For 4 weeks I was admitted as an inpatient at MD Anderson for my “last chance” fight against my colon cancer.
I have memory problems of the actual day-by-day challenges, so I’ll be posting below copies of my wife’s Facebook posts. One thing we did learn is that I don’t deal well with long term hospital care.
I lost my hair again - not a big deal for me. I’ve been happy bald before. The strange thing is that the chemo took my facial hair too.
Couples pedicures before all the fun starts tomorrow when Jeff is admitted into the hospital for 2 weeks.
I haven’t been posting much about our tough journey since Jeff has been in the hospital these last two weeks, but at this point I’m asking for some much needed prayers or positive energy to be sent our way if you have a moment.
Jeff has had to have 2 blood transfusions so far and is about to start a 3rd. His O2 levels have been dangerously low even with being given the max level of oxygen. They had to bring in a special high flow oxygen machine in to bring him back up to a safe level. The doctors suspect that he has pneumonia, but that has yet to be confirmed. The ICU nurses are now involved and said that if he doesn’t start improving soon then they’ll likely be moving him to the ICU unit a little later on.
Guys, I’m really scared.
Update on Jeff… We’re calling today: one step forward, two steps back. They were able to wean Jeff off the high flow oxygen this morning, but might have to put him back on it because his levels keep dropping again. Looks like he had pneumonia after all and it’s gotten worse despite the antibiotics he’s been on. They just told me to expect for him to stay hospitalized for at least one more week. We’ve now been in Houston for 3 solid weeks, and now with at least one more to go.
He has a bandage on his nose because he is a stubborn butt and yesterday he refused to wait for the nurses to help him out of bed to use the bathroom and had a nasty fall. They couldn’t get to him quickly enough after hearing the bed alarm to prevent it from happening. As I said, one step forward, two back. ☹️ Words can’t express how much I want him to get better so we can go home. I haven’t been sleeping well at all and really miss my own bed and especially my cats.
Today I finally have a solid positive news update on Jeff. Things are progressing slowing, but there is definitely progression and healing! Every day seems to be a little better, finally. They have Jeff’s High Flow oxygen at a minimal amount now and will be attempting to get him off of it today. The doctor wants his bed alarm off so he can start getting up and sitting in a chair today, which is huge. Once he’s off of the High Flow then he can start moving around much more and hopefully start getting out of the room a bit too.
The doctors now have a more positive outlook on when we can finally be sprung from this joint as well. They’re thinking somewhere between the end of the week into early next week. Fingers crossed it’s sooner rather than later! There is a strong possibility that when we finally have to leave that Jeff remain on oxygen for a while afterwards though. All in all, very positive! We both can’t wait to get out of here!
