Brad told me the other night he chose the mechanical valve over the pig valve because it lasts for life. I guess the pig valve has to be redone in 20 years.
froggy's way cooler. we even have our own web site, froggy. CoolerCrew.com. Check it out. you can learn about our common addiction/curse there. but like eags said, once you go there, you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.
tonight's brad update, since jana's computer's on the fritz....
last week he said he was in the worst pain he's been in. he's saying it again but its different than last week's. they stopped the morphine for a while because of low blood pressure, but he's back on that now in addition to anti-nausea meds.
he's been a model patient. asking nurses if he can work on lung capacity rather than waiting for them to push him to do it. it seems to be working well. earlier he could only take 2 deep breaths at once; he's now up to 10.
he's recovering nicely; in fact he sat up on the edge of the bed earlier today.
also seen on the news just now, baby born in fergus falls 8/8/08, 8:08 (am/pm unknown), 8 lbs, 8 oz.
Thanks everyone, and thanks for the invitation. I knew you guys were terrific...
I do live in northern Ontario.
I think I once asked about what the cooler crew was about, and since I don't live in the states I can't take part in the games you guys play, but I don't mind posting with all of you..
As Mr.Z. will tell you, I love 'telling' jokes and reading jokes....
But since this is Mr.Clue's thread, I won't muck it up with my stories...
I'll find another thread to tell you all about myself one of these days...
Brad got out of ICU this afternoon, although that essentially meant a move down the hall and less care. Jana says some of the nurses seem really cranky! Brad is off the ventilator as of yesterday (which would have to happen to be moved out of ICU) and he has had 2 chest xrays, ecg, and an ultrasound (of his kidneys) in the past 12 hours. He is on IV antibiotics, an oxygen mask,and he has a rubber tube coming out of his wiener (I wonder how THAT got there!?) :sillygrin:
He's still not eating much, he's very weak, and he is experiencing severe incisional pain. Unfortunately, my (Becksie's) understanding is that his blood pressure is low to the point that the Drs do not want to keep him on Morphine (it lowers blood pressure) so he is now taking other pain meds (Fentanyl patch, Ultram, and Vicodin) and a muscle relaxer (Robaxin). The Drs are also checking out his kidneys because of some lab results (prior to and after surgery) and because of some meds he was on at Woodwinds that can mess with your kidneys. I think that is a precaution at this point? Jana is not exactly sure yet...
Brad is being a VERY good patient, remembering all the do's and don'ts that he has been given instruction on. I talked to him VERY briefly when I was talking to Jana a few minutes ago and he sounds very weak. When I said, "Well, the worst is over" he replied, "I don't think it is" :sad:
I felt so bad for him!
BTW, Jana relayed that he is not allowed visitors until Monday evening at the EARLIEST. After hearing his voice, I'm glad to hear that because he really just needs to rest and allow his body and his focus to be on healing.
Well, I hope this update is accurate! Jana's laptop is not working so she asked me to post this update and it's correct to my understanding....
Jana is going to try to get Brad up and moving a little bit more. I see that Jase posted a similar post to mine yesterday.
Kat just told me that when her dad had this surgery, he had quite a bit of incisional pain, too...for about a week. Maybe it's par for the course...but it still sucks for Brad. :frown:
Thank you for the update. I'm glad they are limiting visitors. Rest is the best thing so he can heal. My dad had a similar incision and it did take awhile for that to heal and feel better.
The good thing is that he is still younger and so should heal faster than if he were older.
I hope the meds they had him on at Woodwinds didn't mess him up like when my mom was in the hospital with pnemonia....It ended up wiping out ALL the bacteria in her intestines good and bad to where the bad bacteria came back with a vengence and she ended up having a ton of bleeding.
Ok in talking about Brad with my family and what he's going through I've been asked many times but have had to guess How old is Brad? Early 40's? is my guess???
I think it should be mandatory for hospitals to give probiotics (e.g. yogurt with active cultures) to patients who have had antibiotics, to replenish the healthy normal bacteria in the gut. Instead of waiting until they have problems.
