Before and After

Today we are feeling a bewildering sense of gratitude. Dr. Garcia told us the man who came in around the same time as Parker last year, with the same horrific case of acute pancreatitis, passed away. We were both stunned by the news. The nameless man left the Intermediate Care Unit a few weeks before Parker and went to a regular room, presumably to prepare to go home. He didn't make it. But Parker did. And again we ask, "Why?"

The bewildering part is because it feels wrong to be grateful at the news another person passed away. Of the four people I knew who were in the ICU at the same time as Parker, the other three were the ones the doctors expected to live. They did not expect Parker to make it, but he did. All three of the other people died. What does that mean?

The photo on the top was taken shortly after Parker had the skin graft last July which covered the mesh holding his abdomen together. The faint red marks in a circle around the skin graft show where he had those incredibly painful retention sutures that held everything in place inside his body.

The bottom photo was taken yesterday, after the doctor took off the bandages. The little circle looking things at the top of the photo are the lines that feed Lydicain continuously into his body all along the incision line. That runs out tomorrow. The two square bandages cover drains between the muscle wall and his flesh inside the body that empty into little plastic pouches pinned to his gown. This is normal fluid build up after this surgery. Those will likely stay in after we have gone home, which means I'll have to learn how to empty them.

Dr. Garcia said if things continued to progress as well as they have so far, Parker MIGHT be able to go home on Monday. We still have to get past the worrisome MRSA risk, but the catheter came out today (yipeee!) and the incision looks really good so far.

Please continue to keep Parker in your prayers as we head toward the finish line of this long road to recovery.