July 4th

During this entire process from the beginning of March we have been in a day by situation doing what needs to be done to get through the day. It is a very hard thing to understand that each day is so different from the next and there are good days and not so good days. Its a yo-yo of emotion and is totally exhausting and also frustrating because as soon as you get one situation out of your mouth - it's already changed.

Well here in the hospital after a MAJOR surgery - its not day by day, it HOUR BY HOUR and that is even more intense and a much more dramatic roller coaster.

Yesterday when I updated the blog, facebook in the morning things were advancing rapidly and extremly well and later in the afternoon I had a chance to return a few calls outside while Marcy and Jarod were taking a nap by the time I got back to the room at 3:45 - things were different.

Jarod went from being sore but comfortable to being in EXCRUCIATING pain due to the fact the IV drugs wore off and he was not ready to be on just oral medication. His heart rate increased, he began wheezing his oxygen dropped and he couldn't even move he was in so much pain. They put him back on oxygen which helped stabilize his heart rate, and breath easier.

We then had the nurse come in who gave him a shot of dalaudid for pain, he needed heartburn medication and something to calm him down. It took until 6:00pm before he was OK enough to get some rest.

Marcy, Mom and I let him rest, left to shower and get food and came back later in the evening. They decided to keep him on the dauladid for pain control through the night, which helped but was not taking it away.

He also developed some redness around the lower part of the incision which we were a little concerned about and he left foot was cooler was the right.

Mom and I went to bed around 12 to rest, Marcy stayed with him again - and during the night they drew his blood at 3:00 am and gave him a breathing treatment around 5:30 am. He had a hard night getting up all the time and being in pain.

I was back in the room a little after 8 and Dr. Beck's team came in at 8:30 we told them since they had seen him 24 hours earlier we had some changes - we pointed out all the issues, breathing, leg, redness, pain, and going home. Dr. Cary one of Dr. Beck's chief team members looked at everything. The leg issue is a short term side effect from nerve damage and will go away, he drew a circle around the redness near the incision and put him on antibiotics to prevent a serious infection. They listened to his chest and said the fluid was not deep in his lungs and was OK. They had received the blood work back from 3:00am and everything looked fine giving us a lot of comfort.

They also increased his oral pain meds, and keep him on the IV pain med. Dr. Cary said he was going to call Dr. Beck to come by and see Jarod. Dr. Beck arrive about 45 mins later and confirmed everything that Dr. Cary said and overall told us Jarod was looking good. Although the ideal situation would to have surgery and go home 2 days later - every patient is different and this was such a dramatic surgery and only 72 hours out is really OK to be where he is. Dr. Beck also promised us that he will not be released until all of us are comfortable with Jarod leaving and his number one concern was controlling Jarod's pain and then once he is off of IV pain meds -at his own pace he will need to be on oral medication only for at least 18 hours before being released. This means it will be at least late tomorrow or Tuesday before we are leaving.

Overall Jarod is OK Dr. Beck has confirmed we just have to pace ourselves and make sure the pain management is under control. Jarod also has not had anything to speak of other than clear liquids and apple sauce to eat, we have ordered him some chicken noodle soup for lunch so hopefully that will go over well.

Even though we won't be able to do anything for the 4th - there is a place here in the hospital we will be able to see fireworks tonight. As I said in the beginning hour by hour then day by day and hopefully soon week by week, we just have to get through it.