Back Again
I have been back and forth in and out of the hospital for a while. now. It seems like.I never really leave, I may be out for a week or a few days only to return again.
Currently, I journal now from my Inova Hospital bed. This time room 2101. I first came in to room 2519 bed a. The person in bed b, sort of became a friend of mine. In fact, his wife actually did bond with me. She just popped in the room to say hello. I guess there is a thing about repeat offenders. They ended back in the hospital too.
My God-mother took the trip all the way from Alabama to stay with me for a while. I could not be more happy and blessed When she walked in that hospital room (it looked like she was gliding in), I immediately broke down crying. If you know anything about families from the south, then you know our families mean the word to us. For her to just pause her life and come up here has already been healing. Once here, she has not left my bedside. Now, that I am not happy about. Since she landed, she has not been home or left the hospital. She refuses. I will keep trying. I want her to go home and get some rest and relax. Let me stay here alone in my own miserly at least one day.
I am back here because i had diarrhea that would not stop. It was like 10 runs per day and very slippery. I also had severe swelling in my extremities, which is a problem especially because I am doing my daily dialysis--the swelling should not happen. I also. became seriously weak and tired, loss of appetite, and I have pneumonia. The pneumonia causes me to cough so profusely that my side hurts. And finally, I have fluid that's trapped all around my lungs.
The medical plan, since being here, is to treat the pneumonia with antibiotics, which we have been doing. It's to provide me with more calcium to regulate the weakness. The have been giving me hemo dialysis since being here--that has worked really nicely. It removed over 10 lbs of flluid. I am no longer swollen. I told them to keep the hemo port in. I have the PD port that allows me to do the dialysis at home. Thats a daily dialysis. However, it's a much more gentler therapy. The hemo is the one you would go into the center three to four times a week for a few hours each time. The one you do at home, it's everyday for 10 hours. You do it while you sleep. Pros and cons to both methods. I will keep doing the home one but keep as an option the hemo/center one so that if I get backed up with fluid I don't have to be hospitalized again to remove the fluid quickly.
(Picture of Shawn's swollen legs)
There is trapped fluid around my lungs. An operation called thoracentesis is where the doctors take a needle, insert in you lung cavity where the fluid is trapped an then release the fluid. When I got all sterile and prepped, they started trying to locate exactly where the fluid was. They do this by looking with ultrasound technology. They got me downstairs (this was yesterday) and then realized the fluid had become a gel, was trapped and not easily removed through this process. So now what? Well, they have to transport me to nearby hospital (Fairfax) and they will perform surgery on me, insert a tube and extract the fluid that way. I may be in 7 more days. I will be excited to get back home and on with life. I don't have an update for you regarding transplantation just yet. As soon as I do, I will let you know.
It all seems like a bunch of nothing to me, but God is in control. I am merely a vessel so His will be done and I be the one to do it. I have not lost faith, my faith is strong and I am blessed beyond measures. Laying up her in this hospital bed, relaxing--life can't be any better.