Marc's Stuff

Good News... Christy is home.. actually she has been home for a couple for days, but with everything has been going on I haven't had the time to post to the blog. Christy did have issues with withdrawal from one of the painkillers, which hasn't been pretty but she is over that. We also have to play IV the home game for a few days, including on our trip to SC which we are still going on. The good news is that she is going to make it, and the original wound is looking better then every. I am sorry for the delay on posting this, but with Christy fighting the withdraws from the pain killers, and us getting ready for the trip, I just hadn't the time to get on a computer to post.

Posted by Marc at 07:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sorry about not updating since Friday. Got busy and time got away from me. That and I'm hardly on a computer over the weekend...once again my Apologies

Christy is feeling better and eating better. IMHO) I think she is feeling better now, then what she did when she left the first time. My personally feeling is that they the doctors are latching on the cause of a majority of the illness, and are treating it correctly. So far, her temperatures hasn't spiked, she is eating more, and she is less nauseated My feeling is that this isn't going to be a quick fix, and that she is going to have to go home with antibiotics by an IV for a few weeks.
When she does eat, I believe that she is getting legitimately hungry this time, and not force herself to eat like she did last time. They also moved her into a new room in the hospital that is in the newer section. The room is a little brighter and more conferable for everyone involved, that has helped her spirits a little bit.

as a side note: Because of the issue in question, Christy is considered infectious by the hospital. As a result, we are limited to the number of people that can come in and out of the room,(right now, just me and Christy's Grandma) and when we do enter the room we have to put on these fashionable bright yellow gowns. As a result it was decided that it's best that Christy has no visitors for the time being. We all ask that you please be patient to let Christy get healthy again. When she is no longer considered infectious, then she will be more then happy to see visitors again. Like always I'll post any updates to this website.

Posted by Marc at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since last the procedure last Wednesday, Christy is feeling allot better. Her temp seem to have stabilized again, and she eating better then she has in a while. She is still sleeping allot, but we think that's more of a result of the drugs that they have her on, then anything else.

Posted by Marc at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As of yesterday, Christy is back in the hospital with a temperature, the chills and not keeping food down. This evening one of her doctors came in, discovered a possible caused, and preformed a procedure that seems to have helped out, but time will tell. The good news is, that this isn’t life threatening, and should be easily curable. I’ll post any updates on my blog, like I have done before. Because of the personal nature of the issue, Christy has requested not to have any visitors at the moment. I’ll let you know when it’s ok to visit.

Posted by Marc at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been waiting a long time to make this announcement..

CHRISTY IS HOME!!!!!

She just got home, long enuff to say hi to the pets, and laid down in the water bed. Needless to say she is still pretty tired, and planning on resting tonight. She still have a bunch of Doctors appointments to go to, and I have to pick up a bunch of prescriptions tonight on the way home, but that is just minor now. I'm sure there will still be updates from time to time, but not daily. :)

Thank you for all those of you who called, and sent flowers, cards, small children, books, etc. Everything when a long way to cheer her up while she was in the hospital.

Thank you Christy's mom, sister Shane, future brother-n-law Leiff (Did I get that right?), niece Madison, My mom, My dad and step mother(Amy), all for visiting and providing something other then hospital food for us to eat. To Tina for taking care of our dogs, sometimes at hardly any notice when we needed it. To Lisa and John and family for coming out when Christy was having a bad time. For my boss ,Gus at the Cable Company, who let me off at a moments notice so I can be with Christy when she had her surgeries, or needed me to be there otherwise. To all the nurses and doctors and staff at Toledo Hospital that went out of their way to help all of us. and a final thanks to those of you who read this blog, and let me know they appreciated the updates

(Damn I feel like I'm writing an Oscar speech.)

Like I said, I'll still update from time to time, but I can't be sure how much or how often.

Thank you From
Marc, Christy and Grandma.

We now return you back to your regular blog programing.

