Funkyjimmer's Blog

Thursday, January 26, 2006

HOME A WEEK…

Karon has been home a week today. It has been a week of a different life style than what we have been used to living! So far we are “hanging in there”! We are grateful that Karon doesn’t have to go out to a physical therapy place. She just does exercises at home. She went to church last Sunday and to a Medical Lab last Tuesday to have blood drawn. That will be a weekly occurrence for awhile.

She can get around with assistance. By assistance I mean, help to get in and out of bed. She is sometimes able to get out of bed but still needs assistance to get back in bed. She uses the wheelchair and a walker some. A lady from our old church, Traders Point, comes each morning to get her up, showered and dressed. Then she gets her breakfast, helps her with her physical therapy and puts things where Karon can reach them for her lunch. This allows me to keep working. Sometimes I can come home for a bit during the day but not always.

Karon has a lot of pain in the leg between the knee and the hip, but not much in the hip area. This is because the cancer and subsequent radiation have killed off the nerves in that area. But the doctor’s office said today that the pain she is having is probably just due to the amount of surgery they had to do on the hip and leg.

Nights are the worst. For whatever reason, Karon isn’t able to sleep at night—at least not very well for very long. She doesn’t sleep that much during the day, either. We try to stay up as long as we can. But we just get her situated in bed and I get laid down, and we’re up again. It is a bit better than it was the first 3 or 4 nights. It was up about every 20 to 30 minutes. It is hard for her because she can only lie on her back. That’s a tough position for someone to try to sleep who has always been a “stomach sleeper”.

I’m able to catch a “wink or two” (or so it seems) before needing to get up to help her out-and-in-of-bed, get a drink, take pain medication, or whatever else is needed.

About 3:30 a. m. (this morning it was 4:30 a. m.) she is usually able to get to sleep and is usually able to sleep until 6:00 or 6:30 a. m. when I have to get up. So we help her get settled again and I get ready to go to work.

After a week of this I am a “tired puppy”. (Oh for a good night’s sleep straight through!) But the good news is that God is faithful and I’m still able to function—sort of--at most levels. It is hard to get everything done that I need to for church and I’m falling behind in that area. That provides its own kind of stress. We have a lot of things going on and some major things coming up in the future that need my attention.

People from both Countryside and Traders Point are furnishing food for us. That is a big help but it is still the matter of getting it ready, serving, eating and then the clean up. I’m getting pretty good at dish washing! The dishwasher is a help, but there’s still the items that can’t go in it.

We appreciate all the prayers for healing and strength. We are giving thanks and praise to God for all He has done and is doing. I hope I’m not complaining TOO MUCH! But this Journal provides a place to put some thoughts that otherwise should be deleted.

I’ll try to have a better post soon.

Jim

posted by jim 11:12 PM 1 comments

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

KARON COMING HOME

Tomorrow (Thursday) is the day Karon is scheduled to be released from the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana. We have a 9:30 a. m. doctor’s appointment to get clamps removed and X-Rays taken. Hopefully we’ll get some questions answered about continued physical therapy—when and where; questions about restrictions, etc. Karon says she is going to church with me Sunday. We’ll have to see about that. If the doctor says she’d better take it easy a while, I’ll either get someone to preach and stay with her or find someone to stay with her during church time. I already have someone lined up to preach if need be.

I’m expecting that my time for most anything will be limited to none for a while. I suppose Posts on this Journal will be less frequent. (I know—you’re thinking, “They haven’t been all that frequent now.”) It will be a challenge to add another responsibility to my “plate”. It seems like work, church ministry and home responsibilities already keep me busy. Something will have to be “let go” to be able to give Karon the kind of care and attention I want her to have and that she deserves. She will need a lot of care as well as doing the household duties she normally assumes. Sleep and rest will probably be one of those things that will be “let go”.

I think there will be people who can help during the day some so I’ll be able to go back to work next week. We’re still praying for Karon’s disability application from work to be approved. That will take a lot of the financial stress away if it is.

Her care and treatment at RHI has been less than the facility’s reputation led us to expect. There were several instances that were disturbing. Some instances involved giving of medication and others were patient treatment issues. But I told her this morning—one more day and one more night! We’ll be glad for her to be home.

I’ll try to post with some regularity.

Jim

posted by jim 9:01 AM 1 comments

Thursday, January 12, 2006

KARON’S PROGRESS

Karon went through surgery fine. It took about 2 and a half hours. She tolerated the surgery well and by evening was pretty much out of the anesthetic.

The doctor said when he got into the hip area it was a "mess". There had been no healing in the last year and a half since the break. The bones were dry and mostly powder. So the doctor wasn't able to do a typical, traditional hip replacement. He put a "stem" down into the femur bone (thigh bone) and tried to secure it there with some type of antibiotic glue, or cement. He "ground up" some stuff and put it in the ball area and tried to hold it in place with clamps. I can't imagine exactly what they did and it sounds gross. I really don't understand it all.

The doctor said we can hope (some of us will be praying) for healing, but from the human standpoint there is no reason to expect healing this time because none took place before. The hope is that there will be enough scar tissue develop to create some stability for what the doctor did today. If not, the ball will come out of the socket. The doctor didn't have an answer when I asked him what we would do then.

They had Karon up that evening with a little weight bearing on the leg. She has had Physical Therapy twice a day while at the hospital. Today she is being transferred to Rehabilitation Hospital of Indian (RHI). Depending on how she gets along, she'll be there a week or two.

We are grateful for God’s blessing and the prayers, love and support of all our friends.

Jim

posted by jim 11:58 AM 0 comments