SO HARD TO LEAVE.....

Well the kids and I are home and I will tell you, leaving was HARD!  Mom felt much better today.  Her white blood count was down to 1300 which was a huge relief to me as this was one of my main concerns but not the doctors.  Normal white blood count is around 1200 so we are getting there.  Her urine output is still about 30cc/hour but hopefully that will increase day by day.  I did not get an update on how that progressed today so she may have ended the day better than that.  She does still have the NG tube.  Some have asked what the NG Tube is and it is Nasogastric Intubation.  It basically means they have fed a tube up her nose, down her throat and into her stomach that pumps everything out of her stomach.  They have ordered nutrients via IV for tomorrow which we are all super excited about.  It has been days since Mom has ate.  I believe the last time she ate was last Monday so as you can imagine, from that alone she is weak.  They will start a central line tomorrow and I believe the nutrients are to arrive at the hospital mid morning.  We cannot help but think this will help her some.  We do expect the proteins to assist her in reducing some of the swelling.  Again they do hear gurgling in her stomach and she is having some movement but the small bowel is still not working.  I believe they still intend to do a CAT scan tomorrow to see if they can better tell whether it is still sleeping or if there is actually an obstruction.  That will again determine if we start looking at transporting her to another hospital.

Our family decided to divide up duties just as we have since this started.  Karli stayed behind since she does not start classes until next week and her job is a little more flexible.  She will stay in Scott City until Wednesday.  Steph will be out there on Wednesday or early Thursday and then I will relieve her on Friday through the weekend.  Dad and Sherri are always there so everyone will just rotate around to make sure Mom is never alone.  I know it means the world to Mom to have us there even though she was silly enough to say today, "Well you guys can't put your lives on hold for me."  Hmmm, let's see, not only did she spend most of her life caring for us I seem to personally remember 3 separate occasions that she did exactly that for me while Coop had open heart surgery.  I almost laughed at her when she said this.  She completely put her life on hold each time to make sure she was there for me and my family.  So the thought that we couldn't put our lives on hold for a few weeks seemed ridiculous.  Anyway, when we left today I felt horrible.  I knew I had to get the kids back and I knew I needed to work but let me tell you I thought I was going to throw up when I walked out of that hospital.

The drive back was long but thankfully I followed Steph and Cody and Steph rode with me half the way.  When we got home Terry was outside and the kids just started yelling, "Daddy!"  It was so sweet.  Coop had disclosed to me that last night after he was tucked into bed he had cried a little because he missed Daddy.  I asked him if he told Aunt Sherri and my sweet boy said, "No, I just cried a little while."  Of course I teared up because I am such a softy.  We got home and unloaded and the kids began running laps around the living rooms chanting "We're home, We're home!"  They were giggling and going crazy.  Raelynn said, "we had fun but we just like our home."  So for them I am so glad to be home and I must admit that after a few nights of sleeping in your clothes at the hospital, my pajamas and bed are feeling pretty good.   I was looking forward to a few days of "normalness" but when we got home we found out school had been called off for tomorrow which just figures after leaving today.  It was too late and I was too tired to even figure out what to do about that so I guess I will start working on that when the alarm sounds at 4am.  The unexpected is what challenges us and we should embrase it and love it! (This is what I keep telling myself).

Thanks again to everyone who has reached out to our family.  We are so grateful!