The “C” Word – Day 58 Back to Work

Today I had to return to work for at least part of the day. I lined up our friend Keith to stay with George in the morning and George’s sister, Rosemary to come in for the afternoon.  Since I have had little sleep and what little there has been has been interrupted during the night, I wasn’t sure if I would hold up all day.  As I drove away from the hospital I had a similar feeling to when we sent our first daughter to school and then the second.  I felt like a part of me was incomplete.  It felt like a mother leaving her child wondering if something would happen while they were apart.

In effect, something did happen today.  It wasn’t until the afternoon, but the surgeon came in and found George in bed (still).  He asked if the nurses had gotten him up this morning (no).  He asked if he’d had a walk today (no).  He looked around and saw all these coke cans on George’s table (George took a passion to coca cola yesterday and drank a LOT of it in the last 12-18 hours).  He took all of those away from him, especially given the fact that George wouldn’t drink any water, only coke!! 

He basically told him that he needed to get out of bed and stay out of bed as can be tolerated.  He wants him up and moving around a few times a day.  When he does those things his oxygen levels actually get better.  He took him off the oxygen and the oxygen meter.  He is recommending Ensure in order to get some decent calories in him since he is refusing food.  As Scooby Doo would say, “Ruh Roh!”  Time to buck up, buddy!  Time to do the things I have been trying to get you to do for the past two days because I know that you are supposed to be doing them.  Unfortunately, though the nursing staff is good, they are often busy and don’t seem to have the time for some of the extras.  But the doctor actually COULD write up order specifying that they have to do so every so often and then it will happen. 

I had to put in a full day at work today so didn’t get back to the hospital until about 4:30PM.  By that time George was back in bed after a 3 hour stint sitting in a chair.  I told him he had until 5:30 and if the PT had not arrived by then, we were going for a short walk.  As I got him sitting on the side of the bed, the PT came in.  Great timing!  As she got George to a standing position he complained he was dizzy.  She had him sit down and was curious as to why he is still dizzy upon standing.  I told her that once he got to standing and was there for a minute he stopped being dizzy.  I told her that he had walked part of the hallway yesterday and he was going to at least do the same today!   No ifs, ands, or butts.  This is the same therapist that allowed George to talk her into having him only sit on the edge of the bed and then stand up but not walk when he was in the ICU unit (after the other therapist had him walking to a chair the day prior).  It is time to push him when he wants to give up.  There is some sort of fear or anxiety that is making him scared to take those steps and we have to push him to make him see that those fears are unfounded.  Yes, it is hard.  Yes it sometimes hurts.  Yes, it is hard to breathe sometimes.  But we have to keep pushing the limits so that he can get back to “normal”.  A new normal, but normal just the same.  The more he moves, uses his breathe, sits up, walks around, the better it is for his body to resume normal functioning again and the muscles to start to work again. 

As we were headed back towards the room George started picking up speed. He said to us, “Stop pushing me so fast!”  The PT and I looked at him and said that we had nothing to do with his speed, she was holding him from behind and I was having to move the IV stand as quickly as I could so he wouldn’t run into it.  We thought it quite funny that he thought we were pushing him.

It was a busy day for George.  My instructions for Keith and Rosemary tomorrow will be to get him out of bed for at least two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon.  Hopefully the staff will take him for a walk. 

I should be able to get off work early tomorrow and maybe go home to check the mail and see if there is anything that needs to get paid right away.  It has been a long day for me, but I am feeling better today.  I think it helped to get to work and accomplish some projects, get some fresh air, talk to other people.  I am tired, but it is a good tired tonight.