Hi everyone - this is Karin! I'm on my computer for the first time. But honestly, I enjoyed it a lot more when Steve was just reading messages to me instead. ;) He's been taking such good care of me!!!! I'm not really enjoying this sitting up stuff too much thus far, although I did make progress this morning. This is my 2nd time out of bed now, and I've been in this chair for about 3 hours. But getting here was quite an ordeal. It was painful and then when I got here, I kept feeling like I was blacking out and the nurse gave me oxygen again. Hopefully I'll be able to get past all of this very soon. I don't think I'm going to be able to write much cuz I can't get very comfortable to do this right now.
My liquid lunch will probably be arriving shortly. The doctor hasn't come yet today, and I'm nervous about what his plans for me might be. I'm not eager to get rid of this epidural.
I have soooo appreciated all your wonderful messages!!!!!! I haven't been able to check email, but Steve has been reading me all the posts on the blog - and I've loved it!!!!! :) :) Thank you all sooooo much!!!!!! I even got a delivery today of printed out messages from the hospital's web site. Thanks for those too!!! That was fun to receive. :) And thanks for all the other special things that have arrived at my door!! Plus my family has delivered a ton of cards from home, so I have quite an arrangement of things on a counter across from my bed -- including pictures of my darling boys and 3 drawings taped on the wall that Kevin did for me this weekend. :) On one of them, he wrote "MOM" all by himself. And on another, he asked my mom to write this: "I love you and you love me! I'm sorry that you are sick and don't feel good."
Unfortunately, I ended up feeling pretty bad on Sat. night at the time the boys first came to visit. And Kevin was freaked out by all the tape on me. And I couldn't talk much, because I didn't have much energy. So fortunately, things went much better last night on their 2nd visit. It was great to be able to see and talk to my precious Kevin. :) And Kien's face just lit up with his mouth wide open, so-happy-to-see-Mommy smile!!!!! My dad stopped by this morning to say good-bye and to bring Steve a Starbucks before my mom took him to the airport. So my mom is now home alone with the kids, and it feels odd that Steve and I are hanging out here while my mom takes care of my kiddos. But they are definitely in great hands, and I'm soooo appreciative of all my mom is doing!!!!
Well, I think that's all for now. I want to lay back again.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Heavenly Helpers
Saturday morning, while we were at the hospital, some wonderful friends from church came over and did a bunch of yard work that's been over-due and I don't know when I would have time to get to. I'm SOO thankful for our heavenly healpers. The yard looks beautiful !
Karin was able to use my PC beside her bed to select the photos above :-) She's eager to resume being the blogger, and I'm looking forward to it too! :-)
Karin was able to use my PC beside her bed to select the photos above :-) She's eager to resume being the blogger, and I'm looking forward to it too! :-)
Peaceful Day
Today went by quickly and peacefully. Karin had some appetite today (though still a purely liquid diet), was in good spirits and well animated. She didn't get out of bed today though.. basically just because the nurse never pushed it, but the bed was up in a sitting position most of the day. She can move her arms and legs well, but at the end of the day she started feeling a bit stuck to the bed and actually getting interested in getting out, but she was able to shift around a little and start to feel better, and then the kids came to visit before bedtime and after they left she fell asleep. She's looking very good and definitely gaining strength.
Personal Nurse
Backtracking a bit.. More info about yesterday. A friend of ours who is a pediatric nurse had the day off work yesterday and offered to come help Karin. She's got a great bed-side manner, and being treated with the same gentleness as a kid is great for Karin! :-) So we took her up on the offer. She was here at two different times yesterday, for quite a few hours. She was comforting and a huge help. The nurses here are pretty good but they've got a lot to do. It was wonderful to have a personal nurse for a good part of the day yesterday, especially with getting Karin in and out of bed. It also enabled me to go get lunch yesterday without Karin being alone.
I hesitated to mention this yesterday, because Karin isn't ready for visitors in general, but Karin asked me to post about it today because it was such a blessing. :-)
I hesitated to mention this yesterday, because Karin isn't ready for visitors in general, but Karin asked me to post about it today because it was such a blessing. :-)
Painful Night .. Better Morning
Karin and I both were so exhaused last night that we were in a mental fog from about 10pm onwards. The night is pretty much a foggy blur to me. I have no idea how often we woke up. I slept next to her in a recliner (as I did the first night). This time I was facing her with my head near her feet. I recall on one occation in the night that after I woke she said that she had been poking me with her foot to wake me up.
Strangely she had more pain last night than the first night. Maybe some of the pain meds from surgery were still in her system that first night. Or maybe she was sleeping for longer stretches of time last night so not getting pain meds as often. I don't know how often we woke and don't really even remember much details of being awake, but I do recall her being in constant pain. I know yesterday I described that she has a local numbing medication via epidural to the incision area (her right side), which are delivered continously via a pump. She also has pain meds available via her IV, but these are on demand only. She has a button to press which will release a dose of the pain meds. It's limited by a machine so she cannot overdose. The first night I was making sure she woke up every hour or two to check on her pain level. Each time she was just in very mild discomfort, and pushed the button once. Since we were both very knocked out last night, I don't know how often we woke up, so her pain might have been increased just by not getting a dose of that general pain medication as often.
