God is faithful: Part 17 - My little lady's health journey continued...

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Part 17 - My little lady's health journey continued...

On Thursday June 30, 2005 my precious girl ventured outside in the morning with her mom and we went for a van ride in the afternoon in our van down to the corner of King and Weber and then back to the hospital. It was so nice to be alone with my girl, we had spent so little time alone and none away from the hospital. As nice as everyone was, after a while you really crave normal. The talk was that my girl would go to Freeport July 5/6ish to continue her rehabilitation. As her health improved so did the expectation from work that I would return. Until then I had been off with the understanding that I could be off until September. They had been so good to me.

On Friday July 1 (Canada Day), we decided to try going home. We arrived home at 10:15am. My lady lay on the couch for approximately 1hr and 15 min holding her baby girl, watching the kids etc, then went outside on our deck till noon. Our son passed a ball back and forth to her. This connecting was great to see. At noon we had soup and biscuits. My girl fed our son summer sausage, an orange and cookie for lunch. After lunch she sat on the couch and our son brought her books to read to him. He wanted her to sit with him. He sat beside her and they looked at the books till 1. This was great, so good to be home. We arrived back at the hospital at 1:30. It was a great visit home, her first time at home since May 12.
On Saturday July 2 a foot nurse visited to review the blisters on three of my girls toes on her right foot – what a waste of time, she was no help with the blisters. They were a result from all of the bed rest and poor circulation.
We went home again and had a good time with the kids. On the car ride home my girl requested more info on what had happened to her. I pulled down a side street and explained the cardiac arrests and finally divulged the disease type. Until then she only knew it was an infection, which is what she was told going into surgery on May 12. She handled it very well. Inexplicably I had little emotion, I still don't know why, perhaps it was a wall I had unknowingly let build while I just tried to survive. We have coping mechanisms we are not even aware, the challenge is returning to normal. My Phsyciatrist would certainly agree.
We watched our son in the pool and then went to my wife's brothers house to see him, his wife and their kids briefly. We also wheel chaired my girl to his back yard to take a quick look at his pool before visiting with her dad back at the hospital. More loving family members came in the evening. What a blessing they all were.

On Sunday July 3 my girl was gloomy due to what she felt was lack of progress in her left knee. It was very stiff from laying still and from 9 surgeries on that leg. Understandable eh! Most of us can bend our knee back and with help have our heal touch our butt. From straight she could only bend her leg back about 20 degrees, where as normal is 130.
We went home yet again on a day pass for a visit. In the afternoon the graft donor bandage was removed, it would take time to heal and for the skin to turn back to a more normal colour, possibly months. The doctors warned against leaving it exposed to sun, something my girl loved.

On Monday July 4 the rest of the staples were removed from the graft, the plan was to move to Freeport July 5. We went home for dinner. It was so nice to do some normal things. So nice!