aig 10

I'm going to discontinue my blog for a while. LIfe has been a real struggle lately
,

Sun. Aug 11 - 10 pm

Sitting here in my secong home - St Joseph's.

I've got to say that they really took good care of me. I'm still wearing my wings I got from the Med Flight crew.

The consensus right now seems to be this:

. The antibiotics are doing the job and so when I get dialysis at home I'll continue that for a few weeks to make sure the infection is gone.
* The pocket of fluid along my 6 inch scar is probably just left over blood from the surgery and the body should absorb it all. Blood tests have shown that the infection is diminishing and my white blood counts are getting back to normal.
* Thre is a good possibility I won't have to go back to the Botsford surgeon. That's a blessing if it happens.
* I feel bad I didn't say good bye to Pastor before he left. I'm excited for him and for those he will reach.
* I had a couple opportunities to witness while I was here. One was a nurse and the other was a nurse assistant.

I hear Hal S. has been sick, so we need to keep him and his family in prayer.

Looking forward to seeing you all in the coming week.

Love, Dan

p.s. on the lighter side

My grandson Spencer was over with his family this weekend. I asked him if his 11 month old sister Whitney can say anything. "She can say my name" Spencer immediately said. "What does she say" I asked. "She says 'Da Da"". He was serious as a heart attack that his little sister called him by name - "da da"..... That cracked me up and I thought, God is so wonderful for bringing children in my life.

Sat.-11:14 pm

Hey I'm still in the hospital. Doing a lot better.

Ultrasound found I have a cavity about 1-1/2 diam along the 6 inch incision made during surgery. It's filled with fluid.

Right now the doctors are trying to decide whether to leave it or remove it. They don't think it's infected because my blood tests are getting better. But it could get infected before the body absorbs it.

One thing I didn't think of but my son brought out was what if during the surgery they didn't sew up the vein properly and I'm leaking blood into that area! I'm going to bring it up to the doctors hopefully in a way that won't get them defensive but maybe get them to think about the possibility if they haven't already.

I'm thankful for my kids.

By the way, during the surgery they removed about 2 inches of my vein they thought was bad and sewed the vein back together.

I had another interesting adventure today!

My IV site quit working so they had to put in a new IV. after a half hour or hour with 2 or 3 people trying to find a vein, my arm started to look like a golf course with all the holes and such. None of the nurses could find a good vein although they tried very hard. Well, they called in the the medic's that flew on the life alert helicopters (MedFlight). 2 uniformed people came into my room and started working on me to find a vein. After a half an hour and more pain I said "do I get my wings for this" they laughted. They ended up finding several good veins in my shoulder.

When they were done the one life alert person pulled out 4 wings for me, Sher, and my 2 sisters!

What a laugh. Who would have thought the MedFlight medics would come into my room, work on me and give me some wings. They were very nice and considerate to even spend some time working on me. If you come by, I have the wings mounted on my hospital bracelet.

Possibly Monday if it works out, they will do surgery on me and withdraw the fluid. No promises as I had the operation at Botsford and there seems to be some politcal issues involved...

thanks for your prayers. Love, Dan

Sat. Aug. 11

Hey, I'm still here at the hospital. I thought I might get out today, but that's what I get for thinking!

It seems that I might have a pocket of infection in my surgery site, so may have to have an operation to take care of it. hey, I'm not big on hospitals, but if you've got to go, this is the place. I feel comfortable here. I feel like they're going to take care of me in a professional way and in a timely manner. For those of you who have been in my place you know what that means.

I was reading Pastor's email and was thanking God that we have a man like him. Thank you Lord!

I was wondering how Tom M. is doing. It seems he has to go for a checkup and if okay, it'll have been a year free of cancer. Let's pray for that.

Thank you for your prayers. My daughters tell me how you tell them you're praying for me. Thank you, Thank you. That means a lot to me.

well, duty calls, I have to go get cleaned up.

Dan

Aug. 10 - Friday

Sorry I haven't written lately. Most of you know that when I don't write I'm having problems.

Today I find myself at St. Joseph's hospital in Ypsi. I got an infection in my new surgery site and that set off chills, fever, etc. Once I got here they took good care of me. Tabitha, one of the iv nursers drew blood on the first try! I was so happy about that, that I filled out a comment card (or rather Sher did for me). The last time I was here, they took 7 tries before they drew blood.

Why do I keep getting infections? Well several doctors I talked to didn't really know. I guess I'm just more susceptible to having foreign objects inside my body. One nurse told me today that if we knew who would get the infections, they'd just give them antibiotics in advance!

I'm definitely doing better today after antibiotics, etc and don't forget the pain pills. Of course, the ones they give you here at the hospital are through an IV and are almost instantly effective! Hoorah!

Thanks to all of you who are praying for me. It means a lot.

I may get out of the hospital tomorrow after they do dialysis here. They seem to think antibiotics given at dialysis will do the trick.

Love ya all

Wed. Aug 1, 2007

Good mroning world!

Well, I made it through the surgery yesterday.

I'll have to say that it was 3 hours of turture. I wish they would have put me to sleep.

I have a 6 inch scar on my arm that needs to heal.

I'll tell more later but thanks for your prayers.