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motherof4
Member since Oct-15-09
379 posts |
Jun-21-10, 03:17 AM (CST) |
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4. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #0
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Lynda, what a relief! I'm so happy for you! I also read your excellent news regarding the pathology report in the other post. Take care of yourself now, it must have been a very difficult time for you! Malin (Sweden) |
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Lynda V
Member since Apr-22-04
5909 posts |
Jun-21-10, 03:16 PM (CST) |
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8. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #7
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I'll just keep my updates over here for now, as it will be a one-day-at-a-time, one-step-at-a-time thing from now on. I went in at about 10:45am and he had gotten himself up and into the shower..all by himself! Just the shower tired him out, so he then sat for awhile, then stood at the sink and shaved and brushed his teeth by himself too.....1st time for a shower and shaving! He then went back to bed. When I came in, he got up and went back to his chair while I read him the BIG stack of cards that I had gotten from our PO Box, which were mostly from his submarine buddies....He was shocked when I held up the stack, plus a few emails I had printed out for him. Then there was a delivery of a BIG basked of flowers with 2 boxes of chocolate covers chips & pretzels..yummy! They are made by a local chocolate company here in town. Then he decides that it is time to walk outside the room. He made it down the hall, then back...and to bed! The good news from the doc is that x-rays are still good, lung at almost 100%, but he is still short of breath so he wants him to stay in a few more days (maybe Wed. or Thurs) so they can continue this breathing treatments. But over all the news is good...and he is not taking hardly any pain meds! ~~LighthouseLady~~
East Coast of Central Florida |
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Lynda V
Member since Apr-22-04
5909 posts |
Jun-21-10, 08:04 PM (CST) |
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11. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #10
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Well the rest of today wasn't that good. He wasn't feeling good when I got in at about 5pm after baking him mac & cheese and some fish. I had to call the nurse in to check all his vitals. She said they were all okay and was wondering if because he had not taken ANY pain meds since the evening before, if he wasn't having withdrawal??? He toughed it out, eat some, got back in bed and when she came in with some other meds she asked if he wanted something now...he said okay even though he really didn't feel like he was in pain, but he'd take something. Within 15 minutes he was feeling better and ate a little more. I left around 7pm as he was getting sleepy and went out to the camp ground where my daughter is staying and she fixed me dinner and we ate his chocolate covered chips and pretzels! ~~LighthouseLady~~
East Coast of Central Florida |
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Lynda V
Member since Apr-22-04
5909 posts |
Jun-24-10, 02:10 PM (CST) |
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20. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #19
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I went in this morning and it was like it was a different person in the room! He had removed his oxygen at 4:30am and by 1pm when I left he still had not needed it! He had shaved & showered, etc., ate his WHOLE breakfast, walked around the room and sitting in his chair when I arrived..a little tired but okay. He then wanted to lay down in bed, so he did and 5 minutes later he is getting up and saying 'walk with me down the hall'...so we walked and I kept and eye out all the time for a chair...even if a nurse was sitting in it, I would have dumped her out if he showed signs of falling! He did great. He sat down on the side of his bed and they brought lunch in, and he ate it all. I then tucked him into bed and left him for a nap. His doc is away on family business and left 2 other docs to watch him with the orders not to release him till he got back on Friday, but Tim said the doc who came in this morning said that if it were up to him, he'd boot him out today...so enjoy your last day here! The 3 things he had to work on to get released were to eat, get his heart rate stable (and it seems to be) and his oxygen under control...and that seems to be too...so TOMORROW he'll be HOME! Wow it has been a long 10 days! Now my work really starts! ~~LighthouseLady~~
East Coast of Central Florida |
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Lynda V
Member since Apr-22-04
5909 posts |
Jun-25-10, 02:33 PM (CST) |
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25. "He's HOME!!!"
