Hanging Out on Saturday

Misty and I spent the day with Jim. Misty had her first rawhide chew bone. She completely devoured it during our day at the hospital. Jim and I watched two movies. First Pirates of the Carribean and then we watched Our Big Fat Greek Wedding. We laughed as hard this time as we did the first time.

Dr. Hume was in and we reviewed our plan for the next couple of weeks. The wound vac will be there on Monday so we'll see what happens. Dr. Hume agreed with this plan and said that Jim was very stable right now and we are going to work on getting him off the vent.

I had not shared with everyone Jim's special birthday day. I was in Chicago so I could not be there to share the day with him. The first thing in the morning all the nurses came in to sing Happy Birthday to him. Mom came in and brought Jim a Notre Dame fleece that she had made for him. She found the fabric at Joanne's. Jackie went in and cheered him up late in the day.

Surgical Update

Well Jim and I met with Dr. Van Winkle tonight. Boy does he have an entirely different opinion on the surgery. He said right now we would have to do both options 1 and 2 and it would be very dangerous.

He says that if you introduce the muscle/blood to the wound it would be fine for the top layer but everything underneath would absese. No good because now you have to clean up underneath and you now have all that muscle. If gives this only a 50 percent change of success.

What he would like to do is put a wound vac on the wound for 3 to 4 weeks and see how much infection they can pull out. He said the wound is much improved over the past month and he thinks this is the best. Then after the first of the year we revisit the surgery option to see where we are. In that time also we can get Jim off the vent. He wants to try another medication that may make JIm's pulminary issues better. He said all of this will greatly increase our chances of success.

Ok so now we have another opinion. What do we do. WE talked with the wound care nurse and she said to go with the plastic surgeons opinion because that is his specialty. So that is what we are going to do. So in the next day or two the wound vac will go on and we will hope for the best.

Donald, Holly and Jackie were there during the doctor visit and they said the doctor made a lot of sense.

I said goodbye to Donald tonight and that was very sad. I will really miss him.

Let It Snow

I did this quick layout this morning remembering my day in the snow.

Christmas Celebrations

Today we mostly just hung out. Jim and I watched a movie. Mooseport was really funny and kept us enterained.

No news on when the surgery will be. I am hoping we will know something tomorrow. Last night we all went to the Christmas show at the club house. It was put on by a local high school. The kids really got us in the Christmas spirit.

More when I know something.

Dr. Schiro's Report

Jim and I met today with Dr. Schiro. He is the cardiac surgeon who did Jim's bypass surgery. He is also the doctor that opened his chest on September 12 and found all of the infection. He said we have three options.

1. We can do nothing and the worst will happen. It will be slow and it will be painful.

2. We can open the chest cavity and remove a portion of the sternum and clean out the area between the sternum and the heart. This is a very strenuous surgery. There is no way to tell if the stiches will hold inside. He gives this option a 50 50 percentage.

3. We can get in a plastic surgeon and between Dr. Schiro and Dr. Van Winkle they will remove muscle from the pectorial muscle area and put it into the chest cavity and then sew it up. Infections do not heal without blood and this area is not getting a lot of blood. I did not know this but muscle is full of blood. Introducing blood to this area will pull the infection out. I don't know how but this is what he said. This option the doctor put at 90 percent success. It is not as hard on the body.

Jim and I have talked about this and we have decided on Option 3. Jim does not want to continue the status quo. He wants to be aggressive. He wants to live but he does not want to just lay their and let this infection take over. Jim is fully aware of his situation and the doctor explained all of these options to both of us. It is ultimately Jim's decision and he told Dr. Schiro he wants the surgery.

The two doctor's offices are talking and are trying to coordinate their schedules and hopefully the surgery will be at the beginning of next week. He will be transferred to Sarasota Memorial Hospital for the surgery. If the surgery is Monday, then the best case senerio is that he will be back at Healthsouth by the end of the week.

Dr. Schiro was very upbeat about this. He said to Jim, "Let's get this fixed so you and I can go to a Yankee spring training game in Tampa."

Yes I am scared. But this is the first time in a long time that I feel there might actually be some hope of Jim getting better. This chest infection is what is holding him back. Even Dr. Hume was excited about this procedure. He was totally against surgery on Monday. As we all believed, we thought our only option was the second one. Ok one more time. Big prayers are needed.

