor visits are posted, but the scan still isn't.  So we will wait and see...but we expect a good report.  Woody told Dr. Wyman that he thought that he would know if there was a problem and Drl Wyman agreed.

Woody got his exercise today by walking all over the halls of Vanderbilt...travelled the really long one twice.  We were in a new, for us, building for the infectious diseases...then had to walk over to the hospital area from across the street...then to the other end of that long building to get to the Cancer Clinic.  So he got his walking in today.  He did very well.  He said that his arm hurt from pushing the walker more than his leg did from all the walking.

He headed off a little while ago to go to the prayer room.  He hasn't felt well enough nor could he get around well enough to go to the prayer room in a while.  So it is another good sign of his improving health and recovery after the surgery.

I came home and made us a big pot of Chicken Noodle Soup.  Tasted really good on this really cold day.  And, I guess, if the predictions are correct, it is supposed to get even colder over the next couple of days.  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Oops!

I just realized that I forgot to blog last night.  I guess I was wrapped up in watching what the weather was going to do.  I woke up a few minutes ago...I guess to look out the window to see what it was doing and thought about the blog.  I still don't know if we will be going to Vanderbilt for Woody's four appointments today.  The weather is still iffy, but at this point the snow hasn't happened...hoping that roads will be clear enough that we can go on and make the trip as it would be good to get these appointments out of the way and not have to reschedule.  If we have to reschedule, I'm sure that we won't get them all on the same day so that would turn into two trips. We'd like to make as few trips as possible to Vanderbilt.  I guess the decision about whether we go will be made when we wake up in a few hours.  Now I'm going back to sleep.  I'll report tonight whether we go or not!

Saturday

I started off my part of the day getting ready to go to the grocery store.  Normally we go on Friday, but since I went off with friends yesterday, I put my part of the shopping off till today.  Woody did make a quick trip in and out of Aldis yesterday.  I went to Walmart and Kroger today.  I left Woody at home to take out his infusion medicine two hours prior to his infusion.  I was home and had the groceries out away before it was time for his antibiotic infusion.  He will skip his infusion tomorrow...another respite day with no nurses, no PT, and no infusions.  All that will start up again on Monday...with PT and an infusion.  Then Tuesday...no infusion...but should be gone most of the day for four appointments at Vanderbilt.  I say should be gone because there is a forecast of snow during the night Monday night into Tuesday morning.  We will have to be up dark and early in order to get to his first appointment which is a little after 8am.  I hope that roads are such that we can go and get all those appointments behind him.  Tuesday is also his six-month check with his Melanoma doctor.  He is scheduled to see the doctor and have a CT scan and labs.  The early appointment is with the infectious disease clinic...his three-week after he was dismissed from the hospital appointment to see them.  He has to go back to see the infectious disease folk in three weeks after this week, also. I think at that point if all is going well, he will be finished with the antibiotic infusions and also the two oral antibiotics. That day he will also see Dr. Holt and have X-rays done of his leg.  Just one appointment after another every time we turn around!

Flew the Coop!

We both flew the coop this morning.  Woody headed off to run errands with his friend who doesn't have any transportation.  I headed off with friends to have lunch and poke around in several stores.  It was good for both of us to get out of the house.  It was especially nice not to have to have any thoughts about health care...no nurses...no PT...no antibiotic infusion.

My friends and I went to a near-by town to a restaurant that we had gone to breakfast the last time we got together.  When we were on our way out after breakfast that day, we happened to see a hamburger being served that looked delicious and we said that we needed to go back and try their hamburger sometime.  Well, today was that day...and, it was worth going back for...just a good old-fashioned hamburger...and the fries were yummy aka hot and crispy, too!  One of our stops took us to an antique "store." I don't know if where you live you have stores like this, but around here there are quite a few of them.  Stores that folk "rent" areas of the store and set up their wares...antiques or craft items and sell them...in what I will call "booths."  We have a friend who sells in this particular place and we wanted to see what she had in her booths.  In the end, I think that I was the only one to purchase something there, and I just happened upon a Christmas ornament of our church.  It was numbered 30/100.  I had never seen this ornament before and have no idea when it came out or where it was originally sold.  But I know that it can't be any older than when we had a fountain put in the green area across from our church building that is part of our church campus, as this ornament shows the fountain.  Anyway, I have a new ornament for our Christmas tree!  I have an ornament of the church where I grew up in AZ and now I will have one of our church that I have gone to since we were married. (Woody can add a year to that since he moved here after graduation from college.). Anyway, we had a good time today eating, shopping, and mainly just a good time being together!

Free As A Bird?

Well, Woody feels like he may feel free as a bird tomorrow.  He has no home health nurse coming.  He has not PT person coming tomorrow.  And, this afternoon, he got word that he doesn't have an antibiotic infusion tomorrow.  He was told that he was to just have the infusions every other day until they tell him otherwise after the next blood draw next week.  So he can spread his wings and fly—well as far as he can go with his walker!  But at least tomorrow can be a day for him to choose what he wants to do and when he wants to do it...nothing scheduled for him!

This every other day will work out well for us.  As it means that he doesn't have an infusion on Sunday (hard for us to get the med out of the fridge 2 hours prior to infusion on Sunday) and also won't have one on Tuesday, which is the day we spend a good part of the day at Vanderbilt.  I had been dreading trying to figure out how we would get an infusion in amongst all the appointments that actually were happening at his usual infusion time.  Not having one on Tuesday is definitely going to help!  It looks like things continue to work out the best for Woody!

It frees me up too so I am going to spread my wings and fly off with friends to have lunch.