In response to message #24
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We sprung him from the hospital at about noon today....and he is one happy guy! He has not seen the outside (other then through a window) since early morning on the 16th. He was looking forward to his 1st breath of fresh air until the doors opened and the heat hit him! He ate a great lunch, had a nap and is walking around a little. It will be a long slow recovery, but he will do it. Thanks everyone for all the well wishes, prayers and white light, they all helped. He got so many cards while in that my daughter has spread them out all over the house (even our bathroom) so every room he goes into he'll see how many friends he really does have. ~~LighthouseLady~~
East Coast of Central Florida |
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Lynda V
Member since Apr-22-04
5909 posts |
Jul-04-10, 07:05 AM (CST) |
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43. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #42
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Yesterday was a good day too. I had to go pick something up and it was closr to one of his favoriate places to eat, a BBQ place where they know us. He said he wanted to go there for lunch...his first outing to eat. They were very happy to see him, but they didn't know what he had just gone through. He did good, but came home and slept for a while. I let him pass on his evening walk! This morning (4th of July) he is going to put his US flag up by himself. He prides himself in putting up his flag (20' flag pole) each morning and taking it down in the evening. DD & DS gave him his flag pole for Father's Day in 2004 and the 1st time he put the flag up was on the 4th of July, 2004...so this morning he is going to do it (I have been doing it ever since he went in the hospital on 6/12). We have invited a few friends (14) over at 10am to watch him and have donuts and coffee. We have kept visitors away and he is ready to see some of them, so we figured having them all here at once...for a SHORT visit, was better then them coming by one by one. This way he sees them all at once and gets it over with. Then for dinner he wants to go to a Mexican place for dinner...huh? It is the 4th of July and you want Mexican?? Okay, what ever you want as long as you eat! ~~LighthouseLady~~
East Coast of Central Florida |
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Lynda V
Member since Apr-22-04
5909 posts |
Jul-06-10, 10:13 AM (CST) |
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46. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #0
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Tim just had his 1st check up after surgery. It was with a nurse, not the doc, but we did see him in the hall for a minute. The nurse was impressed with how well he is doing and said everything looks good! We'll see the surgeon on the 20th and if all is good he'll release him. He has to see the lung doc on the 12th and I'm sure that is who we will be doing the follow ups with for awhile. He is pretty tired from his outing this morning, but feeling good about it. ~~LighthouseLady~~
East Coast of Central Florida |
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jen_sf
Member since Apr-13-08
235 posts |
Jul-11-10, 06:30 PM (CST) |
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50. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #49
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Hi Lynda, It sounds like Tim is doing GREAT! I'm so glad to hear it. I know how frustrating it can be - one minute you are sitting there and feeling fine, thinking "Sure I could go out to eat and go to a movie - I feel fine! How hard could it be?" Next thing you know you're aching and exhausted and wondering if you'll make it out of the theater to the car. I did something REALLY stupid and took a cross country road trip with two friends only 6 weeks after my surgery. I thought, "I feel pretty good and how taxing could it be to ride in a car?" I was in misery every minute and slept almost the entire way in the backseat. It took me a full week at the home of some friends on the east coast before I felt well enough to get on a plane and come home, and then another week to recover from that trip. I don't know what the doctors told him but I was told it'll be at least a year before really being back to "normal" and in retrospect that was pretty much true. Tell him to try to have some patience with it all, get lots of rest and be thankful for the opportunity to heal and move on with his life. It does get better, it just takes time. I'm so glad to hear that he is well on the road to recovery. Best,
Jen |
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Lynda V
Member since Apr-22-04
5909 posts |
Jul-12-10, 07:29 AM (CST) |
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51. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #0
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Thanks Jen for the info. He sees the Lung doc this morning, so we are hoping for good news, and a date for a follow up PET scan and maybe a breathing test. We have a driving trip planned for the end of Aug/early Sept. It is our 40th anniversary and plan to drive from FL to CT to the town I lived in and attend chruch where we were married. Then drive to Niagara Falls, then through PA to visit where he lived on and off during his child hood, and visit a few of his cousins. Then on to OH to attend a conference for Submarine Vets, then on the way home stop in to meet MH and Andrea and our 'adopted' grandkids. It will be 10 weeks from the date of surgery that we plan to leave and I do hope he is ready for it. He does about 95% of the driving when we go on 'road trips' but I think I'll be doing more this time. I just hope we have enough 'rest' time for him along the way. We plan to leave on Aug. 25th and be home around Sept 7th or so. ~~LighthouseLady~~
