Day #25- Medical Tower, Floor 6

DAY 25

HELLOOOOOOO Day 25!

We embrace you with joy because it means we are now only 1 or 2 days away from leaving! Saturday will be the latest that we will have to stay and we are excited to escape this routine and return to the "normal" chaos of our own little home.

Dr. Lichti came before I was able to get here this morning. He told my wife that there is really nothing else he can do for her at this point. He said that if her incision was to become infected that it would do it on the outside and not the inside, but we don't want to even think about the word 'infected' right now. He also said they will start the process to get her discharged. I am sure that it will be a mountain of paperwork. They need to set up home health and whatever else. However, if it means the front door of this establishment and then my house...BRING IT!

Well, we are off for one of her four doctor ordered walks, so we will be back when she comes in for a landing!

All the Comforts of home...NOT!

That was a fantastic walk. We got to explore the hospital and I was able to show my wife all the places she had heard us talking about, like the parking garage, the grassy area in front of the hospital where the kids played when they were here, the gift shop, Cafe West, and such. She was able to go for quite a while, and I enjoyed being able to show off my wife to the hospital public. :)

After we returned we settled down with our book, The Bishop's Bride and we read almost the entire book. We were doing good until the part at the end about an emergency C-section and then we both lost it. We had to stop reading for a while. Seriously...what is going on with us! It was time for lunch anyways, so I ran up and grabbed something to eat and ate with her in the room while she at her yummy tray of food.

After she ate, we went for the second of the assigned four walks. This time we went to yet another part of the hospital. I even walked her outside and around to the Cafe West entrance. We wandered a bit and returned her to her room. She is getting so good at walking, I almost forget that she has an abdominal wound. Her progress is definitely due to divine intervention. There is no other way that we would be in the wonderful position we are currently in. Believe me. The doctors are still in awe at her rapid recovery.

Flowers from our garden!

When we returned, we were able to finish off the book. We made it to the end without crying- that was a victory! It was a great read. Not too sappy, just a fun, quick read. We were pleasantly surprised (and we shouldn't have been surprised...I forgot I knew) with a visit from Stan and Teri Parsons. Teri came in the room with a big vase of fresh flowers and a quick explanation. These flowers are from our rose bushes and day lilly plants  from home. They were a VERY welcomed sight. We are very appreciative of the time and effort they put into bringing these (and thanks Morgan for helping her get them picked from the yard).

The Parsons stayed and visited for quite a while. It was nice to hear of home, share updates of lives, and laugh. All too soon they needed to get on the road to their next destination. We said goodbye and they headed out.

This took us to dinner time. Again, they forgot my wife's tray. It was almost an hour after dinner time when the door opened and the aide asked if my wife had not wanted her dinner. I told her she was never OFFERED her dinner. Grrrrrrrrr. After I got her settled in with her dinner,  I went down and grabbed some food (you will be proud of me- I have been taking the stairs each time I am alone. Let me tell you...six flights of stairs is A LOT of stairs!) and returned to eat with my wife. She was talking with her sister in PA, and we both had a great visit with her while we dined.

After dinner we went for one last walk for the night. That was our third of four. We didn't make the goal, but three good walks was awesome. This walk found us in the OR and Emergency area of the hospital. We were wandering down a random hall when we both stopped and looked ahead. It was the hallway from some horror movie where it is really long, white, doors all along the wall and no one in sight. We both decided to turn around and find a more inhabited area of the hospital.

After our walk, we settled in for a quiet last evening of reading and updating blogs and journals. We were again surprised to have my cousin Phil, his wife Melissa, and youngest daughter stop by. We were so excited to see them. We truly appreciate the time and effort it took to come and see us. They aren't far away, but when you have a young family, doing anything turns into an "event". So thanks for coming and visiting!

A Pedi from a friend

 Just as they were leaving, Kelly Perry arrived. She had called and told us that she wanted to visit. Since we hope to be leaving tomorrow, we are glad she was able to swing in! She gave my wife a pedicure (well, mostly a pedicure). They talked and talked and and laughed and visited. I chimed in here and there but spent most of the time writing in my daily journal.

I will be glad to have this over. I feel almost like I am now locked into writing everything down each day. I think what started as a way to remember everything has turned into a seemingly mundane task. I don't want to finish and I am getting weary of doing it. Anyways, it won't matter much longer and we will be glad to have such a descriptive record of this event.

I guess I should wrap this up and head back to the guest house. It is 12:36am and I am exhausted. My last night in the guest house. What a blessing that place has been over the past 25 days. Thank you to everyone who provided us with the financial assistance that allowed me to stay so close to my wonderful and now healthy wife.