My Mom is a county nurse and is really preaching that as well. The overuse of antibiotics has created way too many 'superbugs', to the point where she's recommending just cleaning cuts with clean water, and 'patching' them with ordinary Vaseline instead of antibiotic ointment to protect them if needs be.
She still carries around one of those hand sanitizer bottles everywhere - but they are more alcohol than antibiotics. Eat lots of berries, yogurt and citrus to boost your natural immune system as much as possible.
Here endeth the lesson - the non-health professional will shut up now. :lipsealed:
Thanks for the update...Hoping the incision pain goes away soon....I imagine it will be sore for awhile...
Clue, if you can read this...get well soon, I am "hording" all the jokes until you are well enough to laugh without hurting.. :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:
Yes 43... he and I were to be born the same day (March 17 in the blizzard of '65) but I was smart and stayed were it was safe and warm for 5 days and joined the world on the 22nd. :sillygrin:
cool normally I'm way off I was just waiting for someone to tell me I was off by a decade or something lol...I would NEVER make a good person who guesses ages at the fair hahaha
Thought you would enjoy this: on BBrother last night they played a game. Contestants in the house chose a past BB member to play against. Then they were told a News story - the past member was able to give them more details and to tell them if it was true or not true.
At stake? House members were playing for food for the week - past members played for $1000 cash!
After listening to the story they had to decide if the story was in the news or made up....
This first story was about Farve coming out of retirement and playing for the Jets... the Housemate was so sure of himself and was please to say Not in the News!! Wrong..
In the end the housemates are eating gruel 5 out of 7 days of the week.... it was Hysterical!!!
because my harddrive crashed, I haven't been able to post so today from work I am printing this whole thread and taking it up to Brad tonight.
Thank you to those who are helping keeping everyone updated. and thanks for everything prayers and well wishes. I tell yah, after all is said and done, I think this whole experience has been a godsend. It has turned our lives to a different direction. I don't know how the Cooler can ever get closer but somehow through our life experiences together we seem to. Feels like when you would tie your shoe and have to pull the strings tighter, you don't think you can pull tighter. Brad is gonna be healthier than ever. physically, mentally and emotionally. an understatement at a new lease on life.
Update: The day before yesterday was obviously one of the worst, Brad says it was THE worst day of his life and was ready to give up because of the severe pain, however, when I remind him of the last 2 weeks and things that happened at Woodwinds .... just ::sigh::.
That same day we had issues with nurses and pain relief. When he went in for the surgery they promised him that anytime he was in pain that they would give him something and to let them know even when it's slight so there was enough time to get him something BEFORE it got worse. Well the second he was moved out of ICU was the second it felt like no one cared anymore. The pain meds were dropped to lower doses and given further inbetween. I understand the weening off process but not in the first 48 fricken hours!!!! I never abused or asked for anything more than what Brad needed, so it was frustrating when we had this guy nurse that thought Brad was young enough to bypass certain helping aides that both Brad and I felt he needed. That day was quite the struggle with many 'aides'.... one woman told him to use his arms and Brad knew the ICU told him not to and he told her and she basically grabbed him and pulled him up quickly into a sitting postion. I told her about his back and to be careful and man was she snotty! WTF! I asked for pain meds at that moment (4 'aides' in the room) and one said snottily that they wern't his nurse. I said, "so, NONE of you are his nurses?" and the woman said she would have one come by in 10 minutes and I said "sooo, you're all telling me he doesn't have a nurse for the next 10 minutes?" so another woman snottily claimed she was his nurse but she was leaving because of a shift change so basically she wasn't gonna even request or look in to what medication they could give him for the pain. We didn't just come down from ICU and request pain meds...he went from ICU to the room to ultrasound and back, so it had been a little while. So a 40 minutes goes by and I go out to the front counter to find out WHY the next nurse hadn't been in yet. They went and found his nurse and that still took time because now they had to acclimate themselves to the situation and ge the orders brought down from ICU --- in the mean time our poor baby was in severe pain. Through the day the nurses would ask him on a scale of 1-10 about his pain - Brad would say a 10 but he looked so calm that I think a couple of the nurses seemed to be suprised an exclaim with an "oh!" and then they would take forever that day to bring him something and the stuff they brought wouldn't work or be strong enough. I went to the desk once, after talking with Brad, to tell a nurse he needed something for the pain....she walks down there and comes back and says -"he's sleeping"...I said "beleive me HE IS NOT SLEEPING!" he is in so much pain that he isn't moving and closing his eyes! GOD!!!! just do it.
okay.... yesterday was a much better day. Started out a little rough but ended on a good note. He had pain in his side (today doctors are thinking its fluid and are checking it out-finally after complaining about it for 3 days).
