Anne: day 7

Friday Anne sat up in a chair for ten minutes. Saturday she went 30 minutes. This morning, Anne made it an hour! But, it took so much effort that she immediately went to sleep afterwards.

Today, I was invited to my drummer's home for lunch. While I was at lunch, Anne got out of bed and went to the sink to brush her teeth. The nursing staff has told her that she needs to get out of bed and move a bit to get her GI tract motivated. She has taken it to heart and is making what effort she can to not allow atrophy to set in.

 

Along those lines, they cut off the NG (nasal gastric) tube today and she didn't get nauseous. So it was removed and she was given permission to drink water and eat ice chips. Tomorrow she will begin on "clear foods" (tea, jello, etc.) and possibly take a very short walk.

The suture line looks clean and straight. Tara thinks that it will heal nicely and leave only a very thin scar. He didn't use staples, so there will be no "zipper" effect.

Liz, Dr. Lim's P.A., has come by several times and is overjoyed at Anne's progress. In fact, it's kind of funny how excited Liz gets; she shakes and is nearly speechless! She told Anne the other day that she's their "model patient" because all her wounds look so nice and everything is healing perfectly.

 

Keep those prayers coming and don't forget to love those closest to you,

Don and Anne


PS
I've been asked if Anne would like flowers or cards. Anne has so many flowers that the staff is setting them on the chairs! So, if you'd like to send a card, she's in room S-165. You can send it to:

Anne W. Peer, room S-165
c/o Renown Regional Medical Center
1155 Mill Street
Reno, NV 89502

Please feel free to give this information to anyone that would like to send a card.

 

---
Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody.
  - Don Peer ( o)==#

Posted via email from Don Peer

Just wanted to share

While I was at work they got Anne up today and she sat in a chair!

I feel like I missed my baby’s first steps… L

Posted via email from Don Peer

Anne, day 3

 Last night was business as usual for Anne and John, her PM nurse. He came in every couple of hours and moved the pillows, rolling her onto her other cheek, checking her pain levels and switching or adjusting various IVs. She's not laying fully on her side, just leaning more to one side or the other. Her stomach is extremely sore from the surgery and any movement, including putting the bed flat, causes a great deal of pain.
 But the pain is fairly well managed and she generally reports 2-3 (out of ten) when asked. Unless, of course, they're moving her around or messing with her stomach. Then it goes to 11 pretty quickly.
 Today was a busy day for everyone, both staff and us. The morning started as usual with a chest X-ray at 6:00 followed by various blood tests, shift change and a visit from Dr. Lim. After checking on Anne he recommended that she be moved to a regular room. (Yeah!)
 So the call went out and more staff arrived to prepare her for movement to oncology. Once the guy with the gurney arrived everyone lifted Anne gently out of her bed and onto her new vehicle. After disconnecting any tubes they could and hooking up to portable oxygen, away we went. With the IV tree in one hand and guiding Anne with the other, this gentleman led me through the maze of the hospital to her new room.
 Once we got her positioned into her new bed, I went to lunch so that the staff could get her settled in without me in the way. While Lady and I ate, Tara texted and wanted to know when I'd be heading back. I told her ten minutes and wrapped things up, leaving a sad puppy to "hold down the fort."
 Shortly after we arrived, Justus called and said he was out front. I gave him direction and put my shoes on to go meet him. By the time I reached the nurse's station, he was arriving there. (Them long legs give him quite an advantage!)
 Anne was very happy to see him and I took Tara to get some coffee while they talked. We sat by a large bay window and talked about how precious life was. We joked about childhood things and how proud I am of her and the way she not only mastered her demons, but beat them soundly into the ground. She's become so spiritual and empathetic that it drives her focus on healing and has made one of the best nurses in town.
 Just before heading back, I stopped at the frozen yogurt shop and picked up a bowl of vanilla with fresh blueberries for Justus. When he saw that his eyes lit up! I had one yesterday and it's really delicious. Not only that, but it's low fat and no added sugar!
 A few minutes later a nurse came in and needed to perform some procedures, so Justus said his good byes and took off. Tara and I helped roll Anne around and change the linens. Then they gave her a sponge bath and dressed her in a fresh gown.
 After the procedure Josh called and I put him on speaker phone. Anne struggled out a few comments, but mostly listened, smiled and nodded. It was getting late and he had to work tonight, but before he went Tara came up with a good idea.
 She suggested that the "long arm of the law" should reach out in the night and touch someone. That person would be Anne's RN, who was still waiting for the "boots" to prevent her from getting sores on her ankles while being laid up for so long. Josh said he'd really like to help with that and would also check on her pain level and whether she'd been moved. You should have seen that nurse's face when Tara told her that L.A.P.D. would be calling look in on Anne!
 With that I kissed my precious love "Good night" and headed home. Lady was overly exuberant to see me and we ate dinner in silence, missing our loved one. Now that I'm caught up, I need to run the Red Bug for her before we hit the sack.
 Good night and God bless you all,
Don and Anne

