No Place Like Home

Today was the longed for day in my father's week!  The day they pulled his chest tube & let him "go free".  The past week has been very hard on him.  Not so much because of pain from the pericardial windows surgery, but because he HATES to be cooped up.  He felt helpless because he had so many tubes & monitors hooked up to him, he couldn't even stand up without help from the nurses.  As each thing was removed one by one, the more he was able to be mobile.  He walked the hall (with the nurse's help because of his chest tube) as often as he could.

He often expressed his desire to go home, to family, friends, nurses, doctors & anyone else who happened to enter his room!  Dr. Gray, the surgeon rounding for Dr. Sowden, told my dad that he wasn't "going to release him until he felt it was safe, no matter how many times (my dad) told him that he was OK to go home."  My father, finally caught in his own game!  He was trying to lead a horse (in this case, Dr. Gray) to water to make him drink, & even with salting his oats, he wouldn't budge!

He finally had the chest tube removed at 2:00 this afternoon.  The nurse was able to close up the little hole in his stomach & he had to wait for 2 hours before he could be discharged, just to make sure he didn't have any bleeding problems related to removing the chest tube.  He watched the Colts play, talked to Connie, Josiah & I about things, got dressed & then sat in the chair, waiting for the clock to hurry up & hit 4:00.

His nurse, Cindy, gave him a lot of discharge papers, had him sign a couple of papers & then he was ready to head out.  We loaded his stuff into my Jeep & headed home, where he belongs.  The weather is so beautiful, so I opened the sun roof & all of the windows so that he could feel the fresh air he craved all week.

His doggies, Emma & Micah, were very happy to have him home again.  We took his things into the house & sat & talked with him for a bit, to make sure he was OK, & then we left him in his home, sweet home.  I think he will spend as much time as he can today sitting in his chair in the front of his house, listening to the birds sing, looking at the blazing fall color in the trees, smelling the freshness of the air in the Grabill area...  If you see him out there, be sure to stop & say hello!

A Better Day

Well, day 4 of my dad's recovery from heart surgery was improved more than yesterday.  Unfortunately he didn't sleep much last night because they gave him some medication that made him hallucinate & he didn't sleep at all.  In spite of being very tired, he had several accomplishments today.

First, he had the suction removed from his chest tube.  All this time he has been tethered to his bed by a tube that went from a suction port on the wall to his chest tube fluid container (sorry, I don't know what else to call the thing).  Since his surgery he had suction pulling fluid from his lungs.  He is continuing to have fluid drain from his chest, but just with the assistance of gravity.  This enabled him to be able to get out of bed on his own, which was really exciting for him.  Because he didn't have that tube stuck to the wall, the nurses allowed him to walk the halls a couple of times today.  You probably know what a walker he is, & this encouraged him greatly.  He was also taken off of Coumadin, leaving him with fewer IV tubes to tie him up.

The biggest encouragement he had today was all of the visitors who took the time to come & spend some time with him.  He still had some problems with his thinking being cloudy, but he really enjoyed the conversation & prayers of those who visited.  He's such a people person!

We had a good talk with his night nurse about some things they could try to help him sleep, so that is our primary prayer for the night.  We also are praying for clarification on a matter that has been a miscommunication between his surgeons.  Dr. Sowden, who performed the pericardial windows procedure, is out of town due to the death of his father (you can pray for the family).  Dr. Gray, another surgeon, is rounding for Dr. Sowden in his absence.  Dr. Sowden told my sisters, Bob & I some very specific & important things following my dad's surgery.  Unfortunately, he didn't chart those things, so Dr. Gray now believes the things Dr. Sowden insisted upon are not necessary.  We agree with Dr. Sowden's directives & are trying diligently to get this cleared up before the weekend so that my dad receives the very best care he can get.  Please pray that Dr. Gray will show deference to the verbal intentions Dr. Sowden gave us.

Thank you for your prayers & support of our family.  It's been a long week for all of us & it's only by God's grace & mercy that we have made it this far.  Oh, I forgot to mention that my niece Abbi Bussen has not had an appendectomy as of yet, but it's kind of a day-by-day thing.  If she has another appendicitis attack, Kristie has the surgeon's direct phone number & he said he won't hesitate to get her in for surgery.  She's still in pain but she is trying to go back to school & work tomorrow morning.  Please pray for Abbi's health & for Kristie, Todd & the doctors to have wisdom in caring for her.

