One More Step

We have been in Minneapolis for two days...it seems like forever. Seeing her with the all the tubes and machines was very hard. Kerry and I are really here to support her husband and kids. My view of that is to cook comfort food. I made tuna casserole tonight; that's about as basic as it gets. A crock pot recipe for the next two nights and then homemade made mac and cheese.

Vicky had more surgery today. It was hard to even think about that because her first surgery went so wrong. Today they did a tracheotomy (sp?) which will actually help her breathe better. It also allowed us to see her face. I stroked her cheek after surgery, ran my fingers through her hair and then held the one hand that does not have any lines running into it. They were going to close her stomach muscles but decided not to for the time being. We didn't get to see the surgeon because he had to go back into another operation.

The staff in the ICU are incredible; they really care for her. She has one nurse just for her. The nurse she had tonight always combs her hair. They move her often to avoid pressure sores and put lotion on her body to keep her skin moist. Because they did the trach, she can now have more and different things through the tube in her nose. It's also a smaller tube and in a different nostril. They can give her water and meds through the tube plus she continues to get nutrition which she is tolerating very well. Her stoma has healed well and her intestines are working.

When we left tonight the kidney doctor was hooking her up to the dialysis machine again. They removed that during surgery.

Her birthday is April 12th. I really hope I get to say happy birthday to her and hear her respond. We met some folks today in ICU who have been there for 4-1/2 weeks. I think we will beat their record because their family member goes to a respiratory rehab center on Friday.

The bright spot in the day came when we were in the hospital lobby during her surgery; we got to watch all the newborns go home. It helped balance what was happening for our family. And Kerry, well he has been just great. I couldn't do this without him.