He is HOME!

Steve is finally home. He is very, very tired but happy to be home. He now has a portable oxygen concentrator that he can use 24/7 until he feels better. Yes I wrote until he feels better. I'm not really the "name it claim it" type but I thought I'd give it a try.

In the month of September Steve spent 26 days in the hospital, one and a half on October. Please pray for a home free October. He's on morphine and a couple of meds for anxiety {thank you Lord!!}. They also gave him some meds for the edema in his feet. It really is not a big issue but it bothers and worries him to see his feet and ankles so swollen. I re-arranged the furniture in our room last night so he has a clearer path to the bathroom, you know what those diuretics do!

We have an appointment with Dr. Balasubramanian at 4pm. He asks us to call him Dr. Bala. We really like him. I'll try to update later tonight after the appointment.

UPDATE:

The appointment went well. The Dr. did make some comment about difficulty with consistency and conflicting information and different hospitals and doctors. I gave him quite a glare for that..and just WHO'S fault is all the conflict? I'll make a post later about how infuriating these past nine months have been regarding getting referrals and appointments and the incompetence we have encountered. After I told him just what I thought about all of that he did say "I wasn't saying it was your fault". Thank you.

He thinks Steve is a mystery but not hopeless. He feels that he has been put on way too many different medications and that has done more harm to him than good. He has pretty much taken him off of all respiratory meds except one {still have the rescue meds as well} and he will be on morphine for a few weeks to see if that can get his pain under control. No more steroids, no more antibiotics. He is getting him into a ear/nose/throat doctor to look at his larynx, that may be part of his problem. Maybe. I think he is just looking at everything he can and I'm ok with that. He also want him to go to UCSF in San Fransisco. I was glad to hear that, I actually worried he might be offended if we went ahead and did that but he wants everyone who can to look at Steve's case. We'll return in three weeks to see him, if we don't have any problems before.

I feel better. The doctor did say he will help him and not abandon us and that felt really good. He really does seem like a good guy and everyone in the waiting room just raved about him. Of course the ultimate "good guy" is God and I'm trying to hold onto hope and faith. I'm taking it one day at a time and today was a good day.