Friday

     Arrived this morning to see my husband covered in only a towel. Ahem. He was getting cleaned up. The nurse cleaning him is my age. I can take her. 

     So anyway, breakfast was really good this morning, a fried egg, a pastry, which was a small cinnamon roll, a fruit smoothie and a sliced sausage. Oh boy did he ooh and ahh over the sausage. They brought him another one and he had no problem downing it.

    Bruce said he wanted to pick his teeth, I said can you move your hand to your mouth and he did! He just doesn't have the small motor skills to do his teeth. So now he can slap himself in the face. Maybe he will be able to move a cheeseburger to his mouth and begin feeding himself. He is still pretty weak. The left hand comes up about half way.

      Met for a family council today, they said they are looking at moving us to an in care rehab on Nov 19th. We are opting for a place in Boise so we can be near Andrew to help keep him outta trouble. The two choices are St. Als and St. Luke's. I will go visit them next week. As long as the insurance covers it, then it will be cleared.

    Grandpa K mentioned to the council team that I would be leaving today to go home to help Andrew get sorted for the next little while. So they set Bruce up with controls for the TV, we like the history channel and pbs, couldn't find a soccer channel. He can squeeze with his right hand by using his thumb and hand. And they found a wedge for him to prop up his ipad so he can listen to his audio books, he will need help getting to the right place, but at least he can listen to the story at night when I am gone or watch something halfway entertaining. He has had a lot of time to think, some would say too much time.

    This is the iPad set up. The blue touch pad on the right is very sensitive.

     The cleaning lady is from Bosnia. I pulled a map up and she showed me where. She has three daughters and two grandchildren. We typed in Tuzla and found it. She has a garden too with tomatoes and carrots and another vegetable I didn't understand what she said but nodded my head anyway. I look wise and knowing when I do that. Maybe 

     President Chadwick came all the way to see Bruce, he wants to report at Stake conf on Sunday how he is. (Stake conf is all the wards meeting, we have 13 in La Grande Stake. Wards are individual congregations, about 200 that attend. Bruce is first counselor in the Stake. Just FYI so you know some Mormon lingo. I don't think it qualifies as a second language. I learned some Catholic lingo when I was at St. Als.) They had a nice chat. Bruce is worried he is causing too much work for them. They do a lot of interviewing and traveling. Pres. Chadwick is a dear friend and we have grown to love him and respect his counsel. 

     Bro R. Chandler stopped in for a visit. He said he had finished a temple session and wanted to stop by. 

     I left Bruce to eat a quick lunch. When I left Aylisse the PT gal was giving him an arm workout. They will put him on the standing board again today. She said the chair was being used for a dialysis, didn't know they did that here too. I saw two more gurneys for transport too.

   I will be home with Andrew for a few days so will take a break from blogging.

Thank you for your prayers, cards, hugs and thoughts. It is very comforting to know people care so much. 

    This is the door to our room. I put some of the cards up from students and friends. The nurses say we get the most cards. I like that the nurses and aids knock on the door before they enter.

New Things

     He was really groggy this morning. He said they woke him every two hours last night. He has a sore on his bottom and they need to turn him. He also can't breathe through his nose, so he had a rough night. They gave him nose spray, he gets that twice a day, it has a steroid in it and it is locked away. He says he can feel a difference when they use the spray. He also has a saline solution to use today and something for his mouth. They said open mouth sleepers use it so they won't get cotton mouth. 

     

     Here is the trach part they put in his trach hole. It is the long purple curved piece. No wonder he kept gagging so much. Food and mucus got caught under it. ick

   For breakfast he had a real banana, he kept saying, "This is good." And " I can't believe I'm eating a banana." I sliced it for him and then each slice in quarters. He does enjoy his food. He had eggs that were rubbery so we added pepper and a bit of salt and he got those down. He really liked his Special K, too and said, "This is good."

     

     He slept most of the morning.

Up for lunch in a chair, the PT tied his knees together with a sheet, she says it is better for the hips that way. 

    Lunch was marvelous, a big bowl of buttered noodles with parsley, egg salad (with real eggs) and lemon meringue pie from Costco. Yummy! The speech therapist moved him to the next level of food, mechanical soft, which is meat cut into cubes and vegetables in cubes. Yeah! The speech therapist, Melissa is from Texas. She has a Masters degree. She was hired when this place was built 6 1/2 years ago. She says the buildings are all the same, here, in Texas and elsewhere. 

