Hiccup - Part 1

First business today is to send prayers and well wishes to Renee’s cousin Lyle. He is in the hospital. The report I just got is that he is doing well. Lyle’s part of our family support group in Louisville and tolerates a Rutgers grad at U of L football games – that’s me. BTW what was the final score of that game on Thursday? (Hint - at the half, Rutgers was up by 7 touchdowns!) Lyle also performs psychiatric counseling for me during the the rides to the games. Ask him about it when he’s back up and around. We’re 350 miles away but we’re with you buddy. Godspeed back to good health.

Snow is falling as I write this with 1-3 inches predicted. I am sitting in Renee’s room. They told me the WiFi connection wouldn’t work here but they were wrong. I’ve got four solid lines of connectivity. As soon as Renee is up to it I can just pop the laptop in front of her.

8:50AM arrival today, Renee is up and having tea. A new patient is in the next bed. Renee quietly said to me that her visitors were here until 11:00PM last night, all ten of them. It sounded like they were having a party. This is not the kind of night Renee was hoping for when I left. Peace and quiet was what she wanted. I know we can’t ask nurses to be bouncers but sometimes the hospital staff has got to draw the line and call in reinforcements if needed.

Renee’s doing better today. At about 10:00AM we walked the circuit around past the elevators. She did get a little wobbly right toward the end but it was a big improvement over yesterday.

I’m getting pretty good at hooking and unhooking all the devices, cords and tubes that need to be re-arranged for our jaunts. But I wish I could re-program the IV pump to play a different tune when it goes off. I think Renee would be happy with some Clapton. Maybe I can download a Layla ringtone to the thing. If anyone knows how to hack an IV pump send me the info.

Some real good news is that her stoma and bag really started working overnight. This is not only good from the successful surgery standpoint but also for the gut relief. Unfortunately her bladder has still not woken back up and the catheter is still in place.

Some fluids are still being pushed through the IV but slowly Renee is taking a little more by mouth. The progress is sluggish but forward. Renee said that she didn’t think it would be like this. I’m not sure what she expected but this is pretty much how I remember it from her previous surgeries.

This is the second day of hiccups for Renee. We don’t know why. They say it has something to do with her esophagus. They just gave her thorazine to try and stop them.

Wow, food service just delivered a menu for tomorrow. Let’s hope they’re not teasing. Of course her selections are limited to mush based foods for the next six weeks so giving her a full menu is a bit of hospital harassment.