East Coast of Central Florida |
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Lynda V
Member since Apr-22-04
5909 posts |
Jul-12-10, 03:35 PM (CST) |
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54. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #53
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The lung doc was very pleased with him. Says he is doing really good and will set up a PET scan for Oct. He does have to go see his heart doc though. His heart rate was too high while in the hospital..normal they said. One of the docs gave him 2 scrips for heart meds..30 day supply, no refills. Okay, what does he do after 30 days? The heart doc never was involved in this surgery, but the lung guy wants him to see the heart guy...guess they all want a cut?? But we found out something very interesting today. Tim still has the cough that he had when this whole thing started...and guess what? The cough had NOTHING to do with the lung tumor! The cough is from acid reflux! The lung doc had mentioned it the 1st time we saw him and told him to try using something...he did for 2 weeks till we found out about the lung tumor, so he stopped the meds. The doc told him to go back on them and it should go away. So, if Tim had not kept pushing our primary doc about this cough that had been going on for about 18 months and had a chest x-ray done a year ago and again this year, the tumor never would have been found! And the good thing is, this type of tumor has no symptoms till it starts to spread, so it was caught early...Stage 1-A. Tim has not been driving yet...maybe next week when we see the surgeon, but he is uncomfortable riding in the van. He is only take a pain med when he goes to bed. Last night he didn't but woke up at about 2am and couldn't go back to sleep, so he took one. ~~LighthouseLady~~
East Coast of Central Florida |
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jen_sf
Member since Apr-13-08
235 posts |
Jul-12-10, 09:17 PM (CST) |
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55. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #54
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That's how I was taking those meds too, in the end, at night to sleep. Couldn't fall asleep without them. Then I realized that they were making me nauseous, particularly in the car. However, I know that I am very sensitive to pain pills. If Tim is sensitive too, you might want to think about how aggressive you're going to be with the amount of driving each day. At the end of the trip, I realized that I actually felt better when I was driving than when I was sleeping in the back, much like someone with car/motion sickness. I have heard that having a lobectomy is actually more difficult than a pneumonectomy (where they remove the whole lung, which I had) because with a lobectomy they leave some tubes in the side to help with drainage and inflation of the lung and such? But with a pnemonectomy they just sew you up and boot you out the door. If he has been dealing with that, I can see how he would still be very uncomfortable physically. Internal surgery like that is weird, because on the outside you seem like you're totally back to normal, but meanwhile your body is trying to adjust to an incredibly traumatic and invasive procedure, as well as recalibrate to a smaller volume of fuel(oxygen). It seems like you should be able to just get up and go back about your business, but try it and suddenly you hit a wall and can't even take another step. That's why it's important to allow lots of flexibility and plan lots of rest periods...because you think you're ok until you hit that wall, but once you hit the wall it can be too late if you're somewhere where it's not convenient to rest. Just FYI for Tim, it was surprisingly hard to stop taking that half or even quarter pill at night to enable me to sleep. Finally I realized that I would have to "detox" and that it would mean one or two nights of probably no sleep. Once I just accepted that, I stopped taking them and had a really rough night - I felt like I was going through withdrawals! My skin was crawling and I felt jumpy and uncomfortable all night long. I think by the next night I was tired enough to sleep and stayed off them ever since, but I can see how easily people can get addicted to those things! It's not that I felt so great on it (in fact they were making me mildly sick to my stomach), but that not taking it was extremely uncomfortable, even though the original pain had pretty much gone away, or at least could be controlled with Tylenol or Advil. Since then, I've tried to avoid the more powerful painkillers as much as possible. |
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nancy326
Member since Jan-25-06
7407 posts |
Jul-12-10, 10:08 PM (CST) |
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56. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #55