 

---
Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody.
  - Don Peer ( o)==#

Posted via email from Don Peer

Tuesday: quick update

 I snuck home to feed the dog and get some lunch, so I thought I'd throw this out for you.
 It was a very, very long day, yesterday. I was finally able to lay down about 3:30am on the pull-out in Anne's room. But, the constant beeping, buzzing and flashing lights made it impossible to sleep. About 5:30 the poking, prodding, blood draws, etc. started. I monitored it all and helped when I could, watched when I could not.
 (After all that she's been through I wish that they'd just let her rest. But I understand that they have her best interests in mind.)
 They removed the air tube this morning and she's breathing on her own. A pulmonary doctor came by to see her and go over things with her nurse because her blood pressure was very low and the blood's PH was, also, very low. So, another unit of blood was added to the two she'd received during surgery along with some and continuous IV of saline solution. Hopefully, her BP will be back up tomorrow and they'll move her to a standard surgery recovery room.
 Dr. Lim, her surgeon, will come by tonight at the end of the day.

Two questions that people have asked me:
 After the operation, did the surgeon feel he did in fact get all of the cancer? Yes. He is very confident that he'd gotten all that could be seen and everything that was in near proximity to it, where it may have spread to, but wasn't yet in evidence.

 Was anyone with you yesterday? Yes. Tara, my daughter, stayed with me until Dr. Lim came out and told us it was done. She's an RN and helped to "translate" for me. Also, she prepared me psychologically for the results of the surgery. For this I will always be grateful.

  Prayers on turbo,

Don and Anne

 

Posted via email from Don Peer

surgery complete

 Anne came out of surgery at midnight tonight. Her doctor is happy with the results and said that she handled it well. She will be in ICU for a couple of days and then to a regular unit for a week to ten days.
 We're not out of the woods yet, so keep her in your thoughts and prayers, please.
Don

Posted via email from Don Peer

Not good

 We arrived at 9:30 this morning and they didn't take Anne in until 3:00. She's in surgery as I write this and the surgeon came out about an hour after he started to tell me that it was as bad as it could be. He showed me a picture of the tumor. Before going back in, he assured me that she'd be alright and had tears in his eyes. This is not what he'd been hoping for, but he's going to get all the cancer out of her. I told him that we can deal with whatever needs to be done. I just want my wife back.
 Not sure, right now, how much longer it will be. Or the recovery period we're looking at. I'll let you know later about all that.
 Keep praying and double up on those good thoughts,
Don

---
Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody.
  - Don Peer ( o)==#

Posted via email from Don Peer

Do NOT buy things embedded with anti-biotics!

When I was at the store recently I noticed an over-abundance of items that were coated, embedded or integrated with anti-biotics. Things like hand soap, cutting boards, hair combs, etc. are all being pushed on the public. These things are unnecessary and causing the proliferation of "super bugs". These infections are resistant to the treatments hospitals and doctors usually give that, in the past, could cure you. But, the more sterile you try to make your world the more potent the inhabitants of that world must become.in order to survive!

Amplify’d from www.smh.com.au

'Greatest threat to human health'

Experts are warning of a not-too-distant future where life-saving medical interventions will be too risky to undertake; a future where chemotherapy is impossible and organ transplants are no longer an option.

They say this would happen in a world without effective antibiotics, and they are calling for more public awareness of the problem of rising antimicrobial resistance.

"Basically without antibiotics those patients can't be saved, we can't do those sorts of therapies," said Dr John Ferguson, Director of Infection Prevention and Control for Hunter New England Health.

They point to the "over-giving" and broadscale use of antibiotics in the community, a practise which has the effect of unnecessarily speeding up the ability of bacteria to evolve their defences.

The proof was in the rising number of infections treated in hospitals in which the first, second and even the third-option antibiotic was no longer effective, and studies which show the circulation of newly resistant bacteria in the community.

Antibiotics also kill off the body's friendly bacteria, or "gut flora", creating an opportunity for re-colonisation with more resistant bacterial strains.

"We need to make people understand that this is part of your body, in fact you carry around 1.5 kilograms of bacteria and they are very important," Prof Cars said.

"The more antibiotics you use, necessary or unnecessary, the more you select your own flora towards a more resistant population - so when you get infections they become more and more difficult to treat."

Studies have shown it can take months, or even years, for a person's gut flora to return to the state before a course of antibiotics.

Prof Cars advised: "Save your own bacteria... you should be friends with them. We have to save these precious drugs for the very ill." Read more at www.smh.com.au

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bqw4v