I sure as heck hope so.

First I'll start with the great portion of this update. On Friday I was able to go home for a 2 day/overnight pass for Christmas with my family! We did the Christmas Eve thing, Had a blast with the boys who were totally wound up for Christmas (yet fell asleep fast and without complaint - I think the energy put into being excited wore them out!).

Christmas morning was a blast - the boys let us sleep in until almost 8am, then tore through their presents fairly quickly. The only complaint was from Brandon and it was that his DS was not pink. He's going through a 'pink' stage... He got over it pretty quick when he realized the DS had a camera and voice recorder built in - these are endless sources of fun for the boys.

After gifts and croissants (my Aunt Patti made them the day before, we left them on the counter to rise overnight and popped them in the oven when we got up - they were FANTASTIC... Patti makes the BEST croissants and they have become part of our Christmas morning tradition over the past few years!), we packed up and headed to my parents house around 11 (well Dave and the boys did - I had to make a pit stop at Gimli hospital for my IV antibiotic dose - the 'deal' I had to make with the docs to be allowed to go home for the night). at 12:30 we all had apple pancakes, smokies and ice cream (this has been my Christmas morning breakfast for as long as I can remember - its the only time of year we have them and the tastes and smells are full of nostalgia for me... I only managed a few bites of each, and paid quite dearly pain wise for them, but it wouldn't be Christmas without it. After presents at my parents house, (the boys again got spoiled rotten - as did I and Dave) we all packed up and headed to my Aunt Heathers for the family Christmas dinner... lots of extended family was there, the boys were playing in the basement with the bigger kids (and having a total blast) while the adults visited and hung out upstairs. It was precisely the way I wanted to spend my Christmas, and I left at about 8pm feeling completely content with how it went - it was perfect. :)


So that was the good part.


Unfortunately I left out last week and this week. Last week I ran fevers for most of the week - not terribly high, but high enough to concern them. The big worry of course is a central line infection so they ran blood cultures, but nothing grew. Since I was already on antibiotics for the C. Difficile infection I had a few weeks ago, they didn't expect anything to grow regardless. We waited a few days and on Wednesday I got a fairly angry looking spot about 2 inches above my central line site, right where the line tunnels under my skin. The docs saw it and had a fit. They drained it and culured it, and my line site, and my blood again - but again, since I had antibiotics in my system the cultures cannot be relied upon. They were all negative but they felt confident I had a 'tunnel infection' (an infection 'around' the tube where it tunnels through my skin). These are notoriously difficult to clear, and generally the only option is to pull the line (Arg!).

They gave it a good go to try and save the line, put me on Vancomycin (big gun antibiotic), and Cephtriaxone (also a big gun) to keep their bases covered. The fevers actually stopped on Friday and I was doing alright. The morning of Christmas day though I started running a temp again. I stubbornly ignored it and took tylenol all day, however by the time I got back to the hospital I was quite hot.

Sunday brought higher and more miserable temps (103-104) and my line site was looking worse so the decision was made to pull the line. That happened this afternoon. I now have no central line, and no way to get TPN - they are giving me sugar water through a basic peripheral IV, but they cannot run TPN through it, so Im basically getting nothing for the next few days.

After a few days they will put a PICC line in (the central line that starts in the upper arm and threads into the heart) and I will be able to go back on the TPN etc, so that's good at least.

Just to ice the cake, in the middle of all this I was re-diagnosed with C. Difficile, the intestinal infection I had a few weeks ago has come back with a vengance. So I am now on a THIRD antibiotic to treat the C. Difficile.

My discharge date went from last Friday to maybe this Wednesday, to 'who knows' at this point. I'm pretty discouraged and frustrated that every time we seem to be making progress to getting out of here something happens to set things back a bunch.

All of us are pretty discouraged. The boys are sick of mom not being home. I'm sick of not being home. Dave is tired of being a single dad (a role he has filled incredibly well I must say - he has not only 'managed' to be a single dad for 3 months, but he has managed to make it 'fun' for the boys, kept the house in order, and overall has just done an amazing job of holding down the fort. I am so proud of how well he is doing, and how lucky I am to have married a man I can leave completely in charge of the kids and the house without an inkling of concern over how he would do.

So at this point, discharge has been pushed to 'who knows'. Im on 3 IV antibiotics that will hopefully get things in order. Im still anemic and I suspect well on my way to another blood transfusion. My gut is a total mess from this infection. I'm needing higher and higher doses of narcotics just to manage the pain. My temperature is still spiking very high tonight. I have no line to get nourishment into me, and now have to face another procedure in radiology to place another line (something that is always difficult for me as my blood vessels are evil).

The good news is I am cultivating some mad Crocheting skills - I have mastered hats (made a good 2 dozen so far), tank tops, and now I am onto animals - Brandon has a new moose and Tyler has a new alien... they are pretty slick if I say so myself.

Well sorry for the big pity party. It's hard to stay positive when all you get is crap thrown at you day after day. I know this will turn around and soon all of this will be a bad memory. but right now all I can see is what's in front of me, and I don't like it.

Tomorrow will be a new day.

Thanks for checking,

Keely

8 comments:

  1. Keely,

    I'm sorry there have been so many setbacks for your discharge. Poo and double poo (and a growl to boot!). I can't even imagine how badly all of you must want you home again...hang in there!

    But what great news you got to have a little Christmas furlough!!! I was hoping (with fingers and toes crossed for good measure) and praying you might get to be with your family. So happy to hear that was the case!

    Now you can get that central line and C-diff issue resolved and hopefully be on your way home to a nice l-o-n-g extended stay. :0)

    Here's to health!
    Rose-Marie

    Rose-Marie

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  3. Hey Keely - Thrilled you were able to get home for Xmas and have some treats. Love the memories -growing up my family had eggs benedict and champagne for b'fast - but kinda stopped with my kids GFCF and one kid not liking eggs... besides they could live on pancakes 24/7.

    Grant got a DS XL this year too - thrilled with it and games he likes. nintendo Dalmation DOGZ was first purchase ;-)
    HUGS! keep crocheting - one skill I never mastered! got Pics of animals?!

    Kelly L

  4. Crocheting.....have you ever heard of amigurumi?

    Here are some links that I thought you might like...

    http://amigurumibyknotty.blogspot.com/2009/04/free-snail-pattern.html

    ANd there is the food section....

    http://www.ecrochetpatterns.com/crochetpatterns/beadedsugarcookiecrochetpattern.htm

    Everyone needs a finger puppet:

    http://sheepdogsfleece.blogspot.com/2010/07/yarn-cat.html

    Here is a tutorial on how to start them....

    http://mygurumi.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-start-amigurumi.html

    I heard they only take a short amount of time and thought you could build up a menagerie for the kids of crazy things.........and enjoy it.

    Hoping it goes better this week. Cause you gotta keep hope.

    Sue at P2P

    Anonymous

  5. I've been checking in but haven't seen a new post. I'm getting worried. How are things?
    Sharon (Eve's mom)

    Sharon

  6. Hi Keely,
    I've been stopping by and been worried...praying always.
    I didn't know all this was going on for you until more recent times.
    I'm sorry you're having to deal with all of this on top of everything else. You are a tough girl though..I love your sense of humor !

    Joni Holycross

  7. KEELY!

    Are you okay? Stopping by your blogs yet again.......but nothing.

    Please give an update, if you can.....

    Sue

    Momtomymanyblessings at p2p

    Anonymous

  8. Keely, I've been praying for you, hoping things are looking up. Will keep checking... Please post when you feel up to it.

    Rose-Marie

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