Ok, now that I have a breather I will try to tell you all why Jim is in the hospital without all the gory details.  We were in Hawaii for the very first time for our 50th wedding anniversary!  We were having a wonderful time with our daughter and son-in-law.  We were on the last day of the cruise which was Feb. 10th, our anniversary and instead of going to dinner (I was all dressed up with someplace to go!) & Jim decided he wanted to stay in bed (sounds pretty romantic doesn't it?), I thought I was giving him the shakes & chills, but alas! he was really ill.  The next day we disembarked & it was a looooong day walking to the bus, to the plane, sitting hours in the terminal, 6 hours on the plane, 2 hours from plane to daughter's house.  Sunday we spent all day in Everett ER & received lots of pain meds, a CT SCAN for a back problem (I guess).  Jim sat around all day Monday and Tuesday morning when he decided we needed to drive home.  8 hours later, after stop & go traffic we arrive home!  Next day we go to a chiropractor for a back adjustment, not too helpful, so we go back the next day!  Doc adjusts his back & tells me to take him directly to the ER (Kaiser at Sunnyside) because he is concerned he may have had a "minor stroke"!  After several hours, and an Ultra-Sound he was discharged.  He could not walk by now and had to be lifted into and out of the car.  His 2 brothers helped get him into his recliner. Oh yes, he was diagnosed with diabetes because his count was 400!  Now this concerned his other daughter and granddaughter from Salem so they stayed with him while I got his diabetes meds.  Our granddaughter works for an oncology doctor in Dalles, OR and she was educating him on how to use his meds when the ER doc called and said to get him right back to emergency because he had a "raging urinary tract infection"!  You know you are in trouble when 3 of you cannot get him out of his chair to his feet.  Ok, lets call an ambulance where you spend several more tense hours in the ER, before they admit him to Progressive Care on the 3rd floor.

Because he is really ill most of his family are there stat!  He is finally diagnosed with sepsis all through his body and he has pockets of infection along and between his L3 - S2 vertebrae as well as in his lower muscles.  Doctor said as soon as the neurosurgeon came to check him out he would be going into surgery NEXT! to drain the infection away from his spine.  Wait a minute!  This doctor is scaring the hell out of us,  no, no, no he can't be this sick.  Just give him a pill and let me take him home!  Hours later and lots of people on lots of prayer chains, the neurosurgeon comes in and looks him over, pokes, prods, pushes, exposes and decides he will hold off and see how he is doing tomorrow and we don't want to be any more invasive at this time.  "PRAISE GOD, THANK YOU JESUS" could probably be heard all over the hospital! 

Next day, hours later, can't really remember as I am numb, the Infectious Disease doctor comes in and tells us that Jim has an E-coli bacteria but it is not a resistant bacteria so now we just need to find out if it is the same in the blood as in the urinary tract so they can treat it with 1 antibiotic rather than a full spectrum.  He told us it will be at least 6 weeks on contiuous intravenous antibiotics and then several weeks of therapy in a rehab facility and then home care.  Probably a year to complete healing.

It is one bacteria, he is responding well to the antibiotic, he is looking better, sitting up more and today therapists are going to work on getting him into the chair, etc. 

Signing off for now.  PRAYER IS STILL APPRECIATED.  His family needs him - he's got a lot of unfinished business on his "honey do" list!

Feb.24,2012

Thursday was a very busy day.  Therapist came in and tried to get him to stand with a walker. Have you ever seen 2 little women (I wasn't one of them) try to get a 309lb guy(he has lots of fluid, he weighed 248 when we left for Hawaii) to get his bare backside out of bed?  They finally had to get this funny little lift (forgot its name) & belted him in under his arms and pump it up until he was standing.  Then they could move him around at will, (not particularly his choice of wheels, but he was moving), got him into a recliner where he held court most of the day.  He had several visitors, mostly family, pop in and by mid afternoon he was pretty weary.  Putting him back in that contraption and back into bed was pretty exhausting for him, so Shelly & I kept guard in the lobby.  He didn't want us to leave last night so I slept really well on this little window bench and Shelly slept in the recliner.  During the night I felt Shelly put more blankets on me and thanked her in the morning.  Jim said they weren't trying to keep me warm, just trying to muffle me!  How rude! Thank You, God that he feels like picking on me. 

At 9:45 this morning he is going down for another MRI to see how much he has benefitted from the meds.  So if you are seeing this please pray that there is much improvement, especially the pockets around the spine.  The neurosurgeon is still pleased with his ability to move his legs a little more each day and said he would be in about 6pm with the results of the MRI. 

Jim has just started singing, "have you every seen a laddie go this way & that  way" etc, etc, etc.  I hope I will never, ever again get tired of hearing him say funny things.  I will never think the same about people who have to go to the hospital again.  I will try to be more pro-active.  In a week or so I should be able to guide anyone to the cafeteria.  I am trying to make light of this very serious time because I cannot even think of the alternative. 

I have not had too much time to look at e-mails or to