Woody has another freedom today.  His PT person brought little ski-like attachments to put on the non-wheel legs of his walker.  Finally he can just glide his walker along when he is walking.  He can walk almost normally with the walker now.  And, I am freed up from hearing the awful sound it was making on the kitchen floor!

This afternoon after Woody's infusion, I headed off to work in the church library.  We changed our work day to Thursday.  We have done it on Wednesday for so many years, that a change of day may take some getting used to!  I probably will think that tomorrow is Thursday!  We got quite a lot done on getting underway with the first steps of processing a new book order.  And, got at least one book ready to check out.  One of our blog readers has been waiting a long time for it to be ready!  (Bill C., it is waiting for you on the check-out counter next to the computer.)

More Good News and More RAIN!!!

This picture was taken yesterday between 1 and 2 pm...a beautiful blue sky with puffy white clouds and if you note in the bottom right corner the golfers were out enjoying a pretty nice day even though it was breezy.  I guess that wind blew in what we have had today!  Today between 1 and 2 pm it was pouring!  And, it has pretty much rained continually since. We have had so much rain this month, that even large old trees are uprooting.  A tree in our next door neighbors front yard (not Nathan and Karhy's) fell with a huge crash Sunday morning while we were getting ready for church. It fell across our road so we had to go out the other end of our street to get to church.  It had been removed from the street by the time we came home.  It was a huge old oak (like the ones we have in our front yard.  Oaks unfortunately get really big...but their root system doesn't go very deep...so extremely wet conditions, wind, heavy snow or ice can take them down.

I had an abbreviated day of school.  Joseph had his preschool time and the rest read.  But this week we aren't having "Grammy long time" with any of the children since we have had so many appointments both with home health and away from the house this week. Woody's home health nurse came early today so she could do the blood draw and change the dressing on the picc line.  I was then able to start his antibiotic infusion 30-minutes early so it would be finished in time for him to head off to for his appointment.  This appointment was with the folk who give him his anemia shot and check to see if he is doing okay with his B-12, red blood count, etc. They are the ones who decide
each time that he goes to see them, if he needs to go to the local hospital for a blood transfusion.
And, this time it was good news.  He didn't need one.  Woody told me before he went that he didn't think that he would need a transfusion this time as he wasn't feeling as tired.  Looks like he was right!

Celebrating Being 5 and Good News!

Look who is now five!  Joseph came over to our house to celebrate with family gifts and then later celebrated with some of his friends.  I think that he has had a pretty special day!

Our day was a bit confusing.  It started out with an early PT appointment for Woody.  While he was having PT and while I waited for Isaac to come over to read, I put in a call to the infusion company.  We needed to know how much of the antibiotic to give Woody today.  He had been only having a half-hour infusion for the last three days...but we weren't told what to do starting today.  I ended up having to call them again when they didn't return my call.  The second time they connected me with a pharmacist.  She said to go back to an hour infusion.  We needed to start 30 minutes early because I had to leave for my hair appointment before 1pm...so had to get him disconnected before I left.  Right after I got his infusion going, Joseph and his family came over for him to open family presents.  Woody had planned to join us in the living room, but just as they started coming in the house, I got a call from the home health nurse and she was on the way...we weren't expecting her till tomorrow.  I guess she had been asked to come a day early so they could decide how much antibiotic to give him.  But...she has to do a blood draw 30 minutes before he has his infusion...well, we had no idea so the infusion was already started.  She did stop by, but she had it cleared to come back tomorrow.  She is supposed to be here early so we can get the infusion going in time for him to leave for a 1:15pm appointment here in town.  I had given both the nurses and the PT folk our doctor appointments for this week.  But I guess only Wednesday registered with the nurse.

So in the end we brought all Joseph's gifts into the family room so Woody didn't have to move.  I got off on time for my haircut and Woody got off in time for his appointment with the nephrologist.

The appointment with the nephrologist is where the "good news" comes in.  The nephrologist is very pleased with the direction Woody's kidneys are taking...their percentage of function has continued to rise...a very good thing.  Dr. O. thinks that there is a good possibility that Woody had an infection in his kidneys that went undetected and that was bringing his kidney function down.  Since Woody is on these three strong antibiotics, Dr. O. thinks that one, two or all of them have worked on that infection and that is the reason that his kidney function percentage is rising!  Whatever the reason it was good news to hear!

I will end with wishing a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our sweet JoJo!

Typical Vandy Appointment Day—Looooooooooong!

An especially typical day at Vandy when one has a late in the day appointment!  We left home at 1pm and didn't pull back into the driveway till about 7:30pm.  He was supposed to be there by 3:10pm for a 3:30 appointment.  We were there at 2:40pm.  We were told that she was behind in her appointments...again, not unusual when it is on into the afternoon. He was called back right on time—3:30...and, taken back to an area where they do the casting and obviously removal of stitches.  But the stitches couldn't be taken out till the doctor checked his incision.  Dr. Holt's resident doctor checked on Woody and then we continued to wait and wait.  Finally Dr. Holt checked and found all to be okay.  She spent less than 10 minutes with him, but left giving instructions for the stitches to be removed.  He was to take out every other one and then remove the others if it was holding together.  All were removed.  He now has a compression stocking.  All looks quite good and everyone seemed to be happy with the way it is healing.  He doesn't have to go back to see her for a month.  Luckily we were able to make the appointment on the day that he has to back to see the infectious disease people for the second time.  He got an early morning appointment this time so hopefully we will be finished before it is time for his other appointment!  We were finally leaving the orthopedic area a little before 6pm.  There was next to no one left in the ortho clinic area...only the tech who removed Woody's stitches.  He still had cleaning up to do!  So it was a long day.  Good to be home again.  Next week will come all to soon when we head back for four appointments at Vandy.  Guess we will put that out of our mind for the time being!

