On Friday May 27 the intensivist now on duty overseeing ICU
is an anethesist, yet another way God was working in this and providing the
right people at the right time. He administered my wife's first anesthetic and
was a pain control expert. Thru prayer, the trial and error of the doctor's the
right pain medication mix is found. Steady signs of improvement in my wife's
vital signs followed.
On Monday May
30 my special girl was taken into OR to have a tracheotomy, a feeding tube put in
thru her belly into her stomach, the outer leg is sown up, the inner leg is
tidied up and vac dressing is put on the inner and groin openings. The surgeon
was satisfied with findings – no further infection was noticed. You can imagine
the anxiety during this whole experience but especially during the many tests
and OR visits. Nerves were on edge.....what an exhausting grueling time in our
lives.
On Tuesday May
31 my wife looked very peaceful and is communicative by mouthing words (not
audible because of breathing tube). It had been allmost 3 weeks without
speaking. She looks much better with the tubes out of her mouth and is much
more comfortable. She still had very little idea as to what her journey had
been, but gave a yes head shake when asked if she knew why she was in the hospital.
On Wednesday June 1 during my early morning visit my
little lady gave a vigorous nod no, when asked if she is in pain. I went home
to see the kids. The doctors witnessed my wife mouth the words my leg when
asked the reason for being at hospital. The surgeon looked at the leg and is
satisfied with the appearance of the flesh. My wife with Nurse 1's
encouragement is helped into a stretcher chair. She is very emotional during
her dad’s visit, mouthing disturbing things, and said to Nurse 1 please kill
me. Nurse 1 talks to me about this and my wife's hallucinations and explains
that this is normal. There are a few things about being in ICU that are very
hard mentally, such as recovering from the heavy, heavy drugs that cause severe
and extremly disturbing hallucinations and the fact that there is no night and
day. There is no structure. My poor wife remembers some of these horrible
hallucinations to this day (more than 7 years later). After much discussion and
until further notice it is agreed to keep visiting to minimum, just me, my mom and my wife's
parents. This was very hard on members of the family and understandably so but
it was critical that the message to our special lady was consistent and steady
in comforting her. Since all but us were working, we were the most available to
provide a consistant and constant message. Nurse 1 advised that I bring
pictures and video of the kids, kid’s items including toys and freshly worn
clothes in order to encourage my girl. She also suggested that we continue to
tell her that we love her and that she has much to live for.
Although we had much joy over the miracle God had
provided in my wife's health, it was still a very challenging journey with new
challenges each day. We still did not know the impact of all of this on my wife and would later find out that there would be some permanant damage. Personally now that my girl was getting better I was also finding it harder to trust God with all things. It had been such a beutiful time of being close to God, a great experince and one that I obviously wish I could have (that closeness) without the horrible health experince.
Philippians 4:19
New International Version (NIV)And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
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