Today he is up and doing therapy and they are talking about discharging him by Wednesday. thank goodness.
I sure feel for Clue/Brad...I went through the same thing with my FIL a few years back.
His organs were no longer functioning. He hadn't "peed" in 3 days, he hadn't eaten in days, and the doctor had told us it was just a matter of hours...
When we asked for pain medication for him, we had to literally "wake" up the nurse at the station and ask her for her help. We were told she wasn't his nurse but she would send "her" in. She never came..Hubby had to go back out and hunt her down...she was refusing to come, finally after bickering back and forth, she finally came in and asked my FIL who was almost comatose if he had any pain...He shook his head, so she went out the room and said, "he didn't seem to be in pain"...and walked away...We went back to her and told her that when the doc had last seen him he said he could have morphine hour on the hour to make him comfortable...she still refused..
It was 8 hours later that he finally got a shot of morphine when his "day" nurse came in,. She was furious.
He died that night...but the point I want to make here, is after the funeral etc...I wrote a letter of complaint to his doctor, to the head nurse, to the "head" doctor and I sent her a copy of the letter also..
She was "reprimanded" and she was sent on a course called "how to treat or deal with palliative care"....
Ok, off my soap box...there's another story I would like to share, but not right now, cause this is not about me...or my stories, it's about CLUE and him getting better real quick..
HUGS FOR YOU CLUE, KEEP GETTING BETTER AND COME BACK SOON, YOU'VE GOT GOOD FRIENDS HERE AND GOOD PEOPLE, I CAN SEE YOU ARE WELL RESPECTED AND WELL LOVED....
As far as the pain threshold goes... I have seen a chart in a clinic once that showed the threshold limits and what roughly corresponded by number.
 A 10 is that the pain is so severe that you cannot control yourself from crying and screaming.... think of giving birth to a 10 pound porcupine.
 If he really gets in pain again, don't let him look calm and relaxed... he needs to "appear" to be in pain or it won't be a big issue. For example: say I can handle pain better than you, and we both have the same amount of pain. To you it may be an 8, but to me it could be a 4...
If he gets in that much pain again, and anyone tries to give any of you shit about medicating, pick up the phone and call whichever doctor you think will get immediate results for you. That may very well be his surgeon, but use whomever you have to, to get results.
There is no excuse for staff allowing a patient to stay in pain like that.
Yeah I have experienced this with kidney stones. I have gone through it enough and am not beyond a little extra kicking and screaming if it gets me where I'm going.
Brad- if it helps just picture the nurses as liquor store owners who are out of peppermint schnapps and won't order any for you. :wink:
we have lots of pictures, I just have no way of getting them online.
He had a lot of trouble finding a good position to sleep in last night so he was up most of the night. The first real night where there havn't been many nurses in and he isn't hooked up to much except for an hour a night of antibiotics and the heart monitor with all the electrodes on his chest.
They have him down to Tylenol!! and a muscle relaxer. I just don't get it. Don't think we havn't asked many times. This mornings weight put him at a 50 pound loss!!
They have him down to Tylenol!! and a muscle relaxer. I just don't get it. Don't think we havn't asked many times.
What does his doctor say about the staff not adequately treating his pain?
Is there a patient liaison who would come and help facilitate things?
I hate, hate, hate the pompous attitudes of nurses like that - if you want pain meds, they won't give them. If you don't want them, they push them on you: "oh, don't wait until the pain gets too bad..."
Sorry, but some of them are just bitches.
Have them keep the energy healer coming - that will at least help some.
You might also ask if the energy healer will teach you and family how to do a "pain drain" technique or other energy healing techniques that they feel might particularly help in between times, and at home.