Posted by Marc at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christy had a minor Surgery today... She didn't even get put under all the way. They just stiched up a Major portion of the area that was opened a couple weeks ago. Right now she is resting after having that first post surgery meal :). As of right now everyone is still planning on her to go home on Friday,without the wound vac. She is looking forward to it. as are the rest of us...

Posted by Marc at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was a fairly calm day. Christy didn't get up yesterday, but did have a couple of visitors. She is feeling fine, she just felt that she was pushing it with all the time she was up over the weekend. I believe she is planning on getting up today. She is still having a little bit of a nausea issue, but we think that is partly from not eating Breakfast before taking allot of pills. Tomorrow they are going to take her to surgery to put in some stitches, and close most of the surgery area up. The Doc said he could've done it in the room, but the lighting is allot better in the OR. As of right now they are just planning on doing a local, so she will not be all the way out. The wound is still going be open, and they are going to try the wound vac when she goes home. As of right now everything is still on track for going home on Friday.

Posted by Marc at 08:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sorry about not updating over the weekend. On the weekend, I tend not to be at a computer much. The one time I was on a computer, I didn't think to update the blog.

The Weekend went well for Christy. She was up Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a while. On Saturday and Sunday she did go outside for a while and enjoy the nice weather we had. Christy's Grandma went back home for the weekend, so it was basically the 2 of us at the Hospital. She still is homesick, and she can't wait to get home. The Medicines that she has been taken have been reducing by a little bit. As of right now we are still on Target for going home on Friday. The main doctor looked at the surgery site, and wound and said everything looked really good. This week sometime he is planning on stitching or stapling most of the area. She is still going to have the original wound, but MUCH cleaner, and I believe smaller. Christy is also planning on going home on some kind of antibiotic, but that hasn't been decided on which one yet. Other then being a little homesick, her spirits are up. She is moving around a bit, appetite and her is returning back to normal.

Posted by Marc at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday went well. Christy got up for a little bit and did some more exploring around the hospital. She does have a little nausea when she first gets up, but that tends to go away after a while. Yesterday they did give her a pill, but the first day I don't think they gave her anything after they got her up. She is eating well as she ate a chicken pot pie from Bob Evan's that my Dad and Stepmother brought in. Sleeping has gotten better at night. The Nurses are trying to work be medicines in such a way that they don't need to wake her over night when she sleep, and that is helping also. She is trying to keep herself busy with books, Coloring, word searches that everyone has brought her, and of course, watching her day time court shows. Suggestion for Toledo Hospital: Please put "Food Network" on your in room TV's. I know you get your signal from Buckeye Cable and they carry it!.

Now from the "Now I feel old department" One of the Nurses that is taking care of Christy is someone who I used to work with at McDonald's when I was in High School. Which is good, I know this nurse is a good person, and will take real good care of Christy. When we both worked for MCd's she had a baby, and I remember seeing her with the baby a couple times. Well, that "baby" is now 17 years old!!!

Posted by Marc at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday went great. Christy was able to get up, and explore the hospital a little bit. She went outside a couple times, and ended up going over to the new section of the hospital, and had some lunch at a little "sidewalk" cafe that they had inside of the new lobby. Her spirits changed 180% from Tuesday. She is upbeat and fairly positive now. We also have a tentative going home date of April 11th. She is counting down the days until then!. Since we now have a date that we can focus on, it's does make things easer. She is also allowed to get up for a couple hours daily which will also helped allot. The area in question is looking real good, and the nurse that is helping us with the wound vac said she is amazed how quickly and how far is has come in a couple weeks. Right now Christy's goal is to be able to make the Darlington NASCAR race the 2nd week of May, and she is willing to do anything to make that happen. If things are still going well, sometime this weekend, when she is up and able to go outside I'm going to bring one of our dogs, Bettis by. I brought Charlet the other day up to the room, but Bettis still has a lot of puppy in him, and is less predictable then Charlet. I'll bring him by if Christy gets to go outside for a little bit and we don't have to worry about Bettis wrecking the room :)

