Sunshine, Birds, Grass, Smiles

Doesn't he look great? This was our PT outing today. We got Parker outside in front of the hospital, near the grass, under the trees, where he could hear the flocks of birds that are everywhere. The inner courtyard the other day was pretty awesome, but this... this was great. So good for Parker's soul. And mine.

He walked without the walker for a few steps for the first time, also. Then Lindsey, our dedicated PT person, spent a good chunk of the morning tracking down the right wheelchair so we could take him outside, and so off we went. The birds cooperated by putting on an appropriately perfect symphony. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, it was hot ~ just the way Parker likes it ~ and the shade from the trees added a beautiful finishing touch.


Here are more photo of some of our favorite people, those who have become so much more than "just" our health care team on this incredible journey. We feel their friendships are God's reward for fighting so hard to get well.

This is Lisa from New Hampshire. Lisa has lived here about a year and a half. She loves to garden, and one of the things she likes about Austin the most is the long growing season as compared to New England. She is an outdoors person, rides her bike to work every day, volunteers at a coop bookstore, raises chickens in her back yard, and she became my hero when she brought Parker his first piece of fruit he'd had in months. Lisa is one of our favorite nurses, and our most fun hospital days are when we have Lisa and Amy together. Then we laugh all day. I told Lisa today when we were discussing Parker's digestive system woes that it is an odd way to form a friendship, while talking about poop and throw up.



Lindsey is our fabulous, energetic, compassionate, tough-love-when-he-needs-it PT person. The same Lindsey who brought Parker a stack of movies when we had only been out of ICU for a few days in order to help him focus on something other than his pain. Lindsey is from Ohio, but is married to a former military guy so they moved around a lot. She has a HUGE smile which lights up our room. I really attribute so much of Parker's success in physical therapy to her ever encouraging optimism. When Parker gets out of the hospital we are going to get together for Monopoly. Seeing Lindsey is one of the highlights of our day.



Here are more random, outdoor photos of Parker from today:

Survivor

I should have known I am too old to live in an apartment with 3 college kids, one loud cat and a dog who is apparently not house trained, even just for 72 hours.

Parker's roomies have no sense of courtesy. 4:05am this morning they were STILL going from bedroom to kitchen and back, yelling to each other about who ate the last of the pizza and why'd the dog get into the trash. At 4:05am thank you very much. Then something made me sick. Every time I threw up I thought of Parker and told myself to toughen up. I'm pretty sure I am over my fear of throwing up.

Other than allowing myself the luxury of laying in bed all morning, clicker in hand, watching a really good tennis match at the French Open, I was pretty miserable over there. Since John is staying at the hospital anyway, I came back to the room at the League House for the rest of my "vacation."

Parker had a rough afternoon yesterday, and even worse night, and the worst morning in a long time. They had the short N. nurse last night, the spazzed out woman who tried to stop Dr. Morrison from taking him to surgery until she could give him a bath. I told John to watch out for her, to be sure she didn't get near Parker. He found out why when Parker threw up all night and was choking on the stuff he'd aspirated through his trach and she wanted to measure his urine output while John was trying to clean out the trach so he could breathe. Then she was stupid enough to ask John how she measures the urine, was it this number or that one? What a dumb*%&#.....

His pain level had become unmanageable, and this morning one of our favorites, Nurse Sherrie, discovered that the iv line for the Dilauded had a leak in it. No telling how long it had been that he'd actually had any pain medicine, but it apparently had been like that all night. We love Sherrie. She rode with Parker in the ambulance the day he had to go to Round Rock for the CT scan, the day he went into shock and had to have his first surgery. He still remembers how she held his hand and let him lean against her in the ambulance.

On top of the pain, his digestive system is still fighting him, and when Lindsey came for Physical Therapy today it was a nightmare. The doctor came in and said something about the NG tube and both Parker and John burst into tears .... Parker will do anything to not have that NG tube put back in because he thinks they will tell him he can't have water. The doctor re-read all the notes and discovered the problem with the pain meds, and also saw that Parker has been able to get some things past the ileus, so she changed her mind and upped his meds again to give him comfort. Whew! Saved by the diligence of a thorough nurse and a compassionate doctor who took the time to find out what other reasons might still be making him throw up.

His belly is huge, swollen from the ileus and gas and water that is accumulating on his abdomen. They've put him back on Lasix and upped his iv fluids, too, in an attempt to get it all straight. I haven't seen the kidney doctor for days, but Parker's BP is also higher than normal again, probably from the fluid retention.

When I got there today to deliver his lime and cranberry juice, he was working with the OT guy, Eric. Even with all the pain he'd been in, all the throwing up and diarrhea, Parker still wanted to stand, wanted to walk, and tried his darnedest to get to the chair, but couldn't because he was so exhausted. Eric told me he was really impressed with him, after everything he'd been through over the last 24 hours that he was still pushing himself.

Then the wound care guy showed up to change out the wound vac. That always causes Parker more pain (if I thought you had the stomach for it I'd show you a picture) and he hates having it done. But Parker is having company tomorrow. His aunt and two cousins are coming to see him and he is so excited about it he doesn't want to be in pain or miss out on any of the visit. So when the wound care guy offered to come back tomorrow because of how difficult the last 24 hours had been, Parker said no, let's get it done now, get it out of the way.

I already hurt, might as well get it over with so I can see my family tomorrow when they come.

I was mighty proud of that boy. Eric, the OT guy, was standing outside the room with me when we heard Parker say that. I looked at Eric who shook his head and said,

It doesn't surprise me, Parker is an inspiration to all of us in Physical and Occupational Therapy. He's got more pain, but also more courage than all the other patients on this floor put together.

That, Parker, is why you will walk out of this hospital someday on your own two feet! You're tough, a survivor, like the bison in the photo.