My challenge to everyone who reads this post is to find the one(s) you love and tell them how much they mean to you and that you love them. Tell them now while you can! It is important to express those feelings frequently because you don't know when that chance will be taken away. Again, thank you for your calls, e-mails, texts, FB posts, and other help. We love you all...

Later...

Day #23- Adult ICU

Twenty-Three Days. Wow.
With it comes another angry day. I think it started when I called the doctors office of the man who assisted in my wife C-section about 7 weeks ago. I had called and asked to speak to their billing department (seeing how I had received his bill for assisting and considering I am a little busy helping my wife I didn't have access to the needed resources to pay it, and honestly, I was angry to even receive the bill) and was told that the billing lady was not in the office and could she call me when she returned. I gave them my cell-phone number and waited.

and waited...

and waited...

Finally the call came in. It went down something like this:

Me: Hello

Her: Is this John Hughes?

Me: Why yes it is.

Her: I am calling from Dr. Brady's office. I was told you had a question about a bill we sent you?

Me: Actually I was calling to tell you that I will not be paying the bill until I can get home. You see, I have been sitting with my wife in the ICU at Utah Valley Regional as a result of the surgery that Dr. XXXXX assisted with.

Her: (Stammering) Umm...ok...I will..uh...put a note on the file....um....stating that what you just said. ok?

Me: That would be great.

Her: Have a nice... (CLICK- I hang up)

Me: (In my head) Why us? I am SO angry about this! (To my wife) We don't have to worry about that bill until we get home.


The rest of the day has been spent waiting and waiting and waiting for them to move my wife to the 6th floor like was discussed at 9am this morning. In fact, the nurse that has been on shift has pretty much ignored my wife all day as they thought she would be moving. That helped me feel less angry, let me tell you.

I guess I am just mad because I should be home with my kids who need me, I should be sitting in my summer professional development classes learning what I need to know to be a better math teacher next year, I need to sort out the left overs of my school year...

Upon inspection you will notice that the last several sentences started with "I". It is pretty selfish, to say the least, and I know that. It just adds to the anger and frustration I already feel.

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (breath) HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...

There. I guess that helped a teeny tiny bit.

Let's turn our discussion to my wife. She has had an amazing day as far as accomplishing things. She has ALL tubes removed from her body, so she is up and down much more often now. The best part, she can get up and down almost all by her self now. The only part she needs help with (and she CAN do it if she has too) is get her feet back on the bed.

We even went for a pretty long walk. We went up by the ICU she started in and then down to the main lobby, around by the gift shop and up the elevators in the Adult ICU waiting room and around the Adult ICU square before coming in for a landing. She also had her last PT session this morning. So she is a PT graduate.

We did have a visitor this afternoon. Scott Roberston stopped in and visited with us for a few minutes. It was nice to see someone from home again. It helps to anchor me a little. I wish I could explain what I am feeling inside right now...

I am not sure I even know what it is, or what is causing it. Honestly, I don't even have the energy to try and figure it out right now. What I think I will do is go on a long walk and just not think about anything. I guess being numb has its advantages.

Maybe when I return and continue this post I will feel much better. Until then...

I did a lap around the hospital block...which is HUGE. I even blocked everything but breathing and walking out of my head. I can't tell you anything I thought about other than distance and how warm it was. Sadly, it didn't help. But, it was nice to be outside.

When I got back I helped my wife get out of bed to use the restroom and then dozed in my chair. My aunt called and asked if they could come and visit. They showed up not to long afterwards. We had a very nice visit. They were very kind and brought our baby girl a new little outfit and a very cute pink giraffe musical toy. For my wife, they brought a night gown and nice robe. It was very thoughtful and we appreciate it very much.

My wife had her dinner and did a good job eating. I was proud of her. She seems to be getting her appetite back slowly but surely.

This evening we have just chilled and watched TV. My 6 year-old did call to ask if he could play his DS, so I was proud of him for asking even though he knows we aren't home. We watched America's Got Talent, which is really just an embarrassment to America for most of the people they put on there. There are a few people with real talent, like the russian bar lady. But Tron guy...really? Or the needle lady that stuck needles through her legs...???

After AGT, we watched The Voice. I really like the format, I am just not really liking most of the contestants songs. You would think that music stars know how to choose songs for their teams, but, sadly it isn't so.

Well, I am going to be heading out to the Guest House in a minute. I am very tired and feeling very depressed. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

I guess I could add that we did NOT get moved to the main floor today. They didn't have any rooms. So we are still in the Adult ICU until one opens up...or I guess we go home. I am hoping for Friday of this week, but am guessing it will be more like Monday of next week. Only time and Dr. Lichti will tell...

Later...