Posted by Marc at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christy is still having a small problem with the wound vac keeping a seal, but so they are having to work on it. The wound vac person is going to be in today to change the vac again, so hopefully they will try again to get a better seal.Christy is having a hard time mentally staying in the room. She really wants to go home badly, and gets herself a little frustrated over not being able to get home. Yesterday my mom brought in a plant that gives some color to an otherwise plan white room. Little touches like that do help making the stay bearable for Christy. Last week I hung some pictures of our pets, and 1 of Madison. Also, when our friends Lisa and John where in town last weekend their kids drew a couple of pictures and I hung those up as well. We also found out that if our dog is behaved, we can bring on 1 dog for a while to visit. Yesterday, when I got off work, I went home, and got our Lab/Sheppard Mix Charlet and brought her in for a couple house. I think bringing the dog went a long way to help both Christy and Charlet. Christy was very happy to see Charlet, and one of the first things the dog did when she got in the room was jump in the bed with Christy. We are talking about bringing the other dog (Bettis) this weekend, but we both aren't to sure, since he tends to be a little less..umm..calm then Charlet.

Posted by Marc at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christy was feeling pretty good yesterday, and today. They took the IV stuff away from her, and now giving all her medicines orally. The downside is that the Medicine isn't as strong, and that she is starting to come out of the "fog" that you are in when you are on the "real good" stuff, so she is getting a little more emotional about wanted to go home now. When I talked to her on the phone this afternoon, she said that they brought in a "therapy dog" in for a while, and that did help her. Now I'm trying to figure out a way I can get our dogs tagged as "Therapy dogs" :) We got the "Good chair" fixed and I brought it in last night, but it appears that it will be a day or 2 before they put in her in the the chair. Also, the issue with the wound vac as been taken care of, and the whole area has been sealed correctly now.

Posted by Marc at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday everything went much better. The visit with Lisa and John went really real, (Lisa said she would also post something about it on their blogg "Fun with three kids". They removed one of the medicines that they where giving Christy and when they did that the nausea issue went away and. As of this writing she had gong over 36 hours with out taking an medicine for it, but she is still taking the pain medicines. Once they did that, the food that Christy ate stayed down allot better. This included some Famous Dave's BBQ that was brought in by my Dad and Stepmother. Christy ate a healthy portion of that and didn't have any problems.
Between the visits, and finding a cause for the nausea issues it was a real good weekend for her, and her spirits have come up along way. The only downside of everything was last night when we noticed that the wound vac wasn't covering everything that it needed do, which resulted in some leakage of the wound, but we think that's just a minor bump in the road. Today that is going to get addressed with the doc and nurses that take care of the VAC. Also, on the good news side, the wheelchair people are coming out to fix the good wheelchair today. Hopefully, this will get done (In the past this as been a crap shoot) and I'll get it out to the hospital today, so they get Christy to sit up, and move around a little bit. I already told her , if she is in the chair long enough to go outside, I would bring the dogs by for a visit..:) Keep your fingers crossed.

Posted by Marc at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The wound vac seems to be doing it's job, but yesterday Christy had an issue with nausea and pain again, which included tasting part of her dinner twice :(. She has been sleeping on and of most of the time, but with her being in the hospital that is somewhat normal. Mentally she is feeling a little better last night. We did have some unexpected visitors from that big city west of us that went a long way with helping bringing her spirits up. Our friends from Chicago, John and Lisa, brought their family with them that lifted Christy's spirits allot!!

Posted by Marc at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night and this morning was a little bit rough. Christy was moved to the rehab area of the hospital yesterday (Kind reminds me more of a nursing home) and it hit her a little hard. Physically she is fine. The wound is doing better then expected. At this point, they are saying the VAC is going to be on for 2 more weeks, and then they are going to decide at that point if she can go home, or still needs to say. Mentally things came crashing last night. It finally sunk in what was happening, what happened, and what could've happen. She also wants to go home to play with the pets, and frankly just wants to be on her own bed, and isn't looking forward to at least 2 more weeks. She realizes that this gives her the best chance to get this healed, but some times isn't doesn't make it much better. She is also getting rehab everyday, and she said today that after they rearrange her legs, that they did hurt allot since they hadn't been moved in a while.