    The nutritionist came in and is pleased with how well Bruce is doing with his eating. She did not like the color of his urine and says he needs to drink more water. 

     The PT, Aylisse is massaging his hand, the left hand is swollen. 

They have him strapped to a board. They have to watch his blood pressure, he gets dizzy. They want to put weight on his feet. His arms are getting stronger. I hold one arm and Aylisse holds the other. She keeps calling them chicken arms and I politely remind her it is ducks as in GO ducks! 

     She said her husband was making dinner tonight and walking the dog. She says he makes a sausage and sauce meal. That sounds good. 

     Got the mail, Carma sent a ukulele book from Girls camp, Rosala sent another beautiful yellow batik leaf strip for a quilt top and two cards from coworkers and family. I love mail. 

     He is sleeping now. I will work on my hexie block and post a photo later.

    This is a kit Debbie got for me to work on. At first I rolled my eyes and said yeah right, I have repented! They go pretty fast. The brown one is the sample and I made the two light blue ones by hand. Two more squares for the pink one. I think I might do a couple more. One of the nurses wants to make a baby quilt for a new Grandbaby. I told her to do a nine patch it is easier and if you put this much hand work into it you don't want a baby, no matter how precious throwing up on your hand piecing. Sigh

     Bruce is doing really well with his eating but is losing weight. He is down to 200 pounds so they will begin a night feeding on an iv. Apparently he needs more calories to heal. He was afraid he was getting fat from eating and sitting all the time. They said it was water weight. The skin on his legs just sags where all the muscle was. My heart breaks seeing him so helpless. 

     For dinner he had Mac and cheese with pepper, his favorite, a baked tater with butter and pepper, mater soup with pepper and chilled pears. 

     

     I shaved his face, it doesn't hurt as much if I go slow. Why do the movies make it look romantic? It is up close and personal, he said ouch a couple of times. I think I am getting better. Maybe

     I read sections of the paper to him from on line. We like Deseret News as it has world, movie reviews, sports and church stories. Then we discuss how all the problems could be fixed and move on to the next story. 

The Trach is Out

      Beeping sleauty, translation sleeping beauty, had to wake him up for breakfast this morning. He slurped down his hot cocoa, cream of wheat, fruit smoothie, hot sticky bacon and mushy pancakes. 

 We had more choices for lunch, so looking forward to that.

    He is sitting up in a chair now. He gets dizzy when he gets up out of the chair so just sitting today. They had him do neck stretching exercises today. He has overextended his neck and they want to get it back in place or else he will look down his nose at people for the rest of his life. 

     I cut his hair for him. At least the front and sides, they use a dry shampoo that you just massage into the hair. I trimmed his ear hair too. He looks nice all cleaned up. The Dr said he would make an order to have the trach removed today. Yeah.

     As I was leaving for lunch Grandpa K says "I will wait for you". And I replied, "you have to we are married." And he said, "I will always wait for you." I had a good lunch. 

      For lunch Bruce had a curry chicken with gravy and pepper, mater soup with pepper, chocolate milk, puréed peaches, no pepper, that Bruce said were good. He enjoyed his meal.

     Now listening to audio books A Tale of Two Cities. This is a long book, it might take a while.

Lee Clinkinbeard stopped in for a visit. He is between trains. Glad he was thinking of us.

     The trach is out. The hole is covered with a four inch patch. The RT said it would close in 2 - 4 days with no stitches, it just closes itself. Grandpa K likes being able to breathe easier. His voice should come back soon. 

  He has been having twitches in his stomach. We are wondering if it is gas, internal rumblings or just reflexes. 

     Whatever it is, it is a good sign!

Look I learned how to snap a photo on my iPad. Ta dah!

Slow Going

    He was sleeping when I arrived this morning. He said he slept better. When he yawned his thigh muscles twitched. The Dr said that could just be a reaction, only time will tell. I told Bruce to yawn some more.

     For our breakfast repast this morning we tried some Cream of Wheat cereal that needed some syrup and butter. The puréed pancakes were really thick but some syrup helped them slide down along with cranberry juice. He finished his pancake and all of his juice. 

     He still has a fever and chills, he is wearing his blue knit hat and has an extra blanket. He looks like a lumberjack with that hat on.

     He has slept most of the morning. The PT lady came in and massaged his hands with lotion and moved his legs. I put lotion on his feet.

    I tried strumming the uke. Bruce is gagging and coughing so much, it seems out of place, maybe tomorrow. 

