Monday February 27th , 9:45 a.m.

Papa is still making good progress.  He is enjoying being on his soft diet, and has been eating well with not much nausea.  Dr. Breaux now has his duodenal drain clamped in addition to his g-tube.  This will require his stomach and intestines to work a little harder, but once he can tolerate both of these tubes being clamped off, they will be able to start pulling the drains out.  Still dealing with the VRE bacterial infection, but it doesn't seem to be affecting his progress , although he has been a little more tired lately.

Friday February 24th, 8:45

Papa is getting stronger each day.  As of yesterday, his doctor changed his diet to regular food.  Last night was his first meal consisting of chicken with pasta and carrots and a couple of vanilla wafers for dessert.  He enjoyed his food and kept it down.....no nausea and his g-tube remained clamped.  This means that his stomach is healing where the bypass was done and his food is going down into the intestines.  He ate again today , all three meals and has done well.  His renal numbers are lower each day.  They have removed his medi-port used for dialysis.
Now the not-so-good news.....The  infectious disease doctor has taken a culture and discovered that Papa has a bacteria coming from one of his drains.  It is contagious with contact, so anyone visiting him must gown, glove and wash their hands thoroughly afterwards.  The bacteria is contained in the infectious fluid coming from the last drain that was inserted a couple of weeks ago. The bug is called VRE,  (Vancomycin resistant enterococci).  It is treatable with certain antibiotics, and although it is a serious infection, it is common in the hospital setting.

Monday February 20 th , 3:00

Papa continues to improve.  Numbers from renal labs are still getting lower, almost within normal range!  So dialysis is not needed now and hopefully not ever again...in fact they will be removing the medi-port soon.  He is still getting up and walking during his physical therapy.  His drains are still producing fluid.  He is still on clear liquid diet.  The surgical wound, left open to heal from the inside out is doing very well.  He had lots of his buddies come to visit today, which I am sure lifted his spirits.  Thank you to everyone for your continued concern and prayers.

Friday February 17th

Good news today from the renal physician. Papa did not require dialysis!  He said that if his renal numbers stay this way he may not ever need it again.  Hope and pray this is the case.  Papa was so excited!  He is still on a clear liquid diet, and he is still having bouts of nausea (due to the clamping of his g-tube) Dr.s say it will just take a long time for his stomach to heal and for him to be able to tolerate food.  Thank you all for your continued prayers!

Thursday , February 16th 5:30 a.m.

Papa had dialysis Monday afternoon and again on Tuesday morning, and was worn out Tuesday afternoon.  Physical therapy tried getting him up, but he was so tired and his blood pressure dropped, so no p.t. on Tuesday.  He had bouts of nausea and vomiting Monday afternoon and night.  Tuesday night was better, he slept well and was in a good mood yesterday morning when I visited him.  Still on clear liquid diet.  Not sure if he will require dialysis again today ( more than likely will).

Just talked to Mama...she says Dr. Breaux has ordered a CT scan for this a.m. in order to replace a drain that is not emptying well.

Monday February 13th, 10:10 a.m.

Papa had an uneventful weekend.  Had dialysis on Saturday and was tired afterwards for the rest of the day.  Sunday was good, got lots more sleep.  Today so far, he has had physical therapy.  He walked from his bedside down to the hallway,  and down the hall a little bit, sat and rested, then returned without rests.  He sat in a wheelchair for about an hour , while Libby and I gave him a haircut, shampooed his hair and shaved him....(not without him complaining and asking us to hurry up!), but it was a much needed improvement.  Wound care nurse is coming in to take him down to the hyperbarics physician to assess him.  White cell count has risen a little from 15 to 18.  His renal labs are still a problem, so for now he will still be going through dialysis.

Friday February 10th 9:30

In Papa's room with him..p.t. just came, got him up and he walked (with help of a walker) from his bedside into the hall....rested, then walked back!  He is now sitting in his chair drinking his breakfast.  Yay!

Thursday January 9th , 9:45 p.m.

Contrast test of Papa's upper g.i. shows good results.  His diet has been advanced to clear liquids and will progress slowly.  He had dialysis today because his kidneys still aren't filtering the toxins well enough, but he is producing urine.  His white cell count is the lowest it has been yet at 15!  He did a little p.t. today, sitting on the side of the bed , standing and even took a couple of steps.

Wednesday February 8th 5:00 a.m.

Doctors were able to insert a new drain which is now emptying more infectious fluid from a different area.  Dr. Dugas heard a little bit of pnuemonia starting to develop in Papa's right lung.  He reminded him to do his breathing exercises and stressed how important they are.  They will be doing a scope of his stomach to determine whether or not there may be any obstruction causing his stomach to empty so much into his g-tube.  After this assesment they will be able to start progressing his diet which right now consisits only of ice chips.

Correction:  Dr. Breaux does not want to irritate the stomach with a scope at this time , so they will be doing a contrast test instead.

Tuesday February 7th 7:40

Papa's blood pressure is much better lately..this morning it is 140/57.  His temperature has been no higher than 99.8 .  He will be going into radiology today to see if they can find more abcess and place a drain where needed.  Needs dialysis today.  He has been producing fair amounts of urine.  Will be going to radiology around 9:30 so will probably be going into dialysis later in the day.

Monday February 6 , 8:55 p.m.

Busy day for Papa.  Had physical therapy this morning and sat up in a chair for about an hour..  Had 3 drains removed, then had a CT scan to determine whether the drains need to be replaced with new ones.  Results from CT show there is still abcess there that needs draining.  Will go back again  tomorrow for another CT to place new drain .  He will probably have dialysis tomorrow also.  Another exhausting day in store for him.  He seems to be a little down in the dumps, not surprising with all that he is going through.  Please remember to offer special prayers for him!

Sunday February 5th 5:00

Papa went through dialysis again yesterday, was exhausted last night.  He was running a little fever yesterday afternoon.  Today the fever is gone.  His blood pressure is much better today, around 120/50.  He is resting well now.  We have the t.v. on , trying to watch the game, but he has fallen asleep.

Saturday February 4th , 4:00 a.m.

Dr. Breaux looked at Papa's surgical wound and says it is looking good.  He removed a few of the sutures and replaced the wound  vac with a fresh one.  He also is talking about removing one of his drains....(he has about 7, not including the wound vac).  He did a little bit of p.t. in bed, then they did get him up for a little while and he sat in a chair for a few short minutes, but even this short time up seemed to help his blood pressure rise a little.
Papa had dialysis yesterday around 4 until about 8 last night  and will probably have it again today.  They were unable to finish because his catheter continued to clot.   He received one unit of  blood and today they will try to give him the other unit he was supposed to get, but didn't because of the clotting.  They are giving him meds for the clotting issue.  He will have another rough day today I am afraid.  We request no visitors today and tomorrow so that Papa will be able to rest as much as possible.  Thank you for understanding.

Thursday February 2nd

Papa is still producing a small amount of urine a couple of times a day now.  He skipped dialysis today, and his doctor will check his  bloodwork tomorrow to determine if he may need it then. Papa is still having trouble with nausea, so his surgeon regressed his diet back to ice chips to prevent more vomiting and to give the stomach a break.  He will slowly start again on clear liquids and progress from there.  Blood pressure was too low for getting up today, so he did his exercises in bed.

Wednesday February 1st 10:40

Good news!  Papa has urinated twice in the last 12 hours!    He is doing much better here since the weekend and since the doctors and nurses have gotten familiar with his case.  He had dialysis and physical therapy yesterday.  The CT scan was good...no more pockets of abcess!  He is really doing well today , thank you all for the  continued prayers.  Just need to get him eating and walking now.