HOSPITALS AND HOMECOMINGS!
Terry and I just shake our heads. Ever since we moved to Cedar Rapids four years ago, we've become overly acquainted with the hospital system here. It's just weird to go from completely healthy individuals who embrace a healthy lifestyle to folks developing long term friendships with doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals.
This time around our medical emergency should have been fairly routine. Terry is currently hospitalized at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids with an infected gallbladder and gallstones. He had developed severe pain in his abdomen and on Friday it had worsened to the extent there was cause to worry. So he checked into the emergency room and sure enough, he needed surgery immediately.
But there was a fly in the ointment. Because Terry had his heart shocked two weeks ago to set it back on course, he is on heart medications that thins his blood. The medications are also important to take for four weeks following a shock to lessen any chances of a stroke. So with blood thinners, he was not a candidate for surgery.
Unless. The gallbladder worsened and there was an immediate risk of it perforating, sending bile in to his system which is a very bad scenario. So we were between a rock and a hard place. Do we go for the high risk surgery and remove the gallbladder? Or do we fight the infection and hope it subsides long enough to keep him on the necessary medications for the needed time frame.
That decision still hasn't been made. Terry is hooked up to antibiotics and we're hoping the infection decreases. As of yesterday, it had not. So we will play the waiting game one more day to see what develops.
In the meantime, he cannot eat or drink in fear of exacerbating the condition of the gallbladder. So he is feasting on ice chips. He claims he needed to lose a few pounds anyway (but he doesn't).
I added this to his patient profile....
BECAUSE! Just to make things even more interesting, Terry's early Father's Day present arrived a week ago. We have a new member of the family. Nimbus Robert Swails is a 10-week old puppy who is part husky and part pomeranian.
Nimbus is having a wonderful time freaking out the two cats, chewing everything in sight, and hogging the bed. Eden also likes to dress him up!
He has already learned to sit and push his doorbell for going outside to take care of business. However the whole getting outside to take care of business thing s a bit sketchy at this point....but we're working on it.
Nimbus is expected to be about 25-27 pounds fully grown. Right now he loves to be held and hauled around the neighborhood rather than actually walking. We've never had a puppy or a dog before so this is a new world for us!
And yes, Terry was very, very surprised. But he loves the little guy already and will be happy when they are reunited.
Gotta head to the hospital...we will keep you posted! I know we have had so much love and support over the years for our medical mishaps and we are eternally grateful for it. Simply put. We feel very blessed.
Carolyn