Woody feels freer now that the stitches are out.  He has been released to be able to drive...which makes him feel even freer! I managed to finish a book while we waited.

Rain! Rain! Rain! And, More Rain!

As tonight's blog title indicates...we have had a lot of rain today.  It started raining in the wee hours of the morning and continued to rain steadily and sometimes heavily till late afternoon.  And, then a while ago it started up again.  Though, at the moment I'm not hearing rain, but the wind may be picking up.  We have a cold front, an arctic cold front approaching.  At the moment we are close to 60 degrees but as the evening advances there is supposed to be a drastic drop in temperatures.

Georgia is pretty much an outdoor cat these days.  She only comes in to see us once in a while.  She came in a while ago and we plan to let her sleep in her room tonight and tomorrow night...while
temperatures are supposed to be so low.  She is curled up next to me at the moment...at least she isn't trying to help me type the blog!

We have had the company of Elijah, Isaac, and Joseph for most of the day today.  Their mom and the teens and preteen went to a church youth conference.  And, their dad went to prison!  This was one of the days that Nathan was scheduled to do prison ministry in Kentucky. Nathan left in the wee hours of the morning and got home around 4:30pm...at least they let him out!  This was the first time for Nathan to do ministry at this prison.  It was Kentucky State Penetrntiary which is a maximum and superman security prison.  It is in Eddyville, KY.  It is called "The Castle on the Cumberland River."  Nathan said that it was quite an imposing sight driving to it.  Nathan usually does ministry with inmates and their children, but today he said that very few had been allowed the privilege of having family members there.  I'm just glad he is safely home after being in a maximum security prison and having to drive through bad rain.  He did say that not long after getting back into TN that the rain stopped.  He was glad that he had gotten to leave a bit early as they were predicting that things were going to start getting icy midafternoon.

The children had a good time.  They played on their "screens" some, but they also had fun playing with other things and kept each other entertained all the time they were here.  I stewed a chicken, deboned it and made chicken stock...and I even got a nap in!

Woody continues on the road to recovery.  He is doing more...like washing a few dishes and putting away some of the dishes in the dishwasher.  He's doing his exercises and trying to keep his leg elevated some during the day.  Today he had a 30 minute infusion of his vancomycin antibiotic after a two day respite.  He will only have a 30 minute infusion Sunday and Monday, too.  Then I guess they will give us further instructions.  Monday he goes back to see Dr. Holt for his post op visit.  I imagine that he will get his stitches out that day. I'm sure that's not something that he is looking forward to!

More Celebrating!

Today we celebrated Kathy's birthday with a yummy brownie swirl cheesecake made by Abigail.  We have definitely done our share of celebrating this month and we aren't done yet!  Somebody turns five next week!

Woody had another day off from his infusions.  He will start up again tomorrow, but will only have a 30 minute infusion.  He is to get just 30 minutes of antibiotic for the next three days and then I guess they will tell us what to do next!  

I did our grocery shopping this morning and also made a stop to buy a birthday present for the 5-year-old celebration next week.  I had a couple of very helpful helpers come over just as I got home so I had help bringing the groceries into the house.  After lunch the neighbors (Nathan, Kathy, and the neighbor grandchildren) came over to share Kathy's birthday cheesecake. This afternoon I made chicken noodle soup...one of Woody's favorites so far during his present recovery time.  I have been trying to catch up on vacuuming as my vacuum has been out of commission.  The part I needed came in the mail so it is back to working once again...as long as I plug it in and push it around the rooms!  

Woody is doing very well in his recovery.  He continues to do his PT exercises and is moving around more easily.

Partial Respite

Tonight's photo is of the elastomeric pump that contains Woody's vancomycin antibiotic.  It's a pretty nifty invention...an easy way to administer IV fluids in the home.  This is a picture of the larger pump that we had been using—the one that is a 90 minute infusion.  We had been stopping it at 72 minutes since a call from the infusion folk called last week and said that lab reports indicated that he needed to be taking less. Vancomycin is hard on the kidneys so they are monitoring closely.  We got a new shipment of these pumps on Tuesday and they are smaller and now contain an infusion that lasts 60 minutes.  I was ready to give him one of the shorter infusions today, when we got a call from the infusion folk telling me that labs showed high and to withhold the infusion for today.  They will get back to me prior to tomorrow's infusion time to let me know if he will have an infusion or not.  So at least for today we have a respite from the infusion.

Woody had PT today and continues to perform above the curve of where he should be at this point in his recovery.  He is working hard to get back full use of his leg.  Isaac was here when the PT person was here and we went down to put the vancomycin back in the fridge after the phone call.  Isaac got to try a couple of the exercises that Woody is doing.

Just had my personal shoppers deliver some groceries!  Nathan and Kathy were at Aldis and tested me to ask if there was anything that we wanted.  Woody had added some Aldis items to our grocery list so I gladly texted the three things we wanted from there.  One less stop for me tomorrow!  And, we get to enjoy grapes tonight and Woody can have blueberries on his oatmeal in the morning!

So respite from IV antibiotic, but continuing to work hard with PT...summary of Woody's day!

Woody Told Me To!

Okay...will try again.  I wanted to post tonight's photos at the bottom as some may not want to look.  And when I added them after I wrote the whole blog everything disappeared!  So...if at first I don't succeed, I will try, try again!