I can e-mail you instructions how to do that, too. But I know the Healing Touch program they use at HealthEast hospitals and I think having someone teach you would be less confusing than trying to follow written instructions.
hopefully he will go back to sleep.
everything over the last week has happened so fast.
I've been looking for one of those as a damper for my smoker chimney.
guess he didn't go with the pig one..?
geez...I was looking forward to all the Pig jokes.
Keep doing all you can to take care of YOU, too, OK?
Love and prayers still flowing your way!
I don't know how to do that right now. all that matters is cluey being better.
Just do whatever simple things you can to take care of yourself.
Take some deep breaths, eat if you can, drink some water - even sips will help.
If you can think of it when you get home, take your vitamins - and some Vitamin B stress complex would probably help a lot right now.
I sure understand that your focus is on ClueMaster - but you both have a long road to walk yet, even though the worst is past.
Just take a minute now and again to do something restorative for you!
 After all of this strife.
He'll be back here real soon, singing a happy tune,
 With his new lease on life :smile:
BTW... I got this for you:
I am not part of the "cooler" gang although I wish I was, you all seem to be so loving towards one another...feels good...
I've only posted with Clue, here and there and I could tell he was a good guy...
I am very happy to hear his surgery went well, and I will still keep him in my thoughts and prayers...
But you should know this, going in - once you join, you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.
I just noticed your icon (Ontario license plate) - do you live there?
If so, I am just south of you, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
I hope you'll come back and post with us on the Shoot the Breeze thread here, and any other threads you find interesting.
last week he said he was in the worst pain he's been in. he's saying it again but its different than last week's. they stopped the morphine for a while because of low blood pressure, but he's back on that now in addition to anti-nausea meds.
he's been a model patient. asking nurses if he can work on lung capacity rather than waiting for them to push him to do it. it seems to be working well. earlier he could only take 2 deep breaths at once; he's now up to 10.
he's recovering nicely; in fact he sat up on the edge of the bed earlier today.
also seen on the news just now, baby born in fergus falls 8/8/08, 8:08 (am/pm unknown), 8 lbs, 8 oz.
more to come tomorrow.
I do live in northern Ontario.
I think I once asked about what the cooler crew was about, and since I don't live in the states I can't take part in the games you guys play, but I don't mind posting with all of you..
As Mr.Z. will tell you, I love 'telling' jokes and reading jokes....
But since this is Mr.Clue's thread, I won't muck it up with my stories...
I'll find another thread to tell you all about myself one of these days...
He'll see I'm dropping by to say,
I dedicate this special JOE,
To him and all those in the know.
:wink:
Brad got out of ICU this afternoon, although that essentially meant a move down the hall and less care. Jana says some of the nurses seem really cranky! Brad is off the ventilator as of yesterday (which would have to happen to be moved out of ICU) and he has had 2 chest xrays, ecg, and an ultrasound (of his kidneys) in the past 12 hours. He is on IV antibiotics, an oxygen mask,and he has a rubber tube coming out of his wiener (I wonder how THAT got there!?) :sillygrin:
He's still not eating much, he's very weak, and he is experiencing severe incisional pain. Unfortunately, my (Becksie's) understanding is that his blood pressure is low to the point that the Drs do not want to keep him on Morphine (it lowers blood pressure) so he is now taking other pain meds (Fentanyl patch, Ultram, and Vicodin) and a muscle relaxer (Robaxin). The Drs are also checking out his kidneys because of some lab results (prior to and after surgery) and because of some meds he was on at Woodwinds that can mess with your kidneys. I think that is a precaution at this point? Jana is not exactly sure yet...
Brad is being a VERY good patient, remembering all the do's and don'ts that he has been given instruction on. I talked to him VERY briefly when I was talking to Jana a few minutes ago and he sounds very weak. When I said, "Well, the worst is over" he replied, "I don't think it is" :sad:
I felt so bad for him!
BTW, Jana relayed that he is not allowed visitors until Monday evening at the EARLIEST. After hearing his voice, I'm glad to hear that because he really just needs to rest and allow his body and his focus to be on healing.
