Day 24 - 25...Progress!

Finally, Nate's had a little progress! He has, of course, been progressing all along but it's been hard for him to see it. The progress we've seen has been on the monitors and in the lab values. While these values are very notable to the doctors, they don't mean a lot to Nate while he's laying on his back in bed.  

The big obstacle this week has been that darn NG tube. They place the tube from the nose down to the stomach and hook it to suction to prevent stomach acid and bile from collecting while the stomach is asleep and can't drain into the small bowel. The last thing they want is for Nate to have nausea, and throw up with his big abdominal wound. It's irritating to the nose and throat, and can trigger a mean gag reflex. Nate's only been able to have ice chips since last Tuesday, and to say that he's desperate for a drink is an understatement. Every morning they measure the drainage, and every morning Nate has to hear, "Maybe tomorrow".

They finally clamped the tube yesterday for a test. They unhooked it from suction and limited Nate's ice chip intake, then after four hours they reattached it to see how much bile had collected. When they hooked him back up to suction, there was nothing there! That meant that his stomach had finally started to move and empty into the small bowel. They took out the tube, which made Nate so happy, but still only let him have ice chips. Dr. Lambert finally took pity on him last night and upgraded him to 'sips'. I don't think I ever saw anyone take a longer sip in my life! Finally, a little relief! He didn't have any nausea with the 'sipping', and was upgraded to a clear liquid diet. He even got his first meal tray today at lunch!

Nate never thought green jello could taste so good!

His white count dropped from 38 to 36, 30 to 28, up to 30, down to 27, now down to 25. It may not seem like much, but we'll take any progress no matter how small. They also took out Nate's catheter this morning, so that's a little more freedom as well. He's on "the list" to move up to the Oncology Floor, but it's still full so we just have to wait here in the ICU for a bed to open up.

Last night, our friend, Tami (who underwent the HIPEC procedure a week after Nate), was readmitted to the hospital and had emergency surgery similar to what Nate went through last week. I sat with her sister in the all too familiar surgical waiting room until 3:00 this morning. Luckily, they were able to clean her out, patch some leaks, and close her back up. She is currently our next door neighbor in the ICU. We continue to pray for her well being and speedy recovery.

Yesterday I had to drive into Boston to renew our car rental. Kind of a ridiculous thing to have to do, especially considering that all they did was check the odometer and made sure the car didn't have any damage. I'm definitely learning patience....and which lane to take at the toll booths.

Farmington Festival Days are going on back home, and I realize that summer is halfway over. We've never missed the parade with our kids! It's one month today since we arrived here. I always considered that our stay would be between three and six weeks, but I don't think I ever really believed we'd take the six week route. We miss our kids so much that it hurts to think about this time that we're missing with them. It actually makes my heart hurt to think about staying here another two weeks. I'm sure that we'll be able to look back on this and it'll seem like a short time, but right now it seems like eternity.

Nate's been through so much, but has managed to stay relatively cheerful. I appreciate so much about him, and realize what a blessing he is in my life. I'm learning a lot from him, and am thankful that I've been able to stay by his side. I realize that my entire family has given up their summer to help us make this possible, and I don't think I'll ever be able to repay them. My neighbors at home have taken on our yard, our house, our cat, and our church callings. We wish we could express the gratitude we feel.