Lookin' Good!

Visiting with my dad tonight.  He's sitting up in a chair, looking great.  He hasn't had any anti-nausea or pain meds for over 24 hours, so he's feeling better.  It's nice that he's back to normal!  He got a PICC line today because he's receiving a medication (Amiodarone) which is caustic in small veins (like in the hand).  Instead of moving his IV site every day, the PICC will deliver the medication through a catheter which drips the medicine just above the heart.  He still has the chest tube & still has fluid draining.  Other than that, he is feeling very good.  Good enough to receive visitors!  So if you want to stop by & say "Hi!", he's in room 346.  He was told he will be here until Sunday, at the least, so not everyone needs to come on Thursday :-)

One Crazy Day

Wow will we all be glad when this day is over!  It hasn't been particularly terrible, but it also hasn't been especially good. We weren't sure what to expect today since it is the first anniversary of my mom's trip to heaven, but our creative God had a curve ball coming our way!

My dad woke up after a restless night feeling the strangest, weird feeling he's ever had.  He hates the way he's feeling because of the medications.  His pain isn't severe, so he has refused all pain medications.  He has had a lot of dizziness & severe nausea, even vomiting.  I don't ever remember my dad vomiting before in my life.

He still has the chest tube in, as well as an IV & lots of monitoring equipment, but in spite of all of the cumbersome clutter attached to his body, he walked the entire circle of the STICU.  All that walking through the neighborhood helped out!  He has been sitting up in a chair, but most of the day he's been in bed floating in & out of sleep.

While all of this was going on, we learned that my niece Abbi Bussen was sick & went home from school this morning.  Kristie took her home & Abbi got worse, so she then took her to the doctor.  Dr. Jakacki examined her & sent her immediately to the hospital for tests because he suspected appendicitis.  Her white count was elevated but the CT was inconclusive.  As I write this, Kristie & her ex-husband Todd are in the ER waiting for a surgeon to consult about Abbi's case & determine if she will be having surgery tonight or not.  I told her that we could probably arrange for her to share a room with my dad, but she didn't quite like that idea!

As far as visits go, he has requested that only family members visit at this time.  He also isn't taking phone calls because he can't think clearly enough to converse intelligently (he says).  Judging by some of the things he's said today, he is probably right!

Your prayers are definitely needed & appreciated.  As my dad would say, we don't know what the future will hold, but we do know Who holds the future.  Our faith is solidly in Christ our Saviour.  We are His servants & will endure until He calls us home!

Surgery is Over!

It's around 6:00 p.m. & my dad is on his way to the Surgery Trauma Intensive Care Unit for the night.  Dr. Sowden took about 4 pounds of fluid from his pericardium - twice what was removed last year!  He is puzzled as to the cause of the build up of fluid & can't guarantee that it won't happen again, but he hopes that the pericardial windows procedure will prevent further fluid build up.

Around 7:00 we went to see him in his STICU room.  He was very uncomfortable & had a lot of pain where Dr. Sowden removed his Xyphoid Process in order to get to his pericardium.  He has a chest tube in place which will allow fluid to drain from his chest cavity over the next day or two.  The respiratory therapist, Virginia, came in not long after we got into his room & began to make him breathe deeply, exhale & cough.  When she would have him cough, she would put both of her arms across his chest & lean onto her arms & then have him cough.  That made it less painful.  He didn't want to comply at first, but her persistance convinced him to get it over with!  He would have breathing treatments every 2 hours X 4 treatments & then would go to a treatment every 4 hours. 

His mouth was very dry & it bothered him.  He brought some cough drops, because for as long as I can remember, he has had a chronic dry mouth every night when he would sleep.  He has always had cough drops next to the bed.  Ice wasn't doing anything for him, so I slipped him a cough drop when there were no nurses in the room.

The visiting hours for the STICU are unique from other ICU's.  We went back in to his room at 8:30 & stayed with him until 9:30 when we got booted out.  Kristie, Abbi & others gave him a gentle massage of his shoulders & his feet.  His BP was high, but after he was massaged, it dropped to a very good level.  He felt like he might be able to sleep, so we said good night & prayed that he would have a peaceful night.

The preliminary plan is that Tuesday afternoon he will be moved out of STICU into a regular room.  He will be there for several days.  Since tomorrow is the 1st anniversary of our mom's passing, we are gathering as many of the grandkids that can make it & we are spending the afternoon & evening together, remembering the amazing woman we all knew & loved.  We are asking that no one visit on Tuesday for this reason.  Thank you for respecting our wishes.

