June 2009
6 posts
WatchBrad et al up river…
May 2009
89 posts
Up River
We went up river today, which entailed a 20 minute car ride on Yandell Road (ouch!) and crossing some big boat wakes. He seemed to do fine all day, much better than hanging around at home. He can’t get his stitches wet, so he complained about the heat some…nothing about the pain.
The current was running like crazy as they must have opened the spillway gates, so I had a trying time...
Saturday
Brad’s had an interesting day. He was kinda depressed earlier in the day, but got outside in the afternoon and really seemed to enjoy it. I recorded him throwing the stick for Tobi, which I’ll post as a a link in a minute. He seems pretty good tonight - spent $20 on amazon.com mp3 downloads and is listening to his purchases.
He’s only taken pain medicine once today (to my...
Friday
Brad slept all morning after the restless night. Rhonda finally woke him up at noon and tried to get him interested in x-box, but he doesn’t care anything about it(?).
I just now texted Brad and he said he was doing well. He got the garbage cans in and he picked up one of Tobi’s toys….small victories.
Thursday night
…was a repeat of Wednesday night. Better than before, but not exactly restful.
Pain Free For a While
When I got home today, Rhonda said Brad just got up from bed and said “Hey, what’s going on? I feel pretty good!”. He was pain-free, all of the sudden. He was walking around like normal and didn’t seem to hurt at all.
Some folks from work provided dinner tonight (Thanks! it was great!) and stayed a few minutes to visit. He didn’t hurt the whole time they were...
from Rhonda:
It seems that there’s a good day, then a bad day, then a good day… He has been taking less pain medicine and asking for it less frequently, which is good, but he is still in a great deal of pain. Last night, we didn’t get up as much as we have previously. He just would have me turn him over from side to side periodically during the night. He is a little...
Same Ol' Same Ol'
He’s getting pretty discouraged during his second week of bed/chair rest. This is not what an 18-year-old envisions for the summer after graduation.
Tuesday
I worked all day yesterday for the first time in a week, then was out at a company dinner until 9:30, so I wasn’t around much to observe him. Rhonda and Brad had another restless night, moving around the house at random trying to get comfortable. He has improved for sure and is in less pain, but at times, the pain is still quite a lot to bear.
No Medicine
No medicine today since 3:15am. It’s 11am now….
Sleepless in Madison
from Rhonda’s notes:
In the bed at 9:30, to the chair at 10:30, back to the bed at 11:00. To the chair at 1am,to the bed at 1:30, to the chair at 3:00 am. To the bed at 3:15, to the chair at 3:30. Back to bed at 3:36.to chair at. 6:30.
Another Sleepless Night
Brad went from the bed to the chair to the couch to the chair ( where he slept for an hour, sitting straight up as Rhonda sat in opposing chair and watched) to the couch to the chair, all within an 8 hour period.
Today is about the same as yesterday. He’s back in the bed this morning.
Way Better Today
Today is not good and he hurts, but it’s about twice as good as yesterday. So today’s not that good…yesterday was just that bad. He can make it to the minimum hours between pain medicine and he’s not yelling in pain….that’s an improvement.
Slept!
Brad slept a long time this afternoon, going 5 hours with a dose of pain medicine. He’s not in a particularly good mood, but today is a whole lot better than yesterday. At least the weather’s crappy, so he’s not missing out on any boating.
A Little Better Today
He’s back to 4 hours between pain medicines doses, an improvement over yesterday. The pain seems to be tolerable up until the last hour of the cycle.
He showered and brushed his teeth, which makes us all happy. He’s upstairs now playing x-box, so it seems we’re back to where we were Friday.
Bad Day
It just wasn’t too good today as the pain was relentless. He’s moved to the master bedroom for now. He walks some, but not much.
Knocked Out
Flexoril + Percocet = Knocked Out
RC is also sleeping upstairs (finally). She was getting a little grouchy for some reason…
Liz is here to help out and is knocking out a week’s worth of laundry.
Doing Better
I picked up some muscle relaxers for him, so we’re going to try those instead of the pain medicine for now. He’s being really still in bed and the pain seems a lot better now.
Sleepwalking
Brad wanted to sleep in his own room so he could sleep in his gaming recliner. In a weird plot twist, Rhonda told Beth to listen up for him sleepwalking. Sure enough, Beth heard him knock his TV off the stand in the middle of the night. He says that he remembers falling and getting himself back up.
Since then, he hasn’t been asleep and is in severe pain. When we called for the doctor...
Playing the Surgery Card
He refuses to cut the grass and just keeps laying his surgery card on the table. It seems to me that Dr. Haber was doing all the work, sawing and tightening screws while Brad took a nap. I bet Dr. Haber cut his grass this weekend.
Oh, well, I’ll do it this one time…
Upstairs
Now he's back upstairs in his lair, playing X-box 360. Life is close to normal...or will be soon.
Snoozing
He's been snoozing the whole time, except for the time it took to swallow a Percocet, eat a bowl of ice cream, and move to the guest room. It seems like the pain is manageable.
@corkerns
I brought him home in my car because the nurse said going low is better than stepping up into RC's Lexus. Wrong - he's too tall for my car now. He had a lot of trouble getting his head in!
He was complaining about being dizzy all the way home and thought he was gonna pass out, so I planned to just leave him in the car until the feeling passed as he couldn't fall very far in the car! Once we got home, though, he was fine. Beth and I tried to help him in, but we couldn't keep up with him. He made to the couch and fell asleep immediately. It's been way more than 4 hours since his last pain medicine, but he's not complaining.
Showered and Dressed
I was able to refrain from saying “…going home like the Rebels…”.
Comeback Kid
In a comeback reminiscent of the Southern Miss baseball team, Brad is being discharged today. Everything turned around when he went from morphine to Percodan.
Getting showered now and gathering stuff up…
Not Ready for Solid Food
All the food described in the last post just came back up.
Turkey
Rhonda said he ate a piece of white bread, a couple bites of turkey, a few spoonfuls of vegetable soup, and some milk. Sure hope he's past the nausea....
Slow Progress
He has gotten up 3 times so far today, but mostly seems to just lay there out of it. I can’t believe he’s not watching TV or doing anything.
Rhonda just told me that they are taking him off the morphine and that Dr Haber said we will see real progress tomorrow or the next day.
Bad Afternoon
He got up and into a chair, but he wasn’t happy about it.
TV
He’s watching TV for the first time.
Thursday Morning
Brad didn’t sleep much as he only gets morphine when he presses the button, which he can’t do yet in his sleep. I went to the office for a couple of hours this morning. While I was gone, Rhonda and the PT walked Brad around, including out into the hall. He then sat up a little bit and Rhonda put him back in bed by herself.
Rhonda and I were just leaving to go to the cafeteria when...
Early Evening
Rhonda Corkern: went for a few hours withouth punching the button... BIG mistake. He was in great pain. His body hurt all over. His nurse, Grace just came in and gave a muscle relaxer. We're going to try to get him up at 10 to go pee.
me: why did he go so long? wasn't hurting?
Rhonda Corkern: He was asleep and just didn't
Afternoon Update
He did a lot better now that they’ve backed off the morphine. The nurse (Dedra) and I were able to get him up and walking pretty easily, and he proved he can walk to the bathroom. The catheter is gone, so he has motivation to get up. Rhonda and I put him back in the bed pretty easily. Even though we didn’t do it exactly right, it didn’t seem to hurt him too much.
Joseph came...
Physical Therapy
The physical therapist finally came by and we got Brad out of bed. He walked all the way around the bed without any problem, then sat on a chair on the other side. It started hurting after a few minutes and he wanted back in the bed. The PT told him she wanted him to walk out in the hall, but he said he was hurting too much. He then stood up by himself and she started to tie his gown around...
Visitors
Mrs. Hinman came by and brought Brad a car magazine. Soon after she got here, Tina and Allie came by and ran into Tiffany and Kaitlin on their way in here. They visited for a while until the physical therapist showed up. Tiffany brought him a stuffed dawg????
When Will He Go Home?
The normal time would be Friday. He’s supposed to try to get up today and walk to the bathroom. We’re waiting on the physical therapist to get him up as the doctor said not to try to get him up myself.
Chicken Noodle Soup
No solid food yet, but he ate chicken noodle soup early, early this morning.
Tuesday Night
The doctor came in at 4:30 this morning to change the dressing….must be a night owl. He had Brad turned all the way on his side to get to the dressing. Afterwards, Brad said he felt better after moving around that much. Of course, it hurt at the time.
I’m wondering when he’ll get off the morphine. That stuff makes him stoopid. He just have the IV changed to the other arm as...
Fever
Fever of 101 this morning (4:30). No one seems to think that is a problem.
Morphine
Brad had some friends visiting and started acting totally goofy, like he was out of it. I thought he was just kinda play-acting. After Beth, the friends and I all left, Rhonda said he was still acting out of it and wouldn’t hold the phone up to his ear. He was continuing to say goofy things and act spaced out.
The nurse who adjusted his morphine after we moved to the fifth floor had a...
Sitting in a Chair
The physical therapist and I got Brad up and sitting in a chair today for about 30 minutes. We had to send Rhonda home first - she’s too empathetic to the pain! Dr. Haber visited later and said that moving around and sitting up on the second day may save an entire day in the hospital, as that is key to healing.
Dr. Haber Visit
[Note: this post was stuck in the queue for some reason. It’s marked as an early evening post, but I wrote it around 10am.]
Dr. Haber visited while I was at Cups. He said that while an X-ray taken while laying down can be misleading, he thinks Brad ended up at 40-45 degrees. That’s well within normal.
The nurses in ICU said that Brad’s type of surgery is the most painful they do at that...
Waiting on Physical Therapist
He’s ready to get it over with. We sent Rhonda home as she is a little too empathetic.
Snoozing
Lots of snoozing going on here. RC is curled up in a chair.
Physical therapist came by, but decided to come back later since he was sleeping so well. He’s not hitting the morphine button when asleep :).