Woody's nurse was a bit late today so that got things off at a slow rate and then when she tried to do the blood draw through the picc line it wouldn't work...it had before, but not today.  So she had to stick him...so a longer process.  Which put us a bit farther behind.  She wasn't finished till a little after 1pm and I didn't get the infusion going till almost 1:15pm...for his noon infusion.  But we got it done.  I had also planned to post a picture tonight of the neat infusion pumps that the IV antibiotic is in...but putting that at the top may have caused the problem...who knows.  Nothing has gone smoothly today!  Well, school went pretty well, except I had to interrupt readers to do this or that with Woody's medications, etc.

We did find out today that the nurse will only be coming on Wednesdays, thirty minutes prior to his infusion.  I asked her if she would come a bit early next Wednesday because Woody has an appointment in Tullahoma a little after 1pm.  Hopefully it will go more smoothly next week.  At least she will be prepared if his picc line still won't allow her to draw blood from it.  The picc line is working fine for the antibiotic and saline to go into it...thank goodness!

Sorry about the picture...I don't think that the incision looks all that great this week.  I guess I didn't look very closely last week.  I'm not much at looking at such things...but Woody wanted it posted so...here it is for those who can stand to look at such things.  I know that my nurse friends will be interested!

Are We Having Fun Yet?!?

I think that maybe this mocking bird is mocking us for our lack of having fun!!  We have had another busy day. I had school this morning.  Esther had her long time and tried out her new set of water color pencils.  As soon as her time was up, I headed downstairs to get Woody's antibiotic infusion going.  The folk who are in charge of getting the supplies and IV antibiotics to us had another shipment arrive today.  This time the "medicine balls" are smaller and it says on the package that they take about 60 min...shorter than the 72min. infusions that I have been giving him.  We have one ore of the larger infusion balls that we will use tomorrow and then go to these smaller ones.  As soon as the infusion was finished and I had him unhooked, etc., I headed out the door to go to his nephrologist's office to deliver all the lab reports from his time in the hospital.

I have done a couple more loads of wash today and made a rice dish that Woody likes that we had for supper along with a hamburger. I just ate a hamburger steak, but Woody wanted a hamburger such as he could have it = on pita bread with onion and red leaf lettuce!  He said it tasted good...of course he hadn't had a hamburger in ages.  I got the new box of medical supplies all sorted out...those for the home health nurses and those that we use.  A nurse will be here tomorrow to change the dressing on his picc line and draw blood before his infusion. She has to do the blood draw 30 min. prior to his infusion...wonder if she will be on time.  I'm guessing she will be.  Time will tell!

Monday Routine

The children and I got back into routine with school here at Grammy's.  We had a good morning.  While Joy was having her long time (She painted.), home health physical therapy came.  He said that Woody was doing great and that he was ahead of schedule.  Woody has had a slight set back as he pulled/stretched a ligament near his knee over the weekend.  At first he thought that he had done it with an exercise, but then when he did it again last night he realized what had happened.  When he lies down on the couch, he lifts the hobbled leg with his other leg...and it slipped off when he was lifting it.  When it happened again last night, he realized when he had done it.  The physical therapy
person said that it would just take a bit for it to heal.  Woody can continue with his exercises, but not do ones that bother his knee.

We did go to Sunday School yesterday and that worked very well.  I dropped him off close to the door that leads to his classroom, helped him in by opening doors and carrying his Bible, etc. and then reversed the procedure when I picked him up.  Tonight he has gone to the Monday night Furnace Room Prayer meeting.  Kathy took him.  I'm sure that it was good for him to get out and change his surroundings for at least a little while.  This afternoon our pastor stopped by to check on him.  We thought that the home health nurse was going to come today to change the surgical dressing, but she didn't ever come.  It is hard on me to not know when PT, nurses are going to come.  I spent a lot of time yesterday afternoon getting Woody's lab reports printed to take to Woody's Tullahoma nephrologist and then didn't ever got a chance to take them because I kept waiting for the nurse to come.  I will take them tomorrow no matter what.  No health personnel has told us that they will be here tomorrow. The antibiotic infusions seem to be going well.  We have established a routine around
getting the infusion going at noon.  Now next week may get harder to keep to that routine since he has three days with doctor appointments that we may need to be traveling before the infusion is finished...going to check to see if we can start then a little earlier on those days.  The hardest one will be the following week, when he has an appointment scheduled at noon...he has appointments from 8ish that day on into the early afternoon...four total appointments which include seeing the infectious disease doctors, a CT scan for his six month melanoma screening, labs for melanoma screening, and sees his melanoma doctor.  I appreciate that the infectious disease folk attached them to a day we were already going to Vandy, but I'm not sure exactly how it will all work out and for me to be able to give an infusion away from home!  I'm sure things will work out...one way or another!

This afternoon I have continued to try to do some things around the house.  I did manage to get the Precious Moments Nativity boxed up and put in the upstairs hallway ready to be put away.  I plan to have the children put the Fisher Price nativity into their boxes and up in the hallway too.  Then I have
some Christmas ornaments and decorations that were gifts at Christmas that I need to box I and put away too.  Thank goodness I didn't have a lot of Christmas to put away this year!  I'm also working on catching up with the laundry.  As soon as I publish this I will go down and get one load out of the drier and get another load washing.  I made another pot of soup today...this time just for me...potato soup...I have some for now and froze some for later.   I did have to stop between tasks this
afternoon and have a little afternoon siesta.  I did feel better after a short rest.