   He ate most of his lunch, meat and taters with gravy, mater soup, chocolate milk and vanilla ice cream. The speech therapist gave him small chunks of peaches and he finished those off just fine. So we are approved for Mac and cheese.

     

     My path is not very straight. I found some pretty fall leaves on the walk today. My friend Chris showed me how to pick the leaves with color. I will use them for bookmarkers.

    Thank you Stephanie for the mystery books, I will love listening to them!

    For privacy concerns, here at SIACH we are known as 25. When the employees need help instead of calling a person by name over the Walkie talkie they use the room numbers. People are in and out of here quite frequently. Saw another gurney come in. 

     A friendly face today was Tom Isaacson. Thanks for swinging by. It is always nice to see a familiar face. And I loved the story of the child praying for us. 

   

     The PT are here, I helped wrap his legs, they do the binder around his waist and put pants on him. He is shivering so will need a heated blanket. I want a blanket oven like that for my house.

       He has been sitting up for three hours. It really helps with congestion.

       For dinner he drank beef bullion, hot cocoa (we have decided he will have this when he is shivering) some beef and gravy with nasty peas mixed in (his bm will have an interesting color) and for dessert chocolate ice cream. 

      Grandpa K is listening to a Tale of Two Cities by Charlie Dickens, free audio book on iPodcasts ap. No this is not a commercial, just me bragging that I found one free audio book. My techno abilities are improving.

    Going to call it a night, am very tired.

     

Monday, Monday

     Took a wrong turn coming here this morning. I thought I would try a different route.

 Stupid traffic.

     For breakfast more purée tidbits, omelette, bacon (Bruce says to tell Andrew not to have his bacon puréed, nasty) and apple juice. He was nauseous again so didn't eat much. 

     I shaved him with the electric razor (only got two ouches this morning) wiped the boogers out of his eyes and brushed his pearly whites with toothpaste and suction. No I do not want to do this now let a alone for a living.

   He has a fever and can't breathe through his nose, they suctioned him, removed the trach cap and I put more heated blankets on him. He is getting Tylenol now. They will do cultures and a chest X-ray. We close the door to keep the room warmer.

     The Dr has ordered blood, mucus and urine samples (oh my) and antibiotics, they think he might have pneumonia. We will see the results soon.

     The insurance company called about Andrew's wreck. "What happened this week end?" they ask. I get to explain why Andrew is not living with us and how the wreck occurred. They explain to me that he is covered and any treatment the others involved will need is covered. I gave them Bishop Huntsman's phone number. Thank you dear Bishop.

     I went for a walk and had lunch, nice comfort food, Mac and cheese. 

     Seen on the walk today.

     Can you see the water fountain in the center of this pond? I think my grandchildren would like it. They would use it for a target and throw rocks at it...

    The fever has subsided and he is drinking some milk. He still whisper talks. 

       I fed him some yogurt and apple juice, he is worried about dehydration.

The speech therapist said he could move to the next step of food; Mac and cheese, oatmeal and tater salad, more comfort food. Boo rah!

      This place is a melting pot. There is a man in a wheelchair and his wife from Russia. She taps his head with the back of her hand when he does something she doesn't like, they are older like us. He was wearing a Bronco blankie, we told him we were ducks, quack, quack. She said their whole house is orange and blue. 

    There is a nurse from Nigeria, Bruce was telling her about our daughter going to Ghana to help. The nurse said 'Tell her I love her." 

     There are Hispanics here with the cutest children, I just want to hug them.

   We are listening to Mo Tab music, it is soothing.

They just brought in another gurney and took someone away on a gurney. 

     They gave him muscle relaxer and something to settle his stomach. 

   The OT lady is here. He can do hand circles with his left hand, better than last week. She said for every day flat in bed, it takes three days of recovery, because they lose so much muscle. 

    As for Andrew wrecking the truck, He is in a tie for second place with wrecking cars. His sister came in first when she wrecked the car the day she got her license. Dan wrecked another truck while working one summer, too fast a turn on gravel. Riding the bus is cruel and unusual punishment for a Sr, humility is hard to learn at his age. 

      Still haven't heard the results of the testing this morning. Hope to hear tomorrow.

I left him hot and feverish. They were going to give him Benadryl to help him sleep, no nightmare side effects. He said he hadn't slept in three days. He was watching a football game on mute.

