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45 days. Two hospitals. Three ambulance rides. Three collapsed lungs. Four bronchoscopies. Two intubations. One tracheostomy. A bowel infection and countless tube insertions, medicine alterations, litres and litres of mucus and saliva suctioned. And Deane is finally out of the Intensive Care Unit. What has this arduous, emotional and exhausting journey taught us? As much … Continue reading
There’s a lot of time spent doing nothing in hospitals. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take that any day over hurried action. In a hospital, that usually means something is going very wrong. Obviously, the staff is not doing nothing, but as a support person you spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting for doctors … Continue reading
Deane was supposed to be at camp this week, hanging with his friends, chatting with the cute counsellors. He was going to be a junior “nurse’ this session. Instead, he is intubated and sedated in an out-of-town hospital. Five days ago, Deane woke up late at the cottage, groggy and definitely not himself. Checking his … Continue reading
We were so bored we were going stir crazy. Don’t get me wrong – being bored in a hospital is a good thing. It means nothing medically “interesting” is going on. Nurses and doctors came and went, checking on us, but it was all talk, no prodding, poking, or worse. We were so uninteresting, they … Continue reading
The dietitian’s accent is strong enough that I don’t catch every word and my voice is so low that he has to ask me to repeat myself. But the message was loud and clear: Deane had lost weight since coming out of the hospital and the dietitian is referring us to the g tube clinic. … Continue reading
Deane is being discharged on Friday – 80 days after his hip surgery. It has been quite a journey: the oxygen masks, the suction tubes, the abduction wedge, the knee immobilizers, the physio, the NG tubes, the minced food, the pressure sore, the in-house school and the recreation; Christmas, New Year’s and my birthday; the … Continue reading
We were given a weekend pass to come home. This is chance to see if there is equipment or accommodations we would need to be able to bring Deane home. But for Deane, it’s an opportunity to come home for the first time since December. Excited didn’t begin to express his mood today.
Deane didn’t want to go. Just the mention of it put him in a bad mood. Music therapy. In theory, something a guy who loves music should enjoy. We had tried years ago with limited success. I don’t know if he remembered that experience and I’m also not sure how we got referred to the … Continue reading
From the so-called bed I sleep on, I grabbed my laptop this morning and Googled bedsores. Although I was stiff and achy, it was not my body I was worried about. After a number of nights of fairly decent sleep, Deane is once again having a rough time. It seems to deny logic – he … Continue reading
We have an open door policy. It’s partly because we still spend a lot of time in our room and a closed door just makes our existence that much smaller. It’s also because welcoming people to your home at any time is how I was brought up. The down side of that in our current … Continue reading
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