A perfect Winter Day

I am sorry to my winter friends and family but Sunday night was a perfect winter evening. This picture was taken at 5:30 in the evening. It was 82 degrees and the sun was setting. There were about 30 drummer on the beach and the beach visitors were given a perfect sunset.

Jim is still the same. The chest wound is not healing and we do not know if it ever will. Dr. Schiro is meeting with us tomorrow morning to see if there is anything he can do.

Bingo tonight. Donald and I both won a bingo. Yeah for us.

I took Donald and Holly to lunch today. Spent some time with Jim. Zero chores were accomplished. But you know what. I am not going to let it stress me out. This week I am hanging out with Donald.

Christmas Day 11

It was a little late last night so I skipped the blog and went straight to bed.

Jim is doing fine but he was a little tired yesterday and his vitals were a little off so they kept him on the vent most of the day. I saw him around noon and he just wanted to sleep so I only stayed a little while. Later I went back with Jackie, Donald, Holly and Misty. He was more awake and enjoyed our visit. Last night Mary told me that he watched the entire football game and that he enjoyed that.

I saw the movie Fred Claus last night. This is a fun family movie and really gets you in the holiday spirit.

This layout is from Saturday's Newby Management employee party. We went with Jackie and had a good time. Jackie and her co-workers won the best community award so we are really proud of her.

Donald is Here

Donald and Holly are here and it is so good to see them. Can you believe I did not take one picture of them. I will remedy that tomorrow. We all had breakfast together this morning and tonight we went to Barbara's Christmas open house. What fun.

The rest of the day I spent with Jim. I wanted to take him outside again but he said no. It is football Sunday and he was going to watch the games. He's about the same. Off the vent and vitals all normal. Tomorrow we are going to see what Dr. Shiro has to say about Jim having surgery.

Off to bed.

18 Days to Christmas

And you guessed it I have 60 days worth of stuff to get done. Well guess what it is not all going to get done. I have a half decorated tree. Hopefully it will get done. My Christmas card situation is a mess. In February my hard drive crashed and burned and I have no address book. No addresses is my situation. Plus nobody had my address so cards may be a problem this year. I'm not even thinking of baking. My house is out of control and I am almost out of underwear. Yes I am stressed. But starting right now I am going to let it all go. If it doesn't get done oh well. Since I have not been sleeping the past couple of days I have got to change that and that will be my focus. Tonight sleep and no one is going to wake me up in the morning.

Oh and did I say no air conditioning. That's right. This has quit on me and currently it is 81 in my house. All the windows are open and all of the fans are on. A can't do anything until Monday.

I think my stress level is based on the fact that Jim and I are going to be facing some big decisions. Unfortuately we did not talk to the doctor today but will tomorrow. This surgery decision is looming on us. Jim was fine today but he did not want off the vent. They said there was no reason except that he was really tired. I guess the time outside yesterday wore him out.

My nephew Donald and his girlfriend Holly will arrive late tonight and I can't wait to see them tomorrow. I bet they wake me up. Oh well who cares. I can't wait to see Donald.

A Little Time Outside Today

Tonight I tried my hand at digital scrapbooking without the help of my teacher. I did this layout completely from scratch. There are 27 items on this page. I can't believe I was able to do this. Now it only took me 2 hours but yeah I did it.

Today Jim and I spent an hour and a half outside. It was really great. He was off the vent and we just hung out. As I told the doctor it was almost normal for us. Misty was with us and she was sitting in Jim's lap and he was petting her and talking to her. We talked about Christmas and what we were going to give each of our families. He said get some paper so you can write this down. The fresh air is good for him. After awhile we just need fresh air and he has had so much artificial air that this time just perked him up.

Dr. Liggett said that Dr. Winkel would be in tonight and she had called Dr. Shiro so we are waiting on all of this information. She said that Jim is the best he has been throughout this ordeal. So we'll see where we go from here.

I took my sister and mother to Mrs. Chin's tonight for dinner. Then we went to see a house that has at least 150 christmas trees all set to music. It was beautiful. More later as it is now 1:00 am and my sister is picking me up at 8:30 to help her mail 50 boxes to Iraq.