Posted by Marc at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was an OK day. Christy is feeling better, and ate, but did have some pain and nausea issues in the evening. Everyone said the wound is coming along better then expected with the VAC,so that is looking good.

The date the Christy will go home changes daily. Apparently unknown to us, they doctor was still working on putting in a long care solution(would be located at Toledo Hospital but in a different area) in place. She would not be officially a patient of Toledo Hospital, but in with rehab. if this works out,then instead of going home soon, she would be in there a few weeks yet. It really just depends on how things work out.. As much as we both want her to come home, we thing getting into rehab is going to be better. It's a more controlled environment and if something goes s wrong with the VAC, the response time would be quicker, then if she was at home. Needless to say she does miss the house, and the pets, and I think is getting a little bit homesick.

Posted by Marc at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

They are changing the vac this morning, and everyone that looked at it, said the wound looks really good. That is the good news. Yesterday was a little bit rough. When I was there, Christy wasn't eating much, and having a problem with pain and nausea. In the evening the gave her some medicine that seem to help allot with both cases, and this morning she seemed a little better. No word on the going home date yet. As of right now tomorrow would be the earliest but we aren't 100% sure. Could be tomorrow, but it could be a while yet, just depends on how things are going, etc, but she is ready to come home, and we are ready for her to be home. She is also taking a antibiotic, that as a result of a side effect, has restricted her diet somewhat, which isn't helping matters. We all are trying to keep on Good spirits, and hopefully in few days we have some good news :)

Posted by Marc at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So far everything is looking good. Christy has been tired, but we think that's more of a result of the drugs she has been taken. She sleep good last night and is still eating good. Right now, she is going to be in until at least the 27th. They want to take a look at how the wound vac is doing. At that point, if the vac is working out ok then chances are they will send her home. Otherwise, it could be a few days yet. When she does go home, it looks like she isn't going to need to have any IV and can take all the drugs with a pill. She will have to go to the Doc's office 3 times a week, to have the vac change but that is about it.

Posted by Marc at 09:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sorry about no update yesterday... witt the family in town, and the weather, and other general crazyness didn't get the change.

anyways..

Christy is doing fine. She's eating more.. Just about back to normal without throwing up, and temps remained normal.
The Doc came in to look at her wound last night, and said everything looked good. The thing now is trying to figure out what to do with about the wound vac, and where Christy is going to go, when she leaves the hospital
They did some tests on the parts of the bone they took out last week, and did confirm that it was infected, but they are pretty sure they got anything out. Right was are in a bit of holding pattern, to deterime what our next step is. As soon as I find out. I'll post something.

Posted by Marc at 02:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nothing real major to report. Everything seems to be going well today. Christy enjoyed her afternoon with her neice and the rest of the her family, but was pretty tired after everyone left. So far everything it holding well, and considering everything she is in pretty good spirits. She does seem to be eating a little and resting a bit more comfortably then the last few days.

Posted by Marc at 09:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christy's was doing pretty good tonight.. As we thought the Kidney tests came back clean, and the levels are 1/2 back to normal, so that appears ok. as far as everything else, we are on a holding pattern until Monday, and at that point we are going to make a "Game plan" on the next step. She got a surprise visitor from our niece today, that I'm sure helped cheer her up. Christy;s Sister, sister's boyfriend, and Christy's mother also are visiting us also. Christy was upset that she wasn't going to see Madison on Easter We had planned on going to her family's home in IL that weekend, but as it turned out. Some of the Family came to her, and it has gone a long way to cheer her up.

