Monday, November 6, 2017

Good news! The strain of E.Coli Craig has responds to antibiotics. He needs four more days of IV antibiotics followed by a week or two of pills. He looks so much better today although he is still sleeping most of the time. He is still very weak but his color is much better. His left side is particularly weak. That is the side that was damaged when he had his stroke years ago.

Craig will be transferred to a Rehab place sometime soon. His first choice is Newman Hospital Rehab. He went there one other time for out-patient Rehab and was pleased with it. Not sure he has a second choice yet. The nursing homes in Emporia do Rehab but he doesn’t want to get close to a nursing home. We will see how this plays out over the next day or two.

No mention was made of how long he will have to stay in Rehab. I’m sure that will depend on how fast he can rebuild his strength. One day at a time! Grateful he will get out of the hospital sometime soon.

His back is really bothering him today. He has been laying in bed since last Thursday. He gets up briefly but is too weak to stay up long.

I’m staying the night unless he gets transferred out today. Not expecting that to happen. Hoping he will get transferred tomorrow but it may be Wednesday. Kathy will come up around noon tomorrow if he is still here as I have to be back in Emporia for a Doctor’s appointment at 3:00 tomorrow afternoon.

Craig had entered some of my dad’s art work in the veterans art show at the Emporia Arts Council. The winners are being announced at a reception tomorrow afternoon. Craig is convinced dad is going to win a prize and wants me to attend the reception.

Nicole called and we FaceTime with her this morning. Craig was pretty out of it when she called so he didn’t talk much. Nicole is going on a four by four adventure today. Sounds like fun. She is sunburned and looks good! Nice to see her face. She will be home Thursday.

I went over to take the grandkids to school this morning. Tagen woke up puking. Luckily his brother is home sick today so I was able to take him to his dad’s house. Michelle made a doctor’s appointment for him this afternoon as this is the third day he will miss with this stomach stuff. The school requires a note from the doctor if they miss more than three days. The kiddos came over yesterday and I took them out to lunch. Tagen didn’t eat all of his lunch and refused no-bake chocolate cookies which are his favorites. I should have known something was up then.

Physical therapy has come to get Craig out of bed. Glad to see them in here working with him. Hard for him to move but he won’t get better unless he does. His nurse brought in a heating pad to see if he can get some relief from his back with it. Much better nurse today than he had earlier.

I asked Craig what he wanted for lunch and he said he isn’t hungry. That tells me he is still feeling pretty crummy as Craig can eat even when he has the stomach flu. It is going to take some time before he is back to feeling good. His system is pretty wiped out.

Good news day! So glad to see him looking better. I’m sure he will be feeling better soon. The miracle of modern medicine and its drugs. There would have been a time when he wouldn’t have survived this.

This whole episode has been a reminder for myself to enjoy each and every day as we aren’t promised another day. My family comes together when the going gets rough! Sometimes it takes a village to care for one person.

All is well on the prairie today! Things are looking up!