Monday, December 17, 2007

What more can I say but THANK YOU BLOGGERS for all your concern and separate e-mails. I appreciate it more than you can know!

An update on Don's condition: He was admitted to the hospital Friday night as I mentioned before. Both of us assumed it would just be an overnight thing and come home the next day. Not so! He's still there today and may have to stay until Tuesday.

The blood clot caused other problems to arise, along with a lot of pain and discomfort. Because he had been shallow breathing for so long, he began developing pneumonia, so they put him on an antibiotic. They also started breathing treatments that involved the use of steroids. The steroids can spike your blood sugar, which it did in his case. He also had a spike in blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, pulse, etc., so they had to monitor him closely for this. He also has to be on blood thinners, one form which is injected into the belly area for the next 10 days, as well as taking Coumadin, another blood thinner maybe forever. The Coumadin presents other problems, since eating foods with Vitamin K can alter the effectiveness of the Coumadin, meaning he has to restrict himself from eating all the things we not only love to eat, but supposedly keep you healthy: leafy green vegetables, that include broccoli, spinach, salad greens, etc. and green tea as well. And now of course no alcohol.

There's also the possibility of uncontrolled bleeding that could happen if an injury were to occur, so that may curtail some of his bike riding, to not put himself at risk for crashing. So this could mean a lifestyle change as well!

But he did finally get up today and used his crutches to generally help with recovery. The pain from the clot is gone, making it possible for him to get around again.

Its been a wild ride the last few days. I am starting to get a little caught up on some things, but with all the added tension and lack of adequate rest, I am having my head spasms I had a few years ago, where it feels like someone is pulling your hair off and on. I don't want to have to go on the muscle relaxers I had to take last time, because they pretty much leave me unable to properly function, and right now I don't have time for me to be sidelined. They do subside when I exercise, so I have been sticking with that. I ended up doing another 8 miles Sunday on the treadmill again, and this time beat my time from last week by more than 2 minutes. I am starting to see that I can go faster than I think I can, but I just hold back. I ended up with a huge blister on my toe though, so I'm going to have to do something besides run for a day or so.

Fortunately, we didn't get the huge snow storm they predicted, just some snow, so I'm sorry if any of the rest of you had to take a hit on this! :D

The hospital itself is very nice, however, and the staff has been very kind throughout this whole ordeal. I don't know how those people can do this day after day! It takes a special kind of person to be a nurse or other hospital staff person, that's for sure!

I will keep you updated as things progress! Thanks again!

8 comments:

Born To Endure said...

Thanks for keeping us updated Vickie..tell Don i'm thinking of him and sending him some (((HUGS)))

Flo said...

Wow, I'm just catching up. Thank God Don had a dr's appt. on Friday!! Hope things get better from here!! I'm thinking of you guys.

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Hang in there, you two!

zanne said...

oh! hang in there ... sounds like the workouts are keeping you centered. a good friend of mine has been on coumadin for years - it hasn't hindered him in the slightest ... he runs, bikes, does triathlons ... you guys will figure out how to make it work and keep doing the things you love.

IronWaddler said...

Hope things continue to improve.Take care.

TriBoomer a.k.a. Brian said...

Fingers crossed. Come home soon, Don!

Stay tuned...

Anonymous said...

Way to keep up with your running during all of this...hope that will help with your stress :)

Sending Don some healing vibes!!

I'm glad the hospital and staff are treating you well. When my mom was sick, some of the nurses were absolute angels, and that made such a difference.

Fe-lady said...

Brant was on Coumadin for awhile...and has been weaned off of it, so there's hope there!
He will recover from the surgery and pneumonia so more hope! Good for you for keeping up with workouts when you can..it will give you the sleep you need and patience to get through this with him! Thinking of you both a LOT!