Latest Updates from Van:
Look!!! A Bird!!!: Saturday's Report
Written 14 hours ago
I stayed with Kim up until 3 AM Saturday, and when she had gone to sleep, I left. Had two dogs to to let out, since they had been in the house since I left at 7 PM. While I was with Kim, it was extremely difficult to understand what she said. I mean. all men know that all women speak nothing but gibberish, anyhow, but this was full on, undecipherable by even a woman, gibberish!!! The nurse said that it's not uncommon. She's been on so many meds for two weeks, been sleep deprived, and just exhausted. The drugs linger in the system for a day or two, then the fog clears up. I guess, at that point, we'll return to the standard pre-accident gibberish.
I got back up to the hospital about 1 PM, and Kim had been eating a popsicle (she's on a clear liquid diet for now). She was better than last night, but still a little gibberish comes out. I got word that her leg surgery is scheduled for 8AM Sunday morning.
I spent the day with her until 6PM, when visiting hours ended. We went through more birthday and get well cards, and just spent some time together. I am not going back up there tonight, as I want to be well rested for her tomorrow. Hopefully she gets some sleep tonight.
No more stories about countries Kim may have infiltrated came out today. However, when the respiratory therapist came in to give Kim the forced air treatment that she's been getting every few hours, I told the therapist that Kim wasn't a big fan of the treatments yesterday. This was said while Kim had the mask on. Since she was unable to talk, she communicated to me with her right hand a universally known signal: The Bird. Kim's getting better by the minute.
The dog's are alive, the plants are hangin' on. Sorry to keep this short, gonna try and get some sleep so I can get up at 6 AM and be with Kim before she goes back for surgery.
More news tomorrow.
Hitch
Written 4 hours ago
There's been a hitch this morning. Kim was ready to go to surgery, we had met with the anesthesiologist an orthopedic surgeon (finally met him in person), an everything looked food to go. As they were preparing everything, within five minutes, Kim's oxygen saturation level dropped from the 94-96% range to 77%. They immediately began forced air treatments and working to get her level back up. In light of this development, the anesthesiologist did not want to risk surgery, and the likelihood that they would have to insert another breathing tube, only to have to wean here off of it again. Surgery is, at the least, postponed to later today, and possibly cancelled for today. I will address when I know.
The Root Beer Chronicles: Early Sunday Update
Written 1 hour ago
Per the on call doctor, Kim's leg surgery has been cancelled for today, and possibly for tomorrow. The doctors have her on a BiPap machine, which is more of the forced oxygen with a mask over her face. I wasn't allowed to go back into the ICU until just after 11, and when I walked in, Kim had taken the mask off, and was working on taking her collar off. Not good.
We got the situation under control, and I found out that while I was gone, the respiratory therapist (Kim may be calling her the respiratory terrorist at this point) went through the nose and down the throat to suction as much crap as possible out of the throat and lungs. Glad I wasn't there for that one!!!
It is believed that a mucous "plug" had partially obstructed her airway, and she doesn't yet have the strength to cough it up or out. The suction removed it, as well as a bunch more junk.
Anyhow, Kim was not cooperating at all in regards to getting the mask back on, and she was demanding root beer, her favorite drink. We have come to a compromise at this point, that if the doctors and nurses approve it, I will get her some root beer from the cafeteria once this mask comes off after a couple of hours.
I think this also ties to the fact that I purchased a Mr. Root Beer home root beer making kit for her birthday, and I told her about it on Friday, after she was off of the ventilator. I told her that she had two options: We could stick with my original plan for us to make root beer at home together, or I could make some for her while she's in the hospital. I have a batch of root beer I have to make, apparently. Looks like I'm gonna be a root beer bootlegger while she's in the hospital. I can tell you this much, I haven't tasted it yet, but when I opened the box, the smell was like pure root beer heaven.
More updates tonight.
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There has been a couple of other postings on the family site with personal information that hasn't been included. So if something seems missing that is why.
