I am so sorry for the delay in the "We are Home" update....but We Are Home! Well homeish! We are staying at David's mom's house because she does not have any steps, there will be someone here 24/7, and she has already gone through this with him so she knows how to help out! Not sure exactly how long we will be here but it will probably be a few weeks.
Several have asked for the address in order to send cards or such
203 Cleveland Ave.
Lancaster, Ohio 14130
So Monday we a pretty eventful day. David was taken down to the O.R. around 6:30am for his surgery to remove his PD catheter. We were told that the surgery was supposed to be at 7:30am. I walked down to the surgical waiting area and was looking for his tracking number. Once I finally go it I was really confused because it was past 7:30 and it was still saying he was in preop. And the surgical start time kept getting later until it said 9:30. I was so confused. I even asked the lady at the desk and she said they didn't have him scheduled until 9:30. Finally my buzzer when off and I went up to the desk and they told me preop wanted to talk to me so I had to go to a certain phone. At this point I thought something was wrong and the surgery was going to be cancelled. The nurse on the phone explained that an emergency surgery came up and David's got bumped back. So she let me go to preop and sit with David until they took him back. He didn't end up going back until 10 and was done by 10:30. He didn't get back to the room until 11:30. They ended up giving him the last dose of the chemo type drug which took 4 hours. So he wasn't done until 5:15.
Then this happened.............
So....the story of why we ALMOST didn't go home on Monday. David had gone in to use the restroom (did I mention he pees a lot!) lol and he yelled to me "Alice go get the nurse!!" I had slightly dozed off, I jumped up and ran to get her (not knowing what was going on). When I came back with her David was standing in the bathroom and the incision from that mornings surgery to remove his dialysis catheter was leaking out clear fluid, lot's of clear fluid. To the point where it was dripping on the floor so he had to hold a towel to it. His stomach in that area was also a lot more swollen than it previous was. Our nurse had never seen anything like that before and she was pretty concerned. She called the doctor and there was an intern with another patient on the floor so he was going to come over when he finished. Our nurse did mention that just as warning this could prevent us from going home today.
The doctor came in about 15 minutes later and took a look, he said that everything was fine. What was happening was (as far as I understand it) David has some dialysis fluid left in his stomach in that area and when they removed his catheter from his belly his body left "tracks" from where it layed inside his stomach for so long so the fluid moved to those tracks once it was removed and it was now leaking out of the incision. He put a new dressing on it, told us to try to keep it as dry as possible so the incision would heal up, and WE COULD STILL GO HOME!!!!
David still had to have his central line pulled out by this point so his nurse came in and prepared to do that. they use two stitches to hold it in place, so she had to remove those and then pulled it out. David had to lay flat for 30 minutes after that because he could bleed out if he didn't. While he laid I took a load of stuff out to the car and picked up stuff from the pharmacy.
When all was said and done....We left the hospital by 7:30ish.. We swung by our house to pick up a few things and then headed down to his moms house.
We ate something real quick and we both hit the bed!!
Yesterday we slept! I had to run a few errands in the morning but then I took a nap. I had to run to Westerville for a student teaching orientation. I actually really enjoyed getting away for a few minutes (even though I missed David and thought of him the WHOLE time). I got back ate and went back to bed. So I do apologize for the lack of updates yesterday....we were sleeping!
So from this point on David will have a home health care nurse come out twice a week for a few weeks, they will do his bloodwork, and check up on him. David goes back to see the surgeon September 14th and follows up with his nephrologist in October. We have to contact his Transplant coordinator if there are any problems that come up but otherwise we just monitor vitals at home, take medication, and get blood draws done.
We have had several families line up to provide us meals so we APPRECIATE that so much!!! We are so thankful for all the cards and gifts that have been given to us. Please know that we are using the gifts wisely to cover bills, medication, and gas. I am still waiting to find out how much his anti-rejection medication will be each month (not going to lie I am nervous about this) but God has brought us and provided for us this far He will not let us down now!
Karen is resting up at home. Her incision is bleeding a bit so she is heading back to OSU tomorrow for her surgeon to take a look at it to make sure things are ok. If you would like to send her a card or meal please just email me allie4donation@gmail.com I can pass that information along to you!
I am planning to head back to work on Monday. I am excited to get to know my kiddos but I am NOT looking forward from being away from David for so long!
Please continue to pray for healing of his incisions, swelling to go down, and pain to go away. Pray for Karen's incision to stop bleeding and everything to be good with that.
If you want to visit David please just call or text us. Again, if you are sick or been around someone who is sick please do not visit. Also, don't be offended if David wears a mask or if we ask you to wear a mask or use hand sanitizer. David does not really have an immune system right now so we need to keep him as healthy as possible. We don't want to overwhelm David with visitors but I know it will be an encouragement to him to see friends and family!
We love you all and I do promise to keep updating but for now....a nap!
love,
alice
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