Why the Redwood Forest slideshow?

Judy had always loved trees, and in 2008 we spent some time among the California Redwoods. Some of the ingredients in Judy's chemo cocktail were derived from trees (not Redwoods but Yews). We always knew that Judy loved the trees, and the trees got their chance to repay her affection.



Wednesday, October 1, 2008

A rough night behind us


Here she is: peacefully resting in the morning sunlight after a rough night.

It is Wednesday morning around 9:00 a.m., and after all those advances yesterday that were so promising Judy had an extremely rough night. She had a lot of dry heaving, sounding like a cat with a giant hairball. All this heaving of course meant that her incision was jiggled around and she got little rest. Around 3:30 a.m. she finally threw up quite a bit of liquid--I didn't measure it but it was probably close to a pint.

After that she slept quite a bit better--until she decided to try to go potty by herself and I heard all the commotion. Bad idea, and I told her so. She had told me that she'd let me know when she had to go, but in her stubbornness she thought she could do it herself. I made her promise to let me know. Her incision is hurting.

The first medical staff started to filter in around 6:30 a.m. How is a person to get any rest? The dry heaving has fairly well subsided, but she is obviously weaker than yesterday. She's running a temperature that has steadily (but very slowly) risen since last night. So, there were blood samples to figure out where there might be an infection. Then they wanted a clear urine sample, so that was taken by reinserting a catheter (not permanent--just for the sample). And thus it goes: Right now we're waiting for her to be taken to radiology, for X-rays. They wanted to transport her in a chair, but I protested and now they've taken her on a stretcher.

The way things look, I doubt that she is going to leave here on Thursday. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

Jürgen

4 comments:

MichelleL said...

Sorry to hear of the rough night. Unfortunately that is not at all unusual with this big of a surgery. Seems like you take a few steps forward and one back but that will get better. Taking it slow and waiting until everything is right before going home will help in the long run. Try not to get discouraged and rest, rest, rest. (Please don't get annoyed at the medical staff--some of us have to make rounds very early!) :)Lots of love and hugs,

Michelle

MTB_Chik said...

Wishing both of you more peace through the days. Don't forget to take care of yourself too Jurgen!

Loads of love,
Cath and John

Ann said...

Hope things are better by now. Sorry you had a rough night. Please know both of you are in our thoughts, prayers and hearts.

Ann & Jimmy don

Sandi said...

Judy,
So sorry to hear about your rough night. Try not to be so stubborn. So many accidents happen when the patient tries to "not bother" anyone. Please be careful. My heart goes out to you for trying to be independent, but sometimes we don't always do what is best by pushing ourselves so soon. Listen to your friends. Wish I was there for you.
Love you,
Sandi