Low-Key Day

For a change not much happened today.  It has been pretty quiet all day long...no comings or goings.  Woody continued his healing and rehabbing/exercising.  I did make another kind of soup so we would have a choice.  I did a little washing and a little cleaning.  And, I did a lot of napping!  Just about every time I sat down today I dozed off.  I think that my adrenalin rush stopped!  And, of course, we did another antibiotic infusion.  The TV has been off and on.  Woody did his usual two crossword puzzles.  He is now coming upstairs to print them off himself.  He still sits and goes up the stairs that way and then uses the rolling office chair to propel himself around upstairs. Tomorrow we plan to go just to Sunday School.  He has his lesson all planned for his 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade boys.

Changes!

Changes keep happening.  We got Woody's antibiotic infusion underway a little after noon and not too long after that, we got a call from the people handling the infusions saying that the doctor wanted to cut back on the amount of this type of antibiotic that Woody was grtting. A test result from Wednesday's labs showed that amount need to be lessened.  I told her that his infusion had already started.  She asked if by any chance we knew exactly when the infusion started.  AND, I was able to tell her that we could because I had started the timer when the infusion started.  I have been doing that so Woody can check to see how far into the 90 minutes he was and also so we could tell when the medicine was supposed to be gone.  So she adjusted the time to a total of 72 minutes instead of the 90.  I will do that with the rest of the infusion "balls" that we have and then they will adjust the next ones they send accordingly.  I was so glad that we had decided to use the timer!  So that is one change that happened today.

A little later in the afternoon, a home health nurse came to check on Woody and to change the surgical dressing for the first time.  His incision looked remarkably good.  She got it all cleaned up and applied new dressing and rewrapped his leg.  She is going to come back for the next change too.  That may be a job that I get out of thanks to home health!  You won't hear me complaining!  The nurse counted 27 stitches plus one part of it is stitched together with what she called "running stitches." She said that that section is just a continuous thread looping the wound shut.  So looks like he is well stitched up.  I kept wondering if he got stitched up by two different med students each practicing a different method of doing stitches.  Just a funny thought that ran through my head...I'm sure there's were reasons for the two types!

I spent the morning making chicken noodle soup.  We both enjoyed it for lunch and will enjoy several more meals from that particular cooking effort.  It did taste good on this cold day.  This afternoon while waiting for the nurse to come, I put together a little inside herb garden with grow light that I got for Christmas.  Maybe we will have fresh Herb's growing right in our kitchen before too long!  Interesting concept...no messy dirt.

Woody has made more progress today.  He came upstairs for the first time.  He comes up and down the stairs sitting.  He uses the rolling office chair to get and upstairs.  He started doing the exercises that the PT guy left on our computer.  Last night, I printed off the ones Woody is supposed to work on.  Tonight he said that he wanted to fix his own salad for supper...I didn't argue!  So he is doing more and more each day and getting around a bit more easily.  At this point I would say that he is progressing nicely with his recovery from surgery.  His pain is at a minimum.  He does know when he is walking on that leg and when he moves certain ways, but when sitting still he has no pain.  He hasn't taken anything for pain except Tyelenol for days now.

That about summarizes our third full day home from the hospital.  I still can't establish a routine!

King for a Day!

It has been another busy day and at this point in the day I'm not sure exactly what we've done!

The important part of the day is that it's Isaac's seventh birthday.  He arrived at our door quite early this morning all dressed up in his early birthday present, a king's costume.  He was checking to see when Goosey's physical therapy person was coming!  At that point we hadn't heard.  They decided to come over here as soon as Abigail got home from Montessori (a little after 11am).  We decided that was a good time as it was before Goosey's (Woody's) antibiotic infusion. So presents and cake and ice cream BEFORE lunch!  We had it our house so Woody wouldn't have to walk over to their house!  As you can see from the second photo, he joined us in the living room for the party.

Woody is dong really great.  He is already walking with his foot flat and trying to walk more and more.  The physical therapy guy was impressed with progress made since he got home from the hospital.  He left Woody with lots of exercises.  He downloaded them to our laptop and in a little while I plan to print some of the exercises off that have to do with exercising the ankles, knees, and hips.  He will stop in periodically to check on Woody.  I don't think that he set up an actual date to come back.  I went to the grocery store while he was here with Woody so I'm not totally in the know about this home health visit!

I have been cooking since I got home from the grocery store.  I made our supper and got a chicken stewing on top of the stove.  Then made chicken broth and cut up the pieces of chicken to be used in chicken soup.  I needed the chicken broth for two soups that I plan to make tomorrow and wanted to get it cooked today so it can chill in the refrigerator overnight.  I came up to blog while it while the broth was simmering so I could blog and rest my back.  I had no intention to rest my eyes but I seemed to have no control over my eyes shutting!  Then when I woke up everything was messed up with the blog...maybe I it some buttons in my sleep?!?  So I left the blog alone and went downstairs to get the broth ready to strain and then came back up to figure this out!  Now to go back downstairs and get the broth strained and ready to go in the fridge and finish cleaning up the mess!

Busy, busy day!  Happy birthday, Isaac!!

Out of Routine!

Maybe one of my favorite barn pictures will make things seem more normal!  Hare to come back to reality after spending five days in the hospital...especially since reality is so out of the norm!