Posted by Marc at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I spoke with Christy this morning and she said that she sleep good last night. There seems to be some concern regarding her Kidney functions, but the doctors thing it's a result of a antibiotic that she is using. they have since stopped that antibiotic, and switched over to another one. They are going to monitor the levels on her kidneys a few days and as a precaution do a ultra sound on them. They are not expecting anything, but just want to make sure everything is good. Her release date seems to be changing. Next week is still a possibility, but the Doctor is trying to get her to stay for a while long, while the wound heals. They did put a vac on it last night, and they may be a factor. Christy is fine with saying. The doc is just trying to find a way to convince the powers that be (Atena) that Christy needs to stay a little longer.

Posted by Marc at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I spoke with Christy this morning and she said that she sleep good last night, and she is in good spirits.
There seems to be some concern regarding her Kidney functions, but the doctors thing it's a result of a antibiotic that she is using. they have since stopped that antibiotic, and switched over to another one. They are going to monitor the levels on her kidneys a few days and as a precaution do a ultra sound on them. They are not expecting anything, but just want to make sure everything is good. Otherwise, her release date seems to be changing. Next week is still a possibility, but the Doctor is trying to get her to stay for a while long, while the wound heals. They did put a vac on it last night, and that may be a factor. Christy is fine with staying. The doc is just trying to find a way to convince the powers that be (Atena) that Christy needs to stay a little longer.

Posted by Marc at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I spoke with Christy this morning and she said that she sleep good last night, and she is in good spirits.
There seems to be some concern regarding her Kidney functions, but the doctors think it's a result of a antibiotic that she is using. they have since stopped that antibiotic, and switched over to another one. They are going to monitor the levels on her kidneys a few days and as a precaution do a ultra sound on them. They are not expecting anything, but just want to make sure everything is good. Otherwise, her release date seems to be changing. Next week is still a possibility, but the Doctor is trying to get her to stay for a while long, while the wound heals. They did put a vac on it last night, and that may be a factor. Christy is fine with staying. The doc is just trying to find a way to convince the powers that be (Atena) that Christy needs to stay a little longer.

Posted by Marc at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christy is doing better today. They changed her pain medication this morning and she has responded well to that. From what the nurses said, the open area look really good, and she seems more talkative today when I talked to her. She's resting as comfortably as possible in her room, and hopefully she will get to go home soon.

Posted by Marc at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christy got out of Surgery. We havn't seen her yet, but we are waiting up in her room. We spoke to the doctor, and he said that things went really well. She is going back into a normal (Privite) room, which is good. Also, depending on how things go, she might be able to go home next week. She will still need care (and the possablity of a wound vac) when we get home, and I imageion that she won't be getting up that much, but things are looking good night now. ::knock on wood::

Posted by Marc at 07:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christy Sleep Most of yesterday, which is good, because she wasn't getting much before hand. She's eating a little more, but still no eating much. We think once next surgery is over, her nerves will relax a bit, and she will eat more. Everything else looks good. Temp is staying down, the open area looks really good. We just hope that the surgery will go a long way to help heal this thing, but even if the surgery is 100% successfull, we still got a long road ahead The surgery is later today around 2:00pm. At this time we have no idea how long it's going to be, but as soon as we find out from the Doctors how it went, I will post something.

Posted by Marc at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christy got moved to a private room last night. I wish I could say she is resting comfortably but she is anything but that right now, as the results of the surgery still has an affect on her, not to mention the pending surgery tomorrow. I think once the Surgery gets done tomorrow, and we finally know what we are dealing with, that will help everyone relax a little bit. Yesterday, the Doctor talked about putting her in a nursing home while this fully heals, something that none are looking forward to, but we are trying to keep a positive spin on it. We are still looking at what the short term sacrifices are compared to the long term game. We also knew that sometimes, she was going to have to do something like this to get this thing fully healed up.

Posted by Marc at 08:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The doc was in this morning and said everything looked good. The second surgery is set for this Wednesday, but we don't have a time for it, yet. As of this typing, they are looking for a room to put her in, but nothing open yet. She is still in ICU, but it's just a matter of finding room.