A favorite moment

As many of you know I have just returned from Chicago. This photo is one of my favorite moments. I spent the day with three wonderful little boys on my birthday. Jack, Josh and Luke are absolutely perfect. You can not imagine how I felt when I met Jack's school bus on Thurday and he ran off the bus yelling Grandma Your Here. He ran into my arms and we just hugged. Josh waved his arms and said grandma in his little voice. Now Luke is not sure about me. He doesn't remember me like the other two. He kept watching me and wondering why his two brothers were always on my lap and giving me hugs. He slowly warmed up to me and soon he to will be saying grandma.

Spent a lot of time with Jim today. They took him off the vent so we could talk. He says, It's about time you're back. He really missed me. I told him all about the trip and said did you bringme a hot dog. I said no but when the doctor said he could have a hot dog I would get one for him.

He had some chest pains this afternoon. To be safe they did an EKG and a chest X-ray. They even gave him some nitro. Dr. Liggett assured me that his was probably pain from his chest wound and not heart related. She ordered enzymes to be sure because as she said, "I'd look pretty silly if he really did have a heart attack."

We also discussed the chest wound and how we should proceed. She feels Jim is strong enough to consider surgery. She is calling in Dr. Winkel and is going to get a consult with Dr. Shiro. She discussed this with Jim and I and we are going to look into our options. Basically the situation is the wound is not getting better and if we don't do something it may never get better. This is saying in a few words what we discussed for over an hour. Jim is totally alert and understood everything she was saying. I will keep you updated as we consider the options.

Spent time with Misty today, went through the stack of mail and just relaxed this evening. I'm off to bed. 4:00 was way to late last night.

I'm Back From the Frozen Tundra

Just wanted everyone to know I'm back from Chicago. Leaving Ohare yesterday was a trial. The plane was delayed because of the snow. Then when we were finally loaded there was no one to put our bags on the plane. Finally the ticket agents did it and that was after sitting on the plane for an hour. Then we had to wait in line for another half hour just to take off. Then because of the delays we stopped in Orlando. Another hour delay. My very sleepy sister picked me up and I think I finally got to sleep around 4:00. Misty did not want to go to sleep. More later. I've seen Jim but not for very long. They wanted to change his pick line and do his dressings so I ran home for awhile.

Chicago Report @2

Jim misses me is the report. He is still on the vent but they hope to take him off tomorrow. He is only on pressure support today and he is doing fine. No fever and all vitals are normal. All the blood tests have come back normal.

Today he wanted to know where I was and I had to remind him that I am in Chicago and will be back Wednesday night.

As for me I am having a little fun. I have been hugging my grandchildren so tight. I think Teresa would notice if I took them back with me. I tried to bribe Jack with a trip to Disney World but he is still not up to it. Maybe next year.

Tonight I went to the CCBA board meeting/Christmas party. It was fun to see everyone and laugh a little. I need laughter and this trip has really given me some much needed laughter.

Some say snow tomorrow. I certainly hope not because I have a day planned with the kids. we are going to see Santa.

Snow in Chicago

It snowed today. Then there was an ice storm. I was out in this and it was awful. When I got to Bob and Teresa's I parked the car in the driveway and started to get out and the car was sliding down the driveway. I had to park in the street so the car did not slide away.

I got to talk to Jim and wish him a happy birthday. The boys all sang to him and I am sure he was smiling. Happy birthday honey. I love you.

Chicago Report

This is new for Jim. He is sitting in a chair and playing freecell. The neck brace is to protect his neck while he is out of bed. The vent machine in the background is off.

Last night they told me Jim is doing great. He was off the vent all day but they put him on at night so he gets a good night sleep. He did not want to eat yesterday. He only drank some of the juice, milk and water. No fever. Mary told me he was a little depressed because he missed me.

I spent the day with my grandchildren and got a million hugs. It was wonderful. We went to Portello's for a birthday celebration. This is one thing I miss about Chicago. Most of the day was spent just playing with the boys. I even played Candy Land. Teresa's father brought me my favorite birthday cake from the Mexican bakery. Oh it was good.