As more progress is made & more information is available, I will pass it on to you.  Please pray for him to have his pain managed effectively, to sleep well in spite of his surroundings, to heal completely & for him to feel the peace of the Holy Spirit comforting him.  Your prayers are the greatest gift you can give him!  Thank you!

If you would like, you can post a comment for him below.  I will be sure that he hears everything you write to him.

It's Been A While!

Proud Papa & Rachel

 

Mom, Rachel & friend Kayleen

It has been too long since I've updated you all through my blog!  My last update was in May, & here we are in October!  I'll try to fill you in on the important stuff.


School ended for the year in early June, which meant that Colson graduated from Lakewood Park Christian School!  Somehow God has miraculously provided so that Isaac & Colson were able to attend & graduate from LPCS, & Josiah also attends.  We don't know why God chose to place our sons at that amazing school, but He has definitely used LPCS to shape the character of our boys.  We are so grateful that God has blessed us in this way.

Throughout the summer, Isaac worked for Paragon Landscaping, Colson worked for Phil's One Stop in Grabill & Josiah was my slave (at least he thought so!).  Bob continued to minister to the dying & had several opportunities to lead people to Christ before they died.

In early June, Bob had another TIA.  It has been a while since he's had one, and like every other time, we had to take him to the ER for tests.  They did a CT of his head & neck (to view his carotid arteries), and they also did an MRI of his head & neck.  Lab work came back normal, as did the other tests, so he was released to go home after a couple of hours in the ER.  They told us (as they do every time) that if he has symptoms like that again, we have to get him to a hospital right away because you never know when it's going to lead to another stroke.  Well, two weeks later he had another TIA, so we did the whole spiel all over again, with the same result.  Thank God Bob isn't having another stroke, but these TIA's were very expensive events because at that time Bob didn't have any insurance.  We have applied for aid from the hospital & are waiting to hear back regarding our appeal.

On June 26th, we celebrated what would have been my mom's 66th birthday.  We had a party at my dad's house & invited her close friends & relatives to come & remember her with us on her birthday.  Praise God for her birth!  The world is a better place because she lived.  My birthday is 2 days later, so on June 28th, I had more cake to eat!  That day was bittersweet because we learned in the morning that Roy Lemert, the quadriplegic that Bob was discipling, passed away in the night.  His spine was severed so far up that he was unable to breathe without a ventilator.  Somehow the tube attached to his trachea became lose & he didn't get the oxygen he needed.  He was only 31 years old.  Bob had been working with him to get his testimony worded well & memorized because Roy wanted to be a motivational speaker to teens.  He wanted to do whatever he could to warn them of the cost of living on the edge with drugs & alcohol.  Roy was in the process of memorizing his testimony when he died.  Ron Williams, our pastor at Pathway, spoke of Roy in his sermon the following Sunday.  He read Roy's testimony, & many people were very touched by it.  So many people wanted copies of it because they wanted to share it with people they knew.  Even in Roy's death, his testimony was speaking to the hearts of thousands of people.  Bob was honored to have been a part of Roy's life.

On Independence day, we had a lot of fun with our family.  First we went to my Aunt Cathy & Uncle Steve's house for the Anderson Clan 4th of July gathering.  My dad's 6 sisters & all of their families do a potluck & then we all sit around & listen to stories about my grandpa, grandma, great grandparents, great aunts & uncles & different people who impacted my aunts' & dad's lives.  Most of those stories are hilarious, especially with the way my aunts tell stories!  We always have so much fun with our family!  After our potluck we went to watch the fireworks in Leo.  We sat with my dad, Kristie & her daughter Abbi, as well as some of our kids.  This was the first time that we had been to the Leo fireworks, & we were very impressed by the quality of their show.

My dad's birthday is July 26th & this year he was turning 70.  We decided to have a little surprise party for him at Butler's Eatin' House, a restaurant that both he & my mom loved to frequent.  We invited his close friends & relatives to join us a week before his birthday.  We probably had around 50 people show up to eat together in my dad's honor!  It really touched him & lifted his spirits.

Also in July, Bob & I celebrated our 26th anniversary!  Our kids pooled their resources & gave us a very creative gift.  It was a foam puzzle with 4 pieces.  Inside each puzzle piece was a gift card.  They were putting together a weekend away for us!  How sweet!  We went to Indy for a couple days using their gift cards for gas, shopping, dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (our very favorite restaurant) & accommodations.  It was very relaxing & was a much needed get-away for us to reconnect.