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Thrilled to hear the lung doctor is so pleased with Tim's progress. Gosh...thank goodness he had the cough and had it checked out. Don't even want to think what could have happened if he hadn't. Hopefully the cough will go away soon. Does it bother him to cough? When he's riding in the car, would it help if he held a pillow against his chest to absorb the bumps and thumps ? Keep up the good work, Tim. Guess Lynda's really taking good care of you. Bless your heart, Lynda !!! I think you need to get away for a day or two the end of the month !! haha Hugs,
Nancy326
central Florida |
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Lynda V
Member since Apr-22-04
5909 posts |
Jul-13-10, 07:24 AM (CST) |
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57. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #56
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I agree with your Nancy....a few days away will do wonders, for both me and Tim! Our son is coming in from TX this Friday. He was out of the country the whole time Tim was in the hospital or he would have been here for a few days too. But he and we decided that him coming when Tim is doing better would be best for all. Tim doesn't want to ride into Orlando to pick him up (about an hour's ride) so I have convinced him to let me go in alone...his flight gets in around 8:30pm. But son has to drive home (I'm not a night time driver). So it will be nice to have him here for a visit too. Tim is not in pain when coughing any more. The hospital gave him one of those 'heart' shaped pillows to hug when coughing and he really needed it. After he was home a few days, DD and I were at the grocery store and I saw some big round pillows that were different animals...I found a yellow duck and bought it for him...he laughed so hard he hurt himself...it became is 'huggie Mr. Quakcie' pillow till he didn't need it anymore. ~~LighthouseLady~~
East Coast of Central Florida |
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Lynda V
Member since Apr-22-04
5909 posts |
Jul-21-10, 07:13 AM (CST) |
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59. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #0
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Gee this post is getting looooooooooong! But the recover is long, so guess it is okay. This past weekend he had a very bad few days...and it was too bad because our DS came for a visit from TX. I think Tim had hit that 'wall' and everything hurt! We had an appointment with his heart doc (hey why not get another doc involved??). Seems the surgeons put him on some heart meds before leaving the hosital...gave him a 30day script, no refills. After checking with the surgeons' nurse that we saw on 7/6 and the lung doc on 7/12, both said we had to see the heart doc...off we go this past Mon. He, of course knew NOTING about the surgery till we got there and decided he wanted to do some 'tests'. He ordered them, but they are not set up yet. He did take him off one of the meds. Saw the surgeon (both of them). They wanted him ON both meds for about 6 weeks! Tim was not feeling good and he was coughing again, so they sent him for an x-ray. Don't know yet if they found anything. They said he is 'right where he sould be' at this point and the 'hurting' is because he is healing! The nerves they cut are all starting to come to life again and the muscles are starting to 'reconnect', so he is doing good. But I am kicking myself as I figured something out yesterday. He is having alot of trouble sleeping because he can only lay on his back...he is in bed for 2hrs, in the recliner 2hrs...back and forth and not getting any good sleep. Yesterday it was like the 'light went on'....what he needs is a 'bed wedge'....something to put him lifted up! I went looking and the only store by us that had one was Bed,Bath&Beyond but it was only 7"....I figured that was more then he had and if it worked and he felt he needed a higher one, then I could order it....he slept 5 hours in bed before going to his recliner and only stayed there an hour then back to bed for the rest of the night. He is like a different person this morning! We are praying that he has turned the corner as this is 6 weeks from surgery! ~~LighthouseLady~~
East Coast of Central Florida |
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Lynda V
Member since Apr-22-04
5909 posts |
Aug-03-10, 03:07 PM (CST) |
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63. "RE: DH's Recovery"
In response to message #0
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I know I should give up on this, but gee he is doing sooooo good! At long last! He is still losing weight though, down below what he weighed when we married 40 years ago. He is eating, and even the junk stuff, so I don't know what is going on. We just got an exercise bike (borrowed it from a friend) so maybe that will help build him up some. It is so blasted hot and humid here he just can't get out to walk or ride his bike. We have gone to the pool a few evenings, but he isn't enjoying it. Now to get the gout under control! Who would have thought that by this weight loss it would bring on gout in his big toes?? His voice comes and goes though, don't understand that at all, but atleast he is not coughing all the time. Tomorrow will be 7 weeks since surgery so I think he has turned the corner. ~~LighthouseLady~~
East Coast of Central Florida |
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