Steve was admitted to the hospital Monday night for pneumonia. He was released today and is doing MUCH better! This hit him hard and fast but, I believe, since he has been doing so well lately and regaining his strength he seemed to bounce back much quicker than he had been before the trach.
So we didn't make it through the month of April. That's ok. We are still praising God and enjoying Steve's continuing healing. I'm just thankful everyday that he is alive!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
In need of some help!
I posted this on my facebook today. Since I know there are still some people not over there I thought I should post this here:
Ok first of all this is a very hard thing for me to do, I almost never ask for help. As most of you know my husband spent the past year in the hospital, actually admitted 20 times. We were pretty sure at one point he wasn't going to make it. But praise God we found a doctor at Stanford who figured out what was wrong and three days before Thanksgiving he had surgery {a tracheotomy, allowing him to breathe} and he is on the road to being well.
As I'm sure you can imagine our lives were spent in crisis mode quite often and it took all my husband had in him just to stay employed and provide for his family. Something he did an incredible job of! But everything else took a back seat and we are seeing that the work ahead of us is overwhelming, if not impossible to do by ourselves. We have had many many offers of help but haven't really been able to see clearly what we needed help with as we have just been focusing on learning to live this new life we have now and adjusting to the medical challenges and regaining health and strength.
So what do we need? Well....we have rented a dumpster and we are hoping to rally our friends to come help out on Saturday May 2nd from 10 am till it's done. We need the back and front yard cleaned up and hauled off! We could easily fill the dumpster and lots of trash bags. We don't have a lot of yard tools so if you have some you don't mind sharing that would be great!
We will provide pizza and plenty to drink and some of the biggest hugs you could ever imagine {Brandon has become a master at hugs!}. If this is something you think you could help with please message me here or call at 776-3089 or email at thomaszoo8@comcast.net. Our family would be eternally thankful and my husband will sleep better knowing he does not have as much responsibility and an just rest. Did I say that man amazes me? We are very blessed!
Thank you all my loved ones for all your blessings and support!!!
Love Rhonda~
Ok first of all this is a very hard thing for me to do, I almost never ask for help. As most of you know my husband spent the past year in the hospital, actually admitted 20 times. We were pretty sure at one point he wasn't going to make it. But praise God we found a doctor at Stanford who figured out what was wrong and three days before Thanksgiving he had surgery {a tracheotomy, allowing him to breathe} and he is on the road to being well.
As I'm sure you can imagine our lives were spent in crisis mode quite often and it took all my husband had in him just to stay employed and provide for his family. Something he did an incredible job of! But everything else took a back seat and we are seeing that the work ahead of us is overwhelming, if not impossible to do by ourselves. We have had many many offers of help but haven't really been able to see clearly what we needed help with as we have just been focusing on learning to live this new life we have now and adjusting to the medical challenges and regaining health and strength.
So what do we need? Well....we have rented a dumpster and we are hoping to rally our friends to come help out on Saturday May 2nd from 10 am till it's done. We need the back and front yard cleaned up and hauled off! We could easily fill the dumpster and lots of trash bags. We don't have a lot of yard tools so if you have some you don't mind sharing that would be great!
We will provide pizza and plenty to drink and some of the biggest hugs you could ever imagine {Brandon has become a master at hugs!}. If this is something you think you could help with please message me here or call at 776-3089 or email at thomaszoo8@comcast.net. Our family would be eternally thankful and my husband will sleep better knowing he does not have as much responsibility and an just rest. Did I say that man amazes me? We are very blessed!
Thank you all my loved ones for all your blessings and support!!!
Love Rhonda~
Thursday, April 2, 2009
That wasn't funny.
Well we broke our record for no ER visits, but this one was not really "serious".
Tuesday afternoon I was on my way home from the grocery store when Steve called:
Him: Umm...I have a little problem.
Me: Which kid was it and what did they do?
Him: No, it's not that. My trach tube came out.
Me: So put it back in.
Him: I've been trying, it won't go in.
Me: I'm on my way home.
He was right, it wasn't going in no matter how hard he tried. And the hole was clearly starting to close down. Since he was breathing ok and his throat/vocal cords were not closing we had time so we headed to the ER {it was after hours, otherwise we would have gone to his ENT}
The ER was great about taking him right in. It's a good thing because he was starting to have difficulty breathing and his O2 numbers were in the low 80's.
So first the respiratory therapist tried to get it back in but it was a no go. Then the ER doc. It was brutal to watch, and it was extremely painful for Steve. They started talking a smaller tube but we explained that he had already experienced that last month and he could not tolerate it. So they called in the ENT.
The tube wasn't going in for him either so he numbed his throat up and stretched the hole open and after a lot of pushing and prodding and then "POP" it went in. RELIEF!! Steve's O2 numbers immediately climbed up to 99%.
What happened was Steve was doing some repair work in the backyard and he brushed up against something with a screw sticking out and it caught on the collar that holds the tube in place. Yanked the thing right out. He didn't even realize it until he saw it hanging on his shirt! Steve is such a ridiculously fast healer that that hole just started closing up instantly. Good thing he isn't into body piercing.
So last night I'm running kids around and doing some errands and I get a call:
Him: Umm...I have a little problem.
Me: What now?
Him: You aren't going to believe this.
Me: I probably will.
Him: My tube came out again.
Me: I DO know what todays date is you know.
Him: Dang it.
Tuesday afternoon I was on my way home from the grocery store when Steve called:
Him: Umm...I have a little problem.
Me: Which kid was it and what did they do?
Him: No, it's not that. My trach tube came out.
Me: So put it back in.
Him: I've been trying, it won't go in.
Me: I'm on my way home.
He was right, it wasn't going in no matter how hard he tried. And the hole was clearly starting to close down. Since he was breathing ok and his throat/vocal cords were not closing we had time so we headed to the ER {it was after hours, otherwise we would have gone to his ENT}
The ER was great about taking him right in. It's a good thing because he was starting to have difficulty breathing and his O2 numbers were in the low 80's.
So first the respiratory therapist tried to get it back in but it was a no go. Then the ER doc. It was brutal to watch, and it was extremely painful for Steve. They started talking a smaller tube but we explained that he had already experienced that last month and he could not tolerate it. So they called in the ENT.
The tube wasn't going in for him either so he numbed his throat up and stretched the hole open and after a lot of pushing and prodding and then "POP" it went in. RELIEF!! Steve's O2 numbers immediately climbed up to 99%.
What happened was Steve was doing some repair work in the backyard and he brushed up against something with a screw sticking out and it caught on the collar that holds the tube in place. Yanked the thing right out. He didn't even realize it until he saw it hanging on his shirt! Steve is such a ridiculously fast healer that that hole just started closing up instantly. Good thing he isn't into body piercing.
So last night I'm running kids around and doing some errands and I get a call:
Him: Umm...I have a little problem.
Me: What now?
Him: You aren't going to believe this.
Me: I probably will.
Him: My tube came out again.
Me: I DO know what todays date is you know.
Him: Dang it.
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