Robin's First Week of Rehab---6/21/08

Again, it has been difficult to get to email this week. Robin's Mother, Johnnie, has been staying with Robin during the day. Our daily routine is as follows: I have been going to the early morning Communion service, and then taking Johnnie (aka, "Mom," or Robin's Mother) to the Clear Lake Rehabilitation Hospital, where she stays through the day, assisting when she can, but mostly providing Robin with comfort and morale support. I have been going to work from there. Work has been quite intense recently, but I try to call a few times throughout the day to see how Robin's doing. After work, I go to the hospital for the evening, sometimes bringing dinner with me for Mom and myself. At some point, when it is quiet, we pray together and I give Communion to Robin. When she starts getting sleepy-eyed, we take our cue and go home.

Robin has continued to make slow progress each day. They get her up and dress her each day. I'm sure Robin's Mom assists quite a bit with this. Then they put on her turtle shell and take her to therapy sessions. She appears to be getting Physical Therapy (PT) and Occupational Therapy (OT) each day. Not sure what else. PT is teaching her how to strengthen herself and how to walk, sit, and stand again. OT is helping her to learn to do basic things in life again, like getting dressed, with her limitations resulting from the surgery. The have gizmos for putting on her socks without bending over, a gripper for picking things up, etc. She also gets visits from the doctor, who has started her on some interesting supplements in addition to her regular medications. Apparently, these are used widely in Europe, but are not recommended by most doctors in America, for some reason. I'm trying (in my copious spare time) to learn more about them. Her friend and former coworker, Charlie, who is the director of rehabilitation services at this hospital, also comes by almost every day.

One of Robin's nurses has been using her head and trying to time Robin's pain medications to synchronize well with her PT. If Robin gets her Meds to close to PT, she is too wiped out to do all that they want her to do. If she gets it too early, the pain is the limiting factor. This one nurse has figured it out so that, when she is assigned to Robin, Robin accomplishes much more in PT. When she is not assigned to Robin, Rob tries to ask for the pain meds to accomplish the same goal, but they do not respond on Robin's schedule, so it is a crap shoot. Mostly, she gets them just before PT shows up, and she accomplishes less than she might otherwise. It is pretty frustrating. I plan to talk to the case manager about this to see if we can get the schedule worked out for maximum benefit.

Robin did make some big strides this week in her recovery, though. She finally had a bowel movement, the first since May 31st, on Tuesday. They had been feeding her stool softeners, laxatives, and prune juice for several days without success, so they resorted to the enema, and it worked. Talk about a BIG accomplishment!!! Robin also had two or three showers this week. The nurses are very good with the sponge baths, but there is nothing quite as satisfying as a shower when you are getting a bit "ripe." As I said earlier, Robin's PT has had its ups and downs, but on the good days, she has walked to the gym, walked around the gym, exercised on a bicycle, and done arm exercises with resistance/weights. She has been eating lunch in the cafeteria, using a wheelchair but propelled by her own feet. I am sure there are other accomplishments that I cannot remember, but these alone are great. When she has a good day, her face is beaming when I arrive, and she is so excited to tell me all about it. It really makes my day.

Where do we go from here? Well, the doctor said yesterday that she would probably be there for a "few more weeks." That news was heartbreaking. We both want her at home as soon as possible, but we do not want to screw up the fine work of Robin's neurosurgeon! Since she's going to be in the hospital for a while longer, Robin's Mom is returning home to North Carolina. Robin is very disappointed, but she understands. So, that's about it for the near term.

I'll close for now. John and I are doing pretty well. He took his Grandmother to the hospital this morning, and I need to get moving in that direction.

Once again, I need to thank everyone for the prayers and support for Robin and for John and me. I have not been home much, so I am still unable to reply to most emails. Robin's room is small, and she has a roommate, so flowers and plants are not recommended, but cards and letters are always welcomed and very much appreciated.

Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery for Robin so that she can get back to her job of helping OTHER people get better!!!

Thanks again to everyone,

Love to all of you,

                  Robin, Larry, and John (and Johnnie, too)

Robin's Progress Report--6/15/08

I apologize for being uncommunicative for the last week. Robin's Mother, Father, and her Sister-in-law arrived on Monday. Her Father and Sister-in-law went back to North Carolina on Thursday, but Mom stayed to help with Robin. I have been trying to work while they have been available to stay with Robin. After work, I've gone to the hospital and stayed (usually) until 10:00 or so, then gone home to do chores before going to bed. I really just have not had time to compose a message. Please forgive me.

Robin has continued slow improvements since her surgery. My last message was a week ago on 6/8. She had just received her "turtle shell," a hard plastic brace that provides support for her vertebrae and helps immobilize her while the bones are healing. Physical Therapy helped her walk a little bit with her turtle shell and a walker.

Well, after that first attempt to walk, Robin only walked two other times in the next seven days. It seems that when the therapist arrived, they sat Robin up on the side of the bed and took her blood pressure. Of course, after lying down for almost two weeks, when she sat up, her blood pressure dropped, so the physical therapists walked away and didn't return that day. When I found out what was happening, I hit the ceiling. I asked the nurses to start sitting Robin up when PT showed up on the floor, and to give her a chance to adjust to sitting before they blew her off for treatment. By the time PT arrived, her BP was good enough for walking. Unfortunately, she lost several days of therapy before I figured out what was going on.

