Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Good Night, Sleep Tight

Tonight I even got to talk to him a little!

Mom called me this afternoon when she finally saw him after the post-op recovery. He swam back up out of the meds for a minute and she went to him and told him, --k is very happy to hear you're okay. You're doing just fine, the surgery went beautifully.

She said he opened one eye and kind of smiled at her and tried to say something, and went out again.

Much later, he was awake again and wanted to tell her something.

He was groggy and hoarse but he wanted to be sure to talk to me for a few minutes. Swimming in and out of sedation, he got my mom to understand what he wanted. He was by a phone, and kmom asked me to call it. Cell phone reception isn't so good there.

So I did and I talked to him for a little while.

He said he was fine, his chest hurt some but they had him on lots of pain meds. Tomorrow he thinks he'll be more awake and we can talk more. I told him he did great, the blockage was really bad so we're all very glad he was so lucky. He said that's good, we can talk about all that tomorrow. Now he had to go back to sleep again. Okay, I said; you rest, baby, just rest and sleep.

This was one of the finest conversations in my entire life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jean tells me Blogger is having one of its intermittent *Comment Fits,* so don't anyone worry if you can't comment. I'll try to keep you updated as best I can. For a while I just figured every blogger in blogdom was out Christmas shopping at the same time.

The ID doc wants me off antibiotics until my new arm lumps get biopsied on Wednesday. This is one of the few times I disagree with her. She's not sure it's MRSA. I wasn't convinced myself, really, but a few hours after I left her office I was. I think I'm just getting too good at catching it quick.

Not that I'll ever, ever, complain about developing that skill, huh?

If I hold out till Wednesday I can get it done at the world class dermatologist's down in Miami. I'd like that. But I think it may spread too fast. It started as a barely red lump in my right arm, then I felt three small bumps under the skin. To me it seemed like a lymph node, then MRSA spreading up the lymph vessel, where it tends to set off more lumps as it creeps into more lymph nodes.

Would I have preferred to wait on another infection until I was sure Walter was okay?

Hell yes.

But you know something? It sure is fine to just sit back here tonight, feet up in front of the computer like usual, and think how wonderful he sounded on the phone.

He made it. He made it through.

6 comments:

Walrilla said...

Congratulations on Walter, we were praying for him. Now you get that taken care of. I had the colony move up my leg and create a new spot. Oh, well, I didn't want to go dancing, anyway.

Hugs and best wishes, darlin'!

Walrilla

Pretty Lady said...

Good.

Mickysolo said...

Glad he's doing well. Been there twice myself.

How's your leg and your new scooter?

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

Sweet dreams. ZZZzzzz zz z

k said...

walrilla, oh no! Did they take you off your antibiotics too soon, maybe? What do they have you on? Last I checked your boo-boo pics your leg looked like it was on its way toward healing, but those suckers are too stubborn for words sometimes.

mickeysolo's got recurring MRSA too. And where'd he first get it from? The exact same incision Walter got - where they plug in the heart cath through your femoral artery. (correct me if I've got any of this wrong, guys, okay?)

mickeysolo, Poor Mr. Foot is probably not going to get much better now. He's got a fairly significant amount of new damage, internally. The skin, muscle tissues, vessels, yada yada, same as before. It's always hard to guess how permanent that damage will be, it still heals slowly for a year or more.

But just going by how the 2004 abscess healed over time? He's got about as better as he's gonna get. Result? the blood and lymph circulation is even worse, the likelihood of dormant MRSA colonies even higher, and the permanent pain level increased.

The risk of a third infection in the same place is now higher, and another one will probably be more difficult to overcome. A third strike there could be fatal. Remember, the second one went from foot to mid-thigh, permeating the entire leg, in less than 48 hours.

Meaning, the good news is, the scooter is so important to keeping me off that foot, it can literally mean the difference between keeping Mr. Foot stuck on me, and not. See why I got so mushy on everyone?

Here's the program: Don't walk on him. Elevate elevate elevate, most every minute of every day. Keep that blood glucose in control. Keep stress down to an absolute minimum.

Ha! Did you know you, walrilla, and me all have both diabetes and recurring MRSA? You two guys both have heart issues? I was diagnosed with a MVP at one point but if I ever get back to my cardiologist I think she'll undiagnose me.

The latest in imaging can actually look at the valve now and it wasn't prolapsing, yay! I saw it myself on the screen. The heart pain is probably just more RA-type inflammation, got a lot of connective tissue there. Hey, fine by me.

I have some great new scooter adventure pix to post, which if Walter would stop running around having heart attacks and bypasses and things, I just KNOW I'll get around to posting.

Northwoods Woman said...

LOL how dare Walter take away your time like that! That man has some nerve! LOL
You two are killing me with worry you know that?