Posted by Marc at 01:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So far so good. Christy was put in a recliner yesterday for a couple of hours, and she is starting to eat again, granted it's not as much as any of us would like. The Nurses are saying the the area of the surgery is looking real good. The Doctor that preformed the surgery is going to come in sometime last this morning to take a look at it, and then finalize the date for the 2nd surgery. It doesn't sound like he's going to completely close it, but let it heal on it's own. This could take a long time, and * MAY* result in Christy going to a nursing home while this happens. We are hoping that it won't happen and we can just have nurses come to the house, but only time will tell. In truth, what every gives her the best chance to get this healed we all are for. She *Should* be out of the ICU today and back into a normal room today, depending on how things go. As soon as we found out something, I'll let you know.

Posted by Marc at 08:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No real major change. According to the Nurse this morning, Christydid have a good sleep last night/this morning. Drank a little bit of Grape juice, and had a spoonfull of eggs this morning. Right now, she is just mostly cat napping thought out the day, but I can tell that she is feeling better because she is starting to figit a little bit. Right now, she is going to stay in ICU for another day, but things are looking good. Her temps are down to normal, which looks real good. The plan still is to have her surgery on Wedsnesday or Friday depending on how things go.

Posted by Marc at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Things are looking better. As far is the infection goes, The surgery appears to have removed most, if not all of it last night, and Christy's temp is staying down. She is in ICU right now, and is expected to be there untill aleast tomorrow, maybe longer. We were finally able to see her last night around 11:30 or so, and at the time she had a breathing tube in, but that was taken out withing a couple of hours. At this point they are not allowing to take anything in through the mouth, other then a little bit of water. Looks like either wednesday or friday, she will have the 2nd surgery, but that's not confermed yet.

Posted by Marc at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christy just got out of Surgery. Everything went as well as expected. She is in the ICU recovering right now, and we haven't seen her yet since the Surgery. When we talked to the doctor, he said that it went as well as expected. Right now she is in the SICU, and is expected to be in there for a while. There is going to be a follow up surgery next week (Possible Wednesday) to fill in the hole that was created with the hip socket removed. To be honest, once that is done, she is going to be the same on both hips, since she has hasn't had the other socket for years, and had to have a procedure (called a muscle flap) to fill on the hole.

Posted by Marc at 07:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the Orginal Post from Christy's Blog. I'm posting it over here because the updates I put up, will make more sense

Marc

This is a note to let you all know that I am in the Toledo Hospital and awaiting surgery this afternoon. Due to a bone infection, I am having my right hip joint removed. Two good things will come from this...1) I will now be balanced again because I haven't had a left hip joint for 8 years and 2) (of course much more important) the pressure wound I have had on my backside for 2.5 years will be closed. However, the healing process is very long and a rough road. I will have to have at least one more surgery and my hospital stay could be up to a month. I am scared shitless but I am in good hands.

Love,
Christy

Posted by Marc at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That's right.. Once again, we get to play IV: The Home Game starting next week some time. To Sum it up, Christy has been went through a series of surgeries. Monday night we went to the ER around 10:30 because she had a temp of around 104. At the time of the surgeries we where told that if she develop a fever to go to the ER. We went in an after a night spent in the ER at Toledo hospital (my ass is still sore from those ER chairs) she was admitted into the hospital Tuesday Morning. After a buttload of tests, they determined what the problem was and the treatment was around 6 weeks of IV antibiotics. The good news is that it's treatable, and curable. Just will take some time. The ironic thing about this whole deal is that the reason for the fever had nothing to do with the surgeries, and the "team" of doctors, the only one that's not working on the case, is the surgeon that did the surgical. If you want more details (IE a friend or family we have accidentally neglected) Please leave a comment with your E-mail address, and I'll e-mail you an details, an updates as we get them.

Posted by Marc at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)