Jackie and Mom thank you for taking care of Jim while I'm gone. Jackie I hope Misty is better. Yesterday she chewed through her collar and kept Jackie up all night.

Jim played freecell today

Today was a first. I borrowed a laptop and took it in to Jim today. He was in a chair and the computer was set up and he was playing free cell. Wow. We are making progress. He was concentrating so hard and it was a little hard for him to manipulate the mouse but he was doing it. This is so great for him to be able to do something besides watching TV. The therapists are going to work with him and see how far they can take him.

All is well and I am off to Chicago in a couple of hours. Jack I'm on my way.

Bingo Night

Can't remember if I posted this layout from my digital scrapbooking class. I really liked how it came out.

Well once again I did not Bingo. My sister Jackie won $50. She put her $5.00 in the pizza pot so that was good.

Jim is doing well. He is off the vent during the day and he is eating. The pulminary doctor was pleased today. He said Jim's lungs are clear and sound very good. The chest wound is the problem according to the doctor. Wound care continues and they are improving. Everyday is a challenge but hopefully things are looking up. He can now take his oral medication and this is so important. The antidepressants have started again along with the medication to prevent a stomach infection because of the antibiotics. He knows I am leaving tomorrow and he told me tonight that he is going to miss me.

Mom is making him a Notra Dame blanket for his birthday on Saturday. I know he's going to like that.

Don't forget to send him a birthday card. The address is in Sunday's blog. Love to all and for some of you I'll see you in Chicago. Jack, Josh and Luke, Grandma will be there to meet the school bus on Thurday.

The end of Thanksgiving Weekend

Well I really haven't blogged much this weekend because I have been so busy. I have spent a lot of time with Jim. We have just been hanging out and watching movies or football games.

He's doing pretty good actually. He has been off the vent during the day and back on at night so that he can rest comfortably. They gave him two pints of blood yesterday to bring up his hemocrat level. This always gives him some extra pep. The nurse today decided Jim needed to get outside and breath some fresh air. So into a chair he went and we spent almost an hour outside. Now for Jim being outside for an hour for any reason is a lot. He isn't really an outside person. He did enjoy it though and I think it was good for him. The nurse said we should do this every day. We're hoping tomorrow they will allow him to eat again. So wish us luck.

Today was decorating day. Jackie and I put this outside lights on her house, mom's house and my house. So the season has begun. I have Christmas stuff everywhere, laundry to do and the house to clean. And I'm leaving Wednesday for Chicago. Windy City here I come. I'm coming for a much need break and some hugs from three very special little boys. They want to hug their grandma on her birthday.

Speaking of Birthdays. Jim's is Saturday. He needs birthday cards. We need to perk him up and what better way than to hear from all of you. Down with the get well up with the birthday cards. You can send them to Healthsouth Ridgelake Hospital, 6150 Edgelake Drive, Sarasota, FL 34240.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend. A special thank you to my friend Barbara for a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. It was wonderful.

Black Friday

I was up early to start off Black Friday. Now I wasn't up that early but for me 7:30 is early. This year I did not think the bargains were as good as past years. I by-passed the electronics because those lines were just way to long and I really did not need a TV or a Wii. It's fun to get out there and watch the crazy people and the parking lots. Those people are crazy trying to get parking spots. No one has any patience any more. I did pick up a few things but not much.

We have a new woman in the house. Misty is in heat for the first time. Poor thing is having cramps and is not feeling very well. She just looks at me with those sad eyes. I feel so sorry for her.

Spent the afternoon with Jim and he is doing fine. He was off the vent again. They put him back on last night at midnight which means he was off for almost 11 hours yesterday. Today he did not have a fever so that is good. Today they took him off at 11:30 and just now put him back on. We watched a couple of TV movies and just hung out.

Tonight I went to Scraptherapy and had a good time. We did more chatting than work but that is OK because it's just nice to have some down time and girl time. I love having a place to go hang out and enjoy my new friends.

Hope everyone had a great shopping day and are now home safe and sound.

Thanksgiving Playtime

I was taking a little time today to relax before I started my day. I decided to play with my digital scrapbooking. My 4 week class is now over and I wanted to see if I could make a layout from scratch. Here's what I came up with.