We got a call from Woody's home health nurse fairly early this morning.  She was setting up the time to come.  She has to draw blood once a week one half hour prior to his antibiotic infusion and today needed to get some paper work done prior to doing that.  She arrived a little after 11am and was her for more than two-and-a-half hours.  Loooooooong time!  She did help/watch me do Woody's first home infusion of antibiotics...not a hard task at all.  And, she asked tons and tons of questions.  We were rather ready for lunch by the time she left!  She or another nurse will come on Friday and change the surgical dressing on his leg.  I'm glad to have someone else do that first dressing change!  I keep trying to convince folk that I am not a nurse, but Woody keeps coming up with situations that put me into nursing-type situations!  I'm ready for him to discontinue such situations!  Tomorrow Woody's physical therapist will come.

I did talk to Woody's nephrologist's nurse today and got the green light for him to eat protein!  And, he won't be going to his lab appointment tomorrow.  I will turn in lab work from Woody's multiple labs during the hospital stay.  They were happy to hear that his kidney function level had risen to 25% on his last labs from Vanderbilt.

Woody is being watched closely on his kidney function during these antibiotic infusions.  He is getting three pretty high powered antibiotics.  Hopefully the antibiotics can kick the infection out and not mess with his kidneys too badly!

I ran to the parmacy after they opened this morning.  And, I'm still trying to find time to unpack and do a few things around the house.  A lot of getting back into routine just couldn't happen today because of all that was going on.  I gave Woody something to eat after the nurse left and I made myself a grilled sandwich.  I went upstairs after eating and sat down in my chair and didn't wake up till a coule of hours later...must have slept pretty hard as when I woke up I was disoriented and thought that it was morning...but then I realized that I was hearing Nathan and Woody talking and I couldn't figure out why Nathan was over so early!!  I went to sleep when it was still daylight and woke up in the dark.  Guess I'm tired!  Wonder why!

I fixed our supper...Woody wanted some pork so fixed a couple of loin pork chops.  He said that supper tasted good.

As soon as I blog I'm going to take my iPad down to Woody to let him check on a few things.  I don't think that he is much interested in coming upstairs quite yet!

Guess the Smoke Signals Worked!

BUT all signals worked VERY slooooooooow!  It took forever for the first person to show up who would have anything to do with Woody's discharge.  Finally things started to come together and we started seeing people we needed to see.  Late morning, we finally were told that once a few things were done then he would be discharged...likely story...or...that should be unlikely story!  We told them that our ride was an hour-and-a-half away and she started looking through and told us to have come at 2pm.  In the meantime we met with someone who got us all squared away with the infusion antibiotic, explained things, showed us, and then had me show her that I could do it.  Which I did since it is very similar to the time he came home from NIH with a Hickman line and I had to keep it open till Woody's next appointment in Bethesda, MD.  Guess it is a little like riding a bike!  Plus they have very good illustrated instructions that I will be referring to when I am doing it.  It was decided that he would have one last infusion of that antibiotic before we left to go home (takes about 1-1/2 hours).  Discharge people came in and gave us instructions.  The pharmacy brought us a big bag of meds which we sent more than half back. We got two prescriptions for the other two antibiotics that he will be taking orally. We decided not to wait around on the pharmacy...which usually holds up the show...so chose to fill them at our local pharmacy.  Transport got called.  Nathan got there.  And,new waited and waited and waited and waited on transport...almost two hours!  Then when transport got us downstairs, we had to wait and wait and wait on them to bring us the car. Nathan wished that he hadn't valet parked!  We didn't get way until almost 5pm...major rush hour time in Music Cith (Nashville).  Then we crept along through the streets leading us to the interstate and then crept along on the interstate till we got through the busiest parts of Nashville.  We finally got home a little afte 7pm.  We got Woody in the house.  He had a major cheering section out front when we got in and lots of helpers for his journey into the house.  Nathan and Kathy sort of took over getting Woody settled and Abigail and I went to Kroger as it was too late to get a prescription at our pharmacy.  Get the prescription turned and are told that it will be about an hour wait.  So Abigail and I decided to make the hour wait productive and I got a few groceries...that way I won't have to go out and do that tomorrow.  We put the groceries in the car and went back in to wait for the antibiotic.  It was ready...first time today that the wait time was less than predicted!  When I got home, I started clearing a space in the refrigerator for his infusion med which has to be kept cold.  Then I went out to clear off a little desk and table to put supplies on.  The doorbell rang and it was Woody's infusion antibiotics, which wer supposed to come tomorrow...another thing that happened before scheduled!

Now I am ready to crash!  Going to go down and get something out of the drier for Woody and then come upstairs and get ready for bed.  Hoping for an uninterrupted night's sleep?!?  We'll see!  Tomorrow should be interesting...one more prescription to fill, home health coming, an appointment here in Tullahoma to postpone, a birthday to celebrate, first infusion to give...and, who knows what else will happen to happen!  We are both very glad to be home!  Too tired to find a picture for tonight's blog...back to that part of my routine tomorrow night!

Sending Smoke Signals!