August came & went all too quickly.  It was a busy month!  My mother-in-law, Nancy, celebrated her 80th birthday, then Jessica turned 24.  In the middle of the month, Josiah went back to school at LPCS (a complete miracle, again!) as an 8th grader.  Two days later Josiah celebrated his 14th birthday.  On the following day we helped Isaac & Colson move into their dorm rooms at Grace College.  No, they are NOT rooming together!  They had enough of that as kids & knew it wouldn't work in college.  Colson rooms with Austin Altimus

In September, Rachel turned 23.  She invited her friends as well as her family members who were old enough (21) to celebrate with her at Rack & Helen's in New Haven.  She has told us numerous times about their amazing food, so we were eager to join her.  We had a lot of fun that night.  The pulled pork was unbelievable!  It was so tender & the sauce was perfect.  One order was 1 pound of meat, so Bob & I shared it & even had some to take home!

Throughout all of these months, I had a regular routine.  Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday of every week I went to Dupont Hospital for my infusions (I now have an infusaport that is implanted under the skin on the right side of my upper chest).  After I finished my infusion each day, I had to hang around Fort Wayne for an hour or so to kill time until it was time for me to go to Dr. Jakacki's for my Rocephin shot.  Then I went home, made dinner & crashed.  Thursday was my "day off", meaning I didn't have to go to the hospital or the doctor.  Friday I had to go to Dupont Hospital again, but only to receive a bag of magnesium diluted in saline.

My treatment regimine is exhausting!  Monday - Wednesday are especially draining.  because the antibiotics make me feel nauseated & fatigued.  Thursday I would love to have as my day to rest up from the prior 3 days, but instead I usually spend it running errands that I can't do on the other days of the week.  By Friday I'm a little more "normal".  I'm still very tired, but I'm able to function at a higher capacity.  Saturday I'm OK usually, & Sunday I'm whipped by the early afternoon.  Then I start it all over the next day.  The treatment is having an effect, for sure.  My thinking has become more clear & I have noticed a big change in my memory.  My joint pain has improved & as long as I keep the magnesium flowing through an IV, my muscles cramp a lot less & feel a little less wobbly.  We praise God that Dr. Jakacki found the root cause of my myriad of health problems!

It is so hard to believe that it is October now.  The past year has been the hardest year of my life because my mother is no longer with us physically.  The 1st anniversary of her passing is October 4th.  I think of her every day, many times each day & miss her terribly.  Sometimes grief sneaks up on me out of nowhere & I start crying.  Our family talks of her all the time.  In every conversation we bring up a memory of her & laugh at some of the funny things she did.  She filled our hearts with great memories of generosity, kindness & uncommon servanthood.  Right now, who knows what she is doing in heaven.  She told us that she was going to spend some time investigating planets & star systems.  In her heavenly thinking, she's only been there a very short time.  To us who are left here, the past year has seemed longer than most.

The big news to report to you is that my dad is having health problems.  Last Thursday he saw his cardiologist because he was having difficulty breathing & his chest felt heavy.  After an EKG & echo cardiogram, his doctor sent him over to a cardiovascular surgeon for a consult.  That was when it was decided that he would be having surgery on Monday, October 3rd.  There is fluid filling his pericardium, like it was last October.  This time, instead of repeating the procedure where they use a large syringe to draw the fluid out, he will actually have surgery.  The doctor will create an incision, commonly sub-xiphoid, & cut a small hole in the pericardium to allow the fluid to drain.  Then the surgeon will place a small drainage tube into the hole in the pericardium, which will allow any fluid that builds up in the future to drain into the abdomen, where the fluid will be absorbed.

The surgery is scheduled for Monday afternoon.  Tuesday, the 1st anniversary of my mom's passing, he will definitely be an inpatient.  Connie, Kristie & I made sure that all of our kids would take off work / school so that we could spend the day together.  We will spend time entertaining him, remembering my mom & loving on each other.

I will post a short note following my dad's surgery to let you know how he is doing & to communicate his preferences regarding visits & phone calls.  Please pray for him to be at peace throughout the entire process, to be comfortable, to recover completely.  Pray for his surgeon to have complete mastery of his skills & to make wise decisions throughout the procedure.