Well, I hope this update is accurate! Jana's laptop is not working so she asked me to post this update and it's correct to my understanding....
Hope you're better soon, Brad!
Kat just told me that when her dad had this surgery, he had quite a bit of incisional pain, too...for about a week. Maybe it's par for the course...but it still sucks for Brad. :frown:
You are awesome!!! If I ever need to go to the hospital, I am going to speed dial you to be at my side. You are such a caring person.
I think you are an angel sent to live on this earth..
Thanks for taking care of Brad...
The good thing is that he is still younger and so should heal faster than if he were older.
Ok in talking about Brad with my family and what he's going through I've been asked many times but have had to guess How old is Brad? Early 40's? is my guess???
JOE
She still carries around one of those hand sanitizer bottles everywhere - but they are more alcohol than antibiotics. Eat lots of berries, yogurt and citrus to boost your natural immune system as much as possible.
Here endeth the lesson - the non-health professional will shut up now. :lipsealed:
P.S. Get well SOON, Cluey!
tc doesn't let him forget it for the six months out of the year that he's "a year older" than she is.
thanks for the update becks; i wasn't anywhere i could get a signal to get online to do the posting myself when jana called.
Clue, if you can read this...get well soon, I am "hording" all the jokes until you are well enough to laugh without hurting.. :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:
I feel so sorry for you brother...I know what they took out of you yesterday...
and from experience ...I couldn't figure out myself why it was so painful to pull a little hose out of a big hose.
Thought you would enjoy this: on BBrother last night they played a game. Contestants in the house chose a past BB member to play against. Then they were told a News story - the past member was able to give them more details and to tell them if it was true or not true.
At stake? House members were playing for food for the week - past members played for $1000 cash!
After listening to the story they had to decide if the story was in the news or made up....
This first story was about Farve coming out of retirement and playing for the Jets... the Housemate was so sure of himself and was please to say Not in the News!! Wrong..
In the end the housemates are eating gruel 5 out of 7 days of the week.... it was Hysterical!!!
Thank you to those who are helping keeping everyone updated. and thanks for everything prayers and well wishes. I tell yah, after all is said and done, I think this whole experience has been a godsend. It has turned our lives to a different direction. I don't know how the Cooler can ever get closer but somehow through our life experiences together we seem to. Feels like when you would tie your shoe and have to pull the strings tighter, you don't think you can pull tighter. Brad is gonna be healthier than ever. physically, mentally and emotionally. an understatement at a new lease on life.
Update: The day before yesterday was obviously one of the worst, Brad says it was THE worst day of his life and was ready to give up because of the severe pain, however, when I remind him of the last 2 weeks and things that happened at Woodwinds .... just ::sigh::.
That same day we had issues with nurses and pain relief. When he went in for the surgery they promised him that anytime he was in pain that they would give him something and to let them know even when it's slight so there was enough time to get him something BEFORE it got worse. Well the second he was moved out of ICU was the second it felt like no one cared anymore. The pain meds were dropped to lower doses and given further inbetween. I understand the weening off process but not in the first 48 fricken hours!!!! I never abused or asked for anything more than what Brad needed, so it was frustrating when we had this guy nurse that thought Brad was young enough to bypass certain helping aides that both Brad and I felt he needed. That day was quite the struggle with many 'aides'.... one woman told him to use his arms and Brad knew the ICU told him not to and he told her and she basically grabbed him and pulled him up quickly into a sitting postion. I told her about his back and to be careful and man was she snotty! WTF! I asked for pain meds at that moment (4 'aides' in the room) and one said snottily that they wern't his nurse. I said, "so, NONE of you are his nurses?" and the woman said she would have one come by in 10 minutes and I said "sooo, you're all telling me he doesn't have a nurse for the next 10 minutes?" so another woman snottily claimed she was his nurse but she was leaving because of a shift change so basically she wasn't gonna even request or look in to what medication they could give him for the pain. We didn't just come down from ICU and request pain meds...he went from ICU to the room to ultrasound and back, so it had been a little while. So a 40 minutes goes by and I go out to the front counter to find out WHY the next nurse hadn't been in yet. They went and found his nurse and that still took time because now they had to acclimate themselves to the situation and ge the orders brought down from ICU --- in the mean time our poor baby was in severe pain. Through the day the nurses would ask him on a scale of 1-10 about his pain - Brad would say a 10 but he looked so calm that I think a couple of the nurses seemed to be suprised an exclaim with an "oh!" and then they would take forever that day to bring him something and the stuff they brought wouldn't work or be strong enough. I went to the desk once, after talking with Brad, to tell a nurse he needed something for the pain....she walks down there and comes back and says -"he's sleeping"...I said "beleive me HE IS NOT SLEEPING!" he is in so much pain that he isn't moving and closing his eyes! GOD!!!! just do it.
