Mid Week Update

Hi all, we haven't forgotten you but we are getting settled back in and I had to get back to the business of running my business. Mom is continuing to recuperate but we did have a little 'hiccup' last weekend. Last Thursday, you may recall, she had her first visit with our internist who was very pleased with her recovery but concerned with the healing of her incision. We were actually concerned also, and rather expecting this. He gave her an antiobiotic cream ~ wow, so expensive!!~ and by Friday evening it looked so much .....worse! Yep, never fails does it. You need your doctor over the weekend, your car breaks down on a holiday, the kids get sick during spring break.. Dad called me late Friday evening and asked if we could come by and give them a second opinion. Low grade fever, incision looking rather angry. Yes, we concur, it doesn't look so great. We called the doctor on call for our internist, who hadn't seen mom of course, and he recommended being seen either at a minor med for antibiotics or preferably the ER. ugh. The dicussion went something like this... "What do we think about minor meds?"-me, "If we go there with a patient that is 2 1/2 weeks post op for open heart surgery and they don't send her immediatly to the ER, I would be worried"- Dad, "If we go to the ER, there will be all of those sick people and germs"-Mom, "It's Friday night, they will be packed!"- Jim. It was a tough decision and now about 10:30pm.  "Let's call the on-call doctor for the surgeon at Cleveland Clinic" Jim suggested. Great idea. Let me interject something here very quickly. You will have to think about this for a moment; how exactly does one describe an 'angry looking' incision (I will spare you the details for Mom's privacy) over the phone to a doctor 900 miles away. Let me tell you, it isn't that easy. At any rate, same conclusion. It definately needed to be treated, but it could possibly wait until Monday am if her fever stayed under 101. Excellant. I recommeded warm compresses and taking her pain meds on a regular basis as it has Tylenol in it and discontinued the Bactriban just in case it was causing irritation. Well, it turns out I was partially correct. Mom made it to Monday morning and they were at the doctors office early. I was just sure that he was going to put her back into the hospital on antibiotics but fortunately he put her on really strong oral antibiotics and had her start back on the topical antibiotic cream plus oral sulfur. Oops, my bad on the cream. At any rate Mom was feeling much improved by Tuesday and her fever was down. She had a recheck on Wednesday by Laura, our FNP who said things were looking good, and her white count was back in range. The best part is her oxygen saturation has improved as well. In fact, they are hopeful that within the next month she may be able to discontinue the oxygen. It's not really funny, but we sort of tease her about not being able to hide out anymore; we just follow her oxygen tubing to find what room she is in. Of course, Dad has her rigged up where she can go anywhere downstairs without moving the oxygen generator. Now that she is feeling better she is back to walking and in fact walked outside four times yesterday, each time increasing the distance by about 10' or so. She will start cardiac rehab after she has her visit with the cardiologist mid April. She may even be in a marathon before you know it!

I had the pleasure of presenting Mom and Dad with a check from your donations this weekend. They were so surprised at the generosity and are so appreciative. For those of you that donated anonymously, they say "Thank You" very much. Additionally, they have received so many cards and emails. It is wonderful to see how many caring and concerned friends are continuing prayers and support. Our entire family thanks you from the bottom of our hearts. You will never know how much the support has meant for all of us. So, even though I am still posting for Mom, I am signing off this time from all of us..

Shirley and Bill
Rick and Diane- Melissa, Kristy,Michelle, Adam & great-grandson Landon
Cheryl and Jim - Erik, Kris, Katie, Stacy & Shawn

*Photos other than those taken in Cleveland are provided by granddaughter Katie.