Maybe the smoke signals have been seen.  It is starting to look like Woody will be released tomorrow.  "Things" seem to be lining up.  He had a picc line placed today so he can receive IV antibiotics at home.  Someone came to get him signed up for home health both for the IV infusions (though, I believe that we will be doing them...they will train us how to do it and provide the supplies needed) and for some in-home PT.  We were told by one of Dr. Holt's team that his cultures had grown another bacteria which doesn't respond to the antibiotic that MRSA responds to, but then we were told later that he will be getting the MRSA antibiotic.  Didn't see anyone on the infectious disease team today. He is about to get his first blood draw through the picc line.  They are watching kidneys, liver, etc. to see how they are doing on the antibiotics.  I think that home health nurses will be doing blood draws once we are home.  It's a lot to get our heads wrapped around.  A physical therapist came and worked with him this afternoon.  He gave him some exercises...now to remember those!  Woody has been up several times today.  His pain is pretty much under control.  It mainly hurts when he gets a muscle spasm in his leg or when he puts weight on it.  But he did start putting some weight on it.  I think that he is scheduled for PT again tomorrow.  Tomorrow we are supposed to be trained for giving the infusions.  Then I'm sure that we will have lots of appointments handed to us.  Oh, another goal met today = getting the wound drain out...that was the first thing that got done today and I almost forgot to mention it!  His leg still hasn't been unwrapped by Dr. Holt's team.  Last time he just went home with a BIG bandaid.  Time will tell how they will send his surgical home this time...or if we are just anticipating going home too soon!  But I REALLY think that it REALLY does seem like tomorrow is THE DAY.  We will see where the blog gets written tomorrow night!

Still Imprisoned in the Tower!

Shall we name him Rapunzel?  Early this morning (before 6am), one of the doctors on Dr. Holt's surgery team came in to talk with us.  Her team usually comes in early so I wasn't surprised.  But we were surprised to hear that Woody wouldn't be dismissed today.  Results had come back from testing bone fragments, etc. had come back and his bacteria had been identified.  And, the ID wasn't exactly what we wanted to hear. It is MRSA.  He will be on IV antibiotics for 6 or more weeks and then on long term oral antibiotics.  He will be able to have the IV antibiotics at home.  Now they are trying to figure out the dosage that his kidneys can tolerate.  He will have a blood draw at 6pm and they will see how his kidneys are responding to the antibiotics (which he had been getting since shortly after surgery).

Of course, most of us recoil at the mention of MRSA.  The infectious disease team has been called in and I guess we will be adding them to appointments at Vanderbilt.  Anyone entering the room is now garbed in blue gowns and gloves.

When anyone asks him how he is doing, Woody always says "fair to middlin'."  Fair to middlin' is a cotton term...the way cotton is graded: good, fair, middlin', and poor.  So "fair to middlin'" puts "things" in the middle.  Today the infectious disease doctor said that there are many more infections
much worse than MRSA...that MRSA is now a "fair to middlin'" infection.  We're not totally
convinced!  Woody said he didn't find them saying that comforting!

He was supposed to have PT today, but, I guess it being Sunday, they are running on more of a skeletal crew...anyway, Woody's PT didn't happen.  He still isn't supposed to get up by himself so we checked with his nurse and he helped him get up and sit in a chair.  While Woody was out of the bed, his bed got changed.  Woody did get back into bed with only me stabilizing his walker.  I'm having trouble imagining him handling the walk into the house when we get home with no more moving around than he has done so far since surgery.  Also he will have been sitting for 70 miles for the trip home.  Hoping they get him up and moving around the room a bit more tomorrow!  He needs to build
his strength back up!

Room With a View

It has been a beautiful day...bright and sunny...a rarity these days.  I opened up the curtain in our tower room and this is what I saw during the day and then just as the sun was setting over Nashville.  Both pretty views.  Woody's room is in the round tower across from the main medical center.  The sixth floor houses the orthopedics surgical patients.  So we are looking through the trees for our view.

Woody has really done pretty well today.  He has been up and had some PT which he was pretty familiar with since he had this before.  At the time the PT folk were here, the order was non-weight bearing on that leg.  But later in the day the day the orders changed to weight bearing as tolerated.  At least he won't have to hop holding onto the walker.  He can at least use that leg for balance.  His pain is being managed fairly well.  As the day progressed, his main problem was unexpected spasms in that leg...not a pleasant experience!

It has been a fairly quiet day.  Woody's nurse brought him USA Today newspaper.  He worked the crossword puzzle and read the paper and did a couple of the other puzzles.n I'm working on a sudoku puzzle.  I read, did a little cross stitch, texted news of Woody to friends, and dozed off and on.  Woody has done a little dozing, too. Last night was a pretty typical hospital night...LONG!  We dozed 

off and on, but inevitably, when we dozed off, someone came in to check on something.  

They have disconnected his saline part of the IV.  Now pretty much the only thing the IV is being used for is his antibiotics.  He is getting the same antibiotic that he got when he was in here with cellulitis back in November.  Hopefully the cellulitis can disappear as he heals from this surgery.

If all goes as planned at the moment.  Nathan will come to Nashville tomorrow after church to gather us up and take us back home.  

Reading the Board!

Our main job of the day was to watch the board while the surgeon and her team did the work!  We got here at 8am.  By 9 they called him back to the holding room to get ready for surgery.  About 10:15am
he was wheeled off to the operating room.  And, I went back to the waiting room to join Melany.  They told me that it could take as long as five hours.  But in the end I would say that he was in the operating room about maybe a little less than 4 hours.  He stayed in the recovery room for about two




hours.  And, by a little after 5 he was in his room.  He has already been brought a meal, but brought him a regular diet.  He has eaten what he could...green beans, some lettuce.  He tried to eat the roll but it was inedible...and, it really was.  He gave me a piece of it and it was just something that you chew and chew and it doesn't go away! They are supposed to bring him another food tray with a renal diet.  So maybe he will have a bedtime snack.  Melany ate his salmon (I'm allergic to salmon so stayed really far away from that plate!) and I ate his chocolate cake!