     

     

      

A Quiet Sunday

     Went to Sacrament meeting this morning, testimony meeting, a young father had blessed his newborn baby, he said it was the sweetest thing, that and getting married in the temple.  I think at his time in life it is as he says, it was for us. Now going through this experience, having been deprived of the sacrament for four weeks makes being able to take the sacrament the sweetest thing.

     

  Grandpa K ate most of his breakfast, yogurt, very sour orange juice, and some puréed pancakes with syrup. 

     He is shivering, can't get him warm, we put his hat on him and some heated blankets. He is sporting an oxygen tube in his nose. The nurses said his count was down. 

    We tried listening to a church talk on cd and it put him right to sleep. 

 For lunch we had some nummy puréed roast beef, smashed taters and gravy, applesauce, chicken bullion, milk and vanilla pudding. He ate almost everything. Not the bullion, it got cold and he didn't finish his milk. I hand feed him, he can only lift his hand about 5 inches. He really enjoyed the warm bullion. It takes about 30 minutes to feed him. He takes two bites of food and then a liquid. 

     

    Brother Robison and Harrison Cole, a young priest gave him the sacrament. Bro R said he would see if he can find a set of scriptures on tape for us to use. That should put him out really fast. 

     He sat up in a chair about an hour today. They check his blood pressure and oxygen, a change of position causes a change in oxygen and bp.

    For Sunday supper he had roast beast puréed, more taters and gravy, milk and vanilla pudding. He ate all the pudding and about half the taters and beef. He had a swallow of Apple juice too.

    We got to talk to Rob and Luke on Face time. I love seeing our grandchildren, ahem. I mean talking to our sons. Bruce could see them and he doesn't look so scary now with only an oxygen tube in his nose. They could hear his Batman whisper and talk to him too. It was a nice ending to a quiet Sunday.

    

     And no I don't know why some parts of the blog are underlined. Perhaps this machine is haunted. 

Rainy Day in Boise

     Mom, Bonita and I had breakfast at the hotel, it was nice, went to Wal Mart for a couple of items and to the Mall. 

     Saw Audrey Simonis at the mall, she wanted to know how Bruce was, got a nice hug from her. She looks good.

  Grandpa K said he had an egg and potato meal. He was excited to say he gets to keep a water pitcher and cup and straw to drink whenever he wants. He is easy to please. 

     Mr. Gregory, another La Grande principal, stopped by for a visit while I was gone, Bruce said they talked school stuff.

   Hated to bid a fond adieu to mom and baby sistah, time passes quickly with family. They did leave me with a bag of almond m&ms, a celestial comfort food indeed. 

     Andrew called late last night he had wrecked the pick up. Sigh. He was following someone to Kirkhams last night, that car stopped for a deer and he tried to slow down and they both went off into a ditch. They thought he might have a concussion, but Bishop says he is fine. He has to take it easy for a week. He will get a nice badge of courage on his nose.  Derek has a fracture on his right wrist and a girl from Union was in a neck brace, thought she might have whiplash but turns out she is okay. Bishop said they were all in shock but we're better after the trip to ER. Bishop said they would tow the truck to his house, will make a lovely lawn ornament. Bishop said they will have to go back out and rebuild the fence. Looks like Andrew will get cited and probably go to drivers school. He owned up to it and said it was his fault. He has potential, must be his upbringing. 

      We received a card from Paris France. Now who do we know in Paris you ask. Good question, we asked ourselves the very same thing. Turns out to be family friends from a while back, the Geracies, our children played soccer with their family. He said they lit a candle for us in Notre Dame. Thank you for thinking of us, small world.

    Bruce is resting now, he had a rough night, didn't get much sleep, dry mouth since they removed the mist. He did get a shave, and they removed the dog collar and they put a smaller size trach in, so those are the pluses. 

   For lunch he ate a couple bites of mater soup, vanilla pudding and smashed taters and gravy with pepper. He enjoys each mouthful and takes his time eating.

    He has been feeling nauseous, don't know if it is eating on top of the bottle food, dizziness from moving or what. He does have a slight fever. They changed his mattress back to an air mattress. 

     We were listening to a murder mystery on Cd, or at least I was, someone else in the room dozed off. This is the second time I have listened to it, it was fun the first time, I want to move on and find out "who done it", might have to back track tomorrow. He says he likes it. It keeps his mind occupied. We tried watching cable TV and all they had on were terrible horror shows, go ahead call me close minded, those are not our thing. 

     And no I did not practice on the pink ukulele. 

    Another rainy day in Boise, Idaho.