okay.... yesterday was a much better day. Started out a little rough but ended on a good note. He had pain in his side (today doctors are thinking its fluid and are checking it out-finally after complaining about it for 3 days).
Today he is up and doing therapy and they are talking about discharging him by Wednesday. thank goodness.
Way to go Brad!
His organs were no longer functioning. He hadn't "peed" in 3 days, he hadn't eaten in days, and the doctor had told us it was just a matter of hours...
When we asked for pain medication for him, we had to literally "wake" up the nurse at the station and ask her for her help. We were told she wasn't his nurse but she would send "her" in. She never came..Hubby had to go back out and hunt her down...she was refusing to come, finally after bickering back and forth, she finally came in and asked my FIL who was almost comatose if he had any pain...He shook his head, so she went out the room and said, "he didn't seem to be in pain"...and walked away...We went back to her and told her that when the doc had last seen him he said he could have morphine hour on the hour to make him comfortable...she still refused..
It was 8 hours later that he finally got a shot of morphine when his "day" nurse came in,. She was furious.
He died that night...but the point I want to make here, is after the funeral etc...I wrote a letter of complaint to his doctor, to the head nurse, to the "head" doctor and I sent her a copy of the letter also..
She was "reprimanded" and she was sent on a course called "how to treat or deal with palliative care"....
Ok, off my soap box...there's another story I would like to share, but not right now, cause this is not about me...or my stories, it's about CLUE and him getting better real quick..
HUGS FOR YOU CLUE, KEEP GETTING BETTER AND COME BACK SOON, YOU'VE GOT GOOD FRIENDS HERE AND GOOD PEOPLE, I CAN SEE YOU ARE WELL RESPECTED AND WELL LOVED....
 A 10 is that the pain is so severe that you cannot control yourself from crying and screaming.... think of giving birth to a 10 pound porcupine.
 If he really gets in pain again, don't let him look calm and relaxed... he needs to "appear" to be in pain or it won't be a big issue. For example: say I can handle pain better than you, and we both have the same amount of pain. To you it may be an 8, but to me it could be a 4...
Too bad he can't self-medicate in the hospital...
There is no excuse for staff allowing a patient to stay in pain like that.
Brad- if it helps just picture the nurses as liquor store owners who are out of peppermint schnapps and won't order any for you. :wink:
says who? just because you can't get the goods to get him doesn't mean i don't know where he keeps 'em :wink:
I love ya, CM, and if you need anything at all, give us a call. Day or night, and we will do whatever it takes to fulfill your request.
Sending you all my love and a bit of my sparklie a$$ pants
He had a lot of trouble finding a good position to sleep in last night so he was up most of the night. The first real night where there havn't been many nurses in and he isn't hooked up to much except for an hour a night of antibiotics and the heart monitor with all the electrodes on his chest.
They have him down to Tylenol!! and a muscle relaxer. I just don't get it. Don't think we havn't asked many times. This mornings weight put him at a 50 pound loss!!
What does his doctor say about the staff not adequately treating his pain?
Is there a patient liaison who would come and help facilitate things?
I hate, hate, hate the pompous attitudes of nurses like that - if you want pain meds, they won't give them. If you don't want them, they push them on you: "oh, don't wait until the pain gets too bad..."
Sorry, but some of them are just bitches.
Have them keep the energy healer coming - that will at least help some.
I can e-mail you instructions how to do that, too. But I know the Healing Touch program they use at HealthEast hospitals and I think having someone teach you would be less confusing than trying to follow written instructions.