Okay...what was done.  In the end Dr. Holt did remove the old hardware and out in a larger, hopefully, stronger one.  She didn't try to put a plate on the other side due to the skin being so thin due to the radiation.  She says that she doesn't know how long it will be until it fails.  Some of his bone is still
very damaged by the radiation and thus not all that strong.  She says when this new hardware breaks down it will mean replacing the tibia.  Hope that is long time away!  He is in some pain and did take

something for pain a little while ago at the encouragement of the nurse. He avoids pain medicine like the plague...but he has been convinced, for the moment, that it will help him heal to not be in extreme pain.  We'll see how he does tonight.  Usually the first night here at the hospital isn't an easy one.  He is distracting himself at the moment by watching the PBS six o'clock news.  Melany is still here.  She is waiting out the Nashville rush hour.  I imagine that she will head home shortly.  I really appreciated her company today.  She helped me lug around our trappings that I brought along.

I don't know how long he will be here.  The doctor indicated that he might go home tomorrow, but I rather doubt it.  I know that he isn't ready tonight.  I told him that at first I thought that she was indicating that he could go home tonight.  He said no way was he ready to go home!


Graham (almost 17) had oral surgery today to remove his wisdom teeth.  He also did well.  Last I
heard he was having some jello.

Nathan got an 8-point buck last night...his biggest deer since living in TN.  I don't know where he got this inner hunter...not from Woody or me!  He also has a very weak stomach...but he can "process" the deer.  He says he can do it because he is providing meat for his family!

More to come about Woody's recovery!  Praising God for seeing Woody and his medical team through one more adventure in his journey of beating cancer!

Twelve More Hours

In twelve more hours we should be at Vanderbilt checking in.  We finally got a call around 3:30pm telling Woody to be at Vanderbilt at 8am.  That means that Melany will start heading our way at 5am and get us about 45min. later and she will then turn around and retrace her "steps" and then go beyond where she started at 5am to head on to Vanderbilt.  It is supposed to be rainy in the morning.  I posted a nice sunny picture tonight...hoping that the worst of the rain might have already passed us by!  Now...the time we are to get there probably doesn't reflect on his surgery time.  All his other surgeries have met with a long wait in the big outer waiting room.  Time will tell if tomorrow follows the former pattern!

We have been getting ready.  Both of us ran a couple of errands...at different times so someone could be here to get the phone when the Vanderbilt call came.  I have been packing and am about finished.  Hopefully what I have thrown in the little rolling suitcase will get us through Woody's stay.

I guess tomorrow is a day for surgery for the Dorrells, as Graham will be having oral surgery to
remove his four wisdom teeth in the morning.

I'll report in tomorrow when his surgery is completed.

Clean Up: Kitchen Aisle!

I guess I was faced with the first BIG mess of 2019.  Woody cooked his own eggs this morning and dropped the bottle of olive oil.  The lid was on it...but it popped off when it hit the floor!  What a mess.  I thought that it must have been about the whole bottle, but was surprised with how much was still in it.  The spill went from in front of the stovetop...well, maybe the microwave all the way to the door into the family room.  It took tons of paper towels to just get the pool up off the floor. Then I washed it twice with the Swiffer wet mop and decided that wasn't going to cut it so got out our old sponge mop and used Dawn and ammonia on it and then rinsed it with water and white vinegar.  And, finally we weren't slipping with every step.  After the mess was cleaned up, I got to thinking about it and realized how much worse it could have been...it could have been a glass bottle and I would have had to get up broken glass along with the oil!!  The mess didn't seem quite as bad after that thought!

I have ticked off quite a few more things on my "to-do" list prior to heading to the hospital on Friday. I got my prescriptions transferred back to our drugstore and picked up a prescription for Woody.  I went to the church library and turned in money for memorial books and also did maintenance in the library, and gave Woody's substitute Sunday School teacher the lesson for this week.  I have another load of wash in the dryer and will get them out and put away after I blog.  That load will have all our clothes washed prior to the hospital visit.  Anyway, the list is getting shorter of "to-dos!" And, that's a good thing.  I also wrote a PDF file for my sewing club, got Woody to proof it, the club head to approve it, and published it on our club's Facebook page.

Woody has taken it easy most of the day except for working a little in the kitchen—cooked his breakfast and made a mess and did wash a few dishes by hand.  He has done puzzles, watched some TV and read.  I got him another book at the church library that I thought he might like to have at the hospital (depending on how alert he is!).  But if he stays through the weekend, he way want to do a little reading!

I wonder how soon tomorrow we will find out the time for his surgery and the time we have to be there. I "should" know a time tomorrow night when I blog.  If I haven't heard by then, I will think that we have fallen through a hole in the system!  For some reason for the last year, we haven't been getting any reminder calls for his Vandy appointments.  I did look today and he is on the calendar for surgery for Friday...just no time...and, we were told that we would be told tomorrow...figure we will be!

Welcome 2019!

More than just a page on the calendar turned today...the whole calendar was changed...a clean slate of months (sort of...already a few appointments scheduled for this year).

We have had a fairly calm and quiet first day of 2019.  I have done several loads of wash and as soon as I publish this, I will put away the last load of the day.  Woody has done a little puttering in the kitchen. He again has been trying to be good and has kept his leg up at least for part of the day.  I fixed him one of the pasta dishes for supper that he can eat.  I am considering cutting out a top for myself after I get my clothes out away.  When I got the cutting table cleared off, I found the pattern and fabric for the top, but I'm  not sure that I really have the energy to do that tonight.  I did go through the last stack of papers that had accumulated on the cutting table and either filed them in the filing cabinet or in file 13.  I have also put aside a few things that I need to pack up for our little hospital journey on Friday.

Wishing each of you, our blog readers, a blessed 2019! God's grace!