I just realized another difference between last night and the first night. The first night the bed was flat. During the day yesterday the head of her bed was adjusted to various angles at different times. She slept with the head of the bed still angled up at about 45 degrees. Maybe that contributed to her pain during the night. At some point during the night she was feeling uncomfortable because she had slid down to a slouched position in bed, and her and I worked together to get her scooted up to a more comfortable position.
At around 6am when Karin woke up hurting again, we both struggled to stay awake long enough to get her pain under control. The way the machine works, she can only release a dose of medication every 8 mintues. During the night we were generally so tired that we'd wake up only for a few minutes and fall asleep again before she was able to get enough medication into her system to get her pain under control. It was a really struggle to stay awake at 6 this morning, but we managed to do it and get her pain under control in about 30 minutes.
When breakfast arrived, Karin was actually starting to feel hungry for the first time since surgery, which is a good sign of improving. :-) Yesterday she only had a few spoonfuls of jello and broth and icees that I fed her. Today she was able to feed herself! :-) She was able to do this because she was able to be confortable with the bed proping her all the way into a sitting possition and her right shoulder (which was somehow injured from surgery) is feeling better today, so I wheeled a table over her legs and she could use a spoon in her right hand. She definitely ate more at breakfast than all 3 meals of yesterday combined, though it still was not a lot. She ate some jello and some beaf broth and drank a cup of apple juice and half an icee. She didn't have any nausea from eating at all.
During breakfast I opened cards that had been brought from the house yesterday and she was able to sit up in bed and right them herself, feeling very good.
Then her dad showed up with a pumpkin latte and muffin for me for breakfast! I didn't have a breakfast plan and was very appreciative of being taken care of myself while taking care of my Sweetie. Dad stayed for a little bit and they are taking the boys to church this morning. I'm staying with Karin.
It's 10 now and Karin is still feeling good and watching a little TV. She's feeling well enough that we've discovered what someone warned us about, that laugher after a surgery like this is not a good thing - it hurts.
We're not sure when she'll be ready for visitors yet. She will be forced out of bed again today at least once (I'm guessing maybe twice), and that could be tramatic.
Strangely she had more pain last night than the first night. Maybe some of the pain meds from surgery were still in her system that first night. Or maybe she was sleeping for longer stretches of time last night so not getting pain meds as often. I don't know how often we woke and don't really even remember much details of being awake, but I do recall her being in constant pain. I know yesterday I described that she has a local numbing medication via epidural to the incision area (her right side), which are delivered continously via a pump. She also has pain meds available via her IV, but these are on demand only. She has a button to press which will release a dose of the pain meds. It's limited by a machine so she cannot overdose. The first night I was making sure she woke up every hour or two to check on her pain level. Each time she was just in very mild discomfort, and pushed the button once. Since we were both very knocked out last night, I don't know how often we woke up, so her pain might have been increased just by not getting a dose of that general pain medication as often.
I just realized another difference between last night and the first night. The first night the bed was flat. During the day yesterday the head of her bed was adjusted to various angles at different times. She slept with the head of the bed still angled up at about 45 degrees. Maybe that contributed to her pain during the night. At some point during the night she was feeling uncomfortable because she had slid down to a slouched position in bed, and her and I worked together to get her scooted up to a more comfortable position.
At around 6am when Karin woke up hurting again, we both struggled to stay awake long enough to get her pain under control. The way the machine works, she can only release a dose of medication every 8 mintues. During the night we were generally so tired that we'd wake up only for a few minutes and fall asleep again before she was able to get enough medication into her system to get her pain under control. It was a really struggle to stay awake at 6 this morning, but we managed to do it and get her pain under control in about 30 minutes.
When breakfast arrived, Karin was actually starting to feel hungry for the first time since surgery, which is a good sign of improving. :-) Yesterday she only had a few spoonfuls of jello and broth and icees that I fed her. Today she was able to feed herself! :-) She was able to do this because she was able to be confortable with the bed proping her all the way into a sitting possition and her right shoulder (which was somehow injured from surgery) is feeling better today, so I wheeled a table over her legs and she could use a spoon in her right hand. She definitely ate more at breakfast than all 3 meals of yesterday combined, though it still was not a lot. She ate some jello and some beaf broth and drank a cup of apple juice and half an icee. She didn't have any nausea from eating at all.
During breakfast I opened cards that had been brought from the house yesterday and she was able to sit up in bed and right them herself, feeling very good.
Then her dad showed up with a pumpkin latte and muffin for me for breakfast! I didn't have a breakfast plan and was very appreciative of being taken care of myself while taking care of my Sweetie. Dad stayed for a little bit and they are taking the boys to church this morning. I'm staying with Karin.
It's 10 now and Karin is still feeling good and watching a little TV. She's feeling well enough that we've discovered what someone warned us about, that laugher after a surgery like this is not a good thing - it hurts.
We're not sure when she'll be ready for visitors yet. She will be forced out of bed again today at least once (I'm guessing maybe twice), and that could be tramatic.
Thanks for Comments
I've been reading the comment replies to Karin and she really enjoys hearing them. Thanks!
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