October 18, 2017: Day 331

After a wild, and woolly day yesterday I am happy to report that things are stable.  Doug awoke at 4:15 tin the morning extremely weak and having a lot of stomach pain.  He wanted to go to the hospital.  This says a lot about Doug's pain level since about the last place he wants to go back to right now is the hospital.

We went to St. Luke's, Nampa, emergency.  He had a great doctor who ran lots of tests and after blood tests, x-rays and a CAT Scan, she discovered that Doug has a very large kidney stone and an infection. She made arrangements to move Doug to St. Luke's, Boise, downtown.  The urologist on duty today is Doug's urologist, Dr. Fredricksson.  We were so grateful to hear this. He knows Doug's history and he has been treating him for 10 years.

We did not get to Boise until around 1:00.  By that time they had given him IV fluids and two IV antibiotics. We were blessed with company this afternoon.  Rev. Jennifer and John came to check in on us and to pray for Doug, our fiends Cory and Harry came by to keep us company, Norm, hospital friend and chaplain came to check on Doug and pray with us and Fr. Dave came by to anoint Doug and check on us.  Then after much waiting, the doctor was finally free and had an OR room at about 9:15 p.m.  Surgery took only about 30 minutes, but recovery took much longer.  It is 11:15 p.m. and I am still waiting for Doug to return to the room.

I did get to see Doug in recovery for a few minutes.  The nurse said he was doing really well.  He looked great. His color was good, blood pressure perfect and no temperature.  He seemed relieved it was over and looking forward to recovery.

Thank heavens for Angie today.  We have been so worried about Trixie.  She is so afraid to be left alone.  After almost 5 hours in the crate at home alone, Angie picked her up around 9:30 this morning and took her with her to work on a house they are fixing up today and then took her home this evening, despite the fact she had to put her cats in another room for Trixie to be there. Doug and I would have been stressed all day worrying about Trixie, had Angie not taken her.  We are so grateful.

We met with the anesthesiologist before surgery.  This was an area of worry.  Because of Doug's weak muscles and underlying MS he was concerned about how Doug would respond to the anesthetic.  We decided to use as few drugs as possible to fully sedate him.  I was concerned about a paralytic.  I did not want Doug to wake up again with even more problems.  I am happy to say having just left Doug in recovery, Doug is moving, talking and alert.  He did not have any problems with the anesthetic.

I am exhausted.  I hope Doug gets back to the room soon, so that I can make sure he is settled in and has a good nurse.  We have not met the night nurse yet.  So far, everyone has been great here.  I am ready to get some sleep.  It has been a rough few days with Doug not feeling well at all and my concern and needing to provide him much more care.  Neither one of us have gotten much sleep. After Doug gets back to the room and I know he will be ok, I will leave for home andl pick up the Trix on the way home and hopefully be able to sleep before returning tomorrow.

Thank you, thank you everyone, for all your prayers, concern and love.  We are both so grateful, beyond words!

And so we pray:

God of Tender Care and Love,  thank you for surrounding us with angels today.  Thank you for all of the help, love and concern that has been poured out on us.  Thank you for healers who have come to us as doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, chaplains, friends and priests. Through all the pain, fear and worry we have been surrounded by hope.  Hope for continued healing. And we give thanks.  Amen