SATURDAY 8/16 - Late, Im so sorry to keep you all waiting TJ update. I am so sorry. The last couple days have been so hard, I took a bit of a mental break yesterday, I needed some time to sort my thoughts and fears and try to rebalance myself. TJ is finally sleeping and resting. These last days with all the pain he has had to go through have been heart breaking. Yesterday I lost my composure because they just werent able to keep him comfortable and resting. Luckily we have been placed with the Chronic Pain Management team here, and the head nurse with them is fabulous at what she does. She sat down last night with all his meds and made changes to make everything easier for the nurses. The changes she made have helped TJ so much. Hes resting without anxiety and without any pain. Finally. His arm is not better, we now know he will be losing at least fingers, worst case he will be losing his forearm to almost his elbow. We will know as this next week progresses. Weve been very upset over this, but at this point Im doing better. The logistics of how this is going to work, Im unsure of. But what I do know is this wont define who he is and I will do everything I can to make sure he knows it. His eye is still about the same as is his groin. Both of those areas have taken a bit of a back burner with his arm the way it is. They took him back for surgery this morning, they were hoping to close the big incision he has, but his arm is still too full of fluid, they need to wait for it to go down. His body needs to move the fluid and build up the collateral vessels it needs to move blood. He is on Heparin, a lower dose. They want his blood thinner, but not to the same degree as usual given the stroke injury in his brain. They are trying to be careful but still treat the clotting disorder. His blood counts are still all over the place, and he is still having Low Platelets. Other numbers with his bloodwork are a little off as well, but all in all hes still very stable. They are talking about two things over the next day or two. The first being giving him feedings into his stomach to see if his stomach will work. Thats been a question all along, they placed a tube through his nose down his throat into his stomach, they will give him liquid nutrition and see how he does. If that works well, they may switch him from IV to this form of medicine for some of his doses. But they cant until they are sure his stomach is still working correctly. The second thing theyd like to do is have him wake up a bit more and get him off the ventilator. If they can do that then he could start drinking clears, and maybe even get up with help from Physical Therapy. I think thats a lot for him to do all at once, but I do love this goal and I hope by the end of the week we can get that to happen. Im sorry to keep everyone waiting. I know Im forgetting things, so feel free to ask me questions. I really needed to take a bit of a mental break and relax. I read an ibook and tried to rest as much as I could. Randy is doing the same. Please keep up the prayers, I know sometimes people want to know specific points to add into their prayers... Doctors knowledge and guidance, TJs Strength, his platelets, his hand, arm, eye, brain, and groin, for him to come off the ventilator easily... and Im sure you can think of others. But those are some of the things Im praying for. Thank you to everyone who is sending cards and gifts! TJ has received several balloons and so many cards!!! Were hanging the 30 foot hug in his room tomorrow or Monday :D I cant wait for him to see everyone and how much you all care. God Bless everyone
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 03:29:13 +0000