Tim is Improving

Tim had an appointment this past Wednesday. He saw the nurse practitioner and she pulled off the bandages that were covering his chest tube incision. There was more bleeding than the nurse would have expected. She cleaned it up, gave us some things to take home for the dressings, and we headed home feeling a bit confused. I think everything has been such a blur, and we expect for the nurses or doctors to tell us everything we would need to know. We feel like if we don't ask, we won't get told. I suggested to Tim that we call back the following day and let them know about the bleeding and make sure he gets seen before the week is over. He did call them, and an appointment for Friday was scheduled. We went in and when the dressing was removed, the chest tube incision looked a lot better this time around, and no bleeding. This nurse, Cheryl, was so nice and informative. She answered my questions before I could ask them. Now that's what i'm talking about! She said everything looked good, but wanted Tim to have another chest xray done to make sure everything looks good internally as well. The xray proved that he is not 100% yet, but she did say it looked better than it had the week before. She said that when they see him again in about a week, she expects it will improve.

Tim has been complaining about back pain since Thursday night. He said he knows that the site where they removed part of the disc would be inflamed. He said it could be the pain that Dr. Uciyama described as pain the spine has in its memory, which happens for the first few weeks after surgery. He is trying to be positive, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit worried that the surgery did not take.

It has been a long week for us all. The kids are always so gracious and helpful. I do have my moments of being so tired, or exhausted from lack of sleep. The baby is sleeping fine, so is Tim. However, I can't seem to get to sleep myself. The stress seems more real now than the past year of pain or the time in the hospital. I will just try and concentrate on how proud I am of Miguel and Karizma for making honor roll again this year. All four quarters! I will also try and think about how excited I am that Walker will be 4 on the 21st. Wow, it flew by. He is such a little man. He makes me so happy to be his Mommy.