Robin was in the hospital longer than she should have been because there were no beds in the rehab hospitals around Clear Lake City. Saturday night, Clear Lake Rehabilitation Hospital had a bed open, and she was transferred by ambulance to that facility at 9:00 PM. On Sunday, They got her up out of bed, bathed her, dressed her, put on her turtle shell, walked her, put her in a wheelchair and showed her around the facility, fed her in the cafeteria, and had her sitting in a chair for an hour or so. Quite a change from the hospital Physical Therapy treatment. I am hopeful that she will progress rapidly in this environment. They told us that she would receive an hour of PT on Monday, then they would increase by 15 minutes each day until they get to three hours a day.

Several folks have asked how John and I are doing. I cannot speak for John, but I am totally exhausted. Although I have not been doing anything physically demanding, the trips back and forth to the hospital, the late nights, and the various stresses we've been through seem to have drained me of energy. Some of our friends have provided food, but when you don't get home until after 10, well, it's not a good time to eat.

I'll close for now. Need to get to bed. I want to thank everyone for the prayers and thoughts of support for Robin and for John and me. I have received many e-mail responses to my earlier messages, but I am spending most of my time at the hospital, so I am unable to reply. Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery for Robin. Once we get her back home, things should get better for all of us.

Thanks again to everyone,

Love to all of you,


                  Robin, Larry, and John

Robin's Progress Report--6/8/08

I am going to keep this short because I need to get back to the hospital. I want to thank everyone for the prayers and thoughts of support for Robin and for John and me. I have received many e-mail responses to my earlier messages, but due to the shear number and the fact that I am spending most of my waking hours at the hospital, I am unable to reply right now. I have been reading them to Robin, and we have been through about half of them, but I really haven't had enough time to reply yet.

Robin is improving daily since her surgery. On Friday, they removed the chest drainage tube, providing Robin with some level of relief. Her oncologist, Dr. McClure increased Robin's pain medications, and that helped, too. Robin said she believes the back pain is less than before surgery, but her side, where they went in through the ribs, is still very painful. Robin was also fitted on Friday for a "turtle shell," a hard plastic shell that fits on her back and front. It provides support for her vertebrae and helps immobilize her while the bones are healing. On Saturday afternoon, she walked a little bit with her turtle shell and a walker. Her physical therapist doesn't work on Sundays, so her next walking opportunity will be on Monday. Robin's neurosurgeon dropped by on Saturday, too. He explained what he had done and said that everything looks good.

Robin seems to be gradually regaining her strength, but still has a long way to go. They are starting to wean her off of the steroids. That should help her blood sugar return to normal, and help promote healing. She is doing breathing exercises (when anyone but me tells her to do them). She needs to be able to walk down the hallway by herself before they will let her come home.

I have started a detailed description of her surgery to post on the blog, but it will take some time with the computer to do that. I'll probably have to wait until she gets home.

I'll close for now. Need to get back to the hospital. Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery.

Thanks again to everyone,

Love

                  Robin, Larry, and John

Things Can Move Fast in a Hospital - 06/03/2008

Recap - Robin had Chemo on Tuesday (5/27), and went to work on Wednesday with no problems. On Thursday, she threw up before we left for work, so she stayed home that day. Friday, she didn't get any better and was not able to keep anything down, including medicines or water. The fact that she was not able to take her Meds probably contributed to her illness, and certainly to her pain. Because she was not doing well, we went to see her doctor on Friday 5/30, about noon, and they gave her fluids and anti-nausea meds by IV. She still didn't feel any better, so they sent her to the hospital, where they ran some tests. She gradually improved and was eating normal food by Sunday evening. Robin's doctor wanted her to get an MRI of her spine to find out why she has lost feeling in part of her body, but she could not handle being in the MRI tube, so they had to wait until an anesthesiologist could knock her out (and anesthesiologists don't work on weekends).

To make a long story short, Robin finally got her MRI on Monday morning, and the news was good and bad. The good news was that they didn't use the "M" word ("Metastasis"); meaning that it didn't look like there was cancer in the other vertebrae (at least, that's how we understood it). The bad news was that the T11 vertebra had disintegrated. The remnants were pressing the spinal cord, causing fluid buildup and other problems. This was the likely cause of her neuropathy.

The doctors ordered additional CT scans for Tuesday. All Tuesday long, they were doing pre-Op sorts of tests (EKG, blood tests, chest x-rays, etc.). The doctors finally came to talk to us at about 5:00 pm. They said there was a need for major back surgery to eliminate the pressure on the spinal cord. The explained the procedures, options, risks, expectations, and consequences of not doing the procedure. We definitely felt like we were in good hands. The surgery is very invasive. The thoracic surgeon will be going through the ribs in the side, moving internal organs to provide access to the spine for the neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon will remove the T11 and disks, replace them by cadaver bone and metal plates, then they will reverse their way out. The surgery will take most of the day; the neurosurgeon's part will alone take 2-5 hours. After surgery, Robin will be in ICU, where visitation is limited, for one or two days. Then 3-5 more days in the hospital, if all goes well.

It is getting late, so I'll add more tomorrow, while Robin is under the knife.

Please continue to keep Robin in your thoughts and prayers. She will need it more than ever for the next few days.

Our love to you all. God bless you!

                  Larry and Robin (and John)