But first let's finish Sunday. Carla's mom brought all five children over in the early afternoon. Actually, Nathan said he drove them in, so that was nice of Grandma. It has been a great help with Nathan getting his license about the time I was diagnosed. Our three sons hadn't seen me yet. While my girls came in and got their hugs, the boys were staring at all of the tubes in me. I have an IV pole with two or three drips on it plus a black box hanging off of it with my epidural drip. Then there is the PCA morphine pump for pain control and an extra oxygen tank on the base of the pole for when I take my walks. So a tube to my back and a tube in my nose. I also still have my catheter in and a JP drain in my abdomen each with their own tubes sticking out of my gown. Overall it's pretty intimidating at first.
(Transition to Carla) Steve feels well enough to do his own blog at times, but with all the IV drips in him it makes typing rather difficult, so he has asked me to finish this entry.
The kids had a pretty fun visit. One of our close friends had sent a fun bag of Steve's favorite foods to the hospital on Saturday. Two of his favorite foods are graham crackers and marshmallows. With that list of ideas she threw in some hershey chocolate bars as well. After showing the kids his ostomy and staples, he went for a walk around the 5th floor. All of them together made quite a parade going down the hallway. When they reached the family kitchen we went in and the kids made some microwave smores while Steve sat in a chair and watched. They were just about finished when one of his devices started beeping. Steve left to walk back to his room with half the kids, while I stayed to clean things up in the kitchen. (Steve will be able to have his smores today. He has been switched to regular food as of this morning!) After the nurses took care of the bag that was causing the beep, Steve got back into bed so he could rest. That is kind of how things go for him currently. He gets up and is active and then he needs to rest and recover. By the end of the day he was able to do 2 1/2 laps around the fifth floor before it caught up to him. He is making steady progress.
While Steve rested up from his walk, I took the kids on a tour of the rest of the hospital. They have the worlds largest puzzle hanging on one of the walls on the second floor. It has 24,000 pieces in it and was built by Jon Huntsman's grandson. It is a cool puzzle and one our kids could appreciate it since we enjoy building puzzles ourselves. I showed them where Steve had his surgery and radiation treatments. It really is an amazing facility. When we returned back to the room the kids visited quietly for a little longer and then decided they better head home. It was a really foggy day outside and it makes driving a lot harder once it turns dark, because the headlights bounce off the fog.
The rest of the day was pretty straight forward, we didn't start having any surprises until the night shift came on. For some strange reason Steve's catheter leaked a couple of times during the night. We ended up doing 2 laps around the 5th floor at 3 in the morning while they switched his bedding. The nurse said there may have been a kink or a bubble in the line, because the catheter was still in place when we checked it. The great news of the morning is that Steve is now off oxygen, can order his own meal choices from the patient menu, and doesn't need to wear the leg pressure cuffs unless he is flat in bed. Slowly, but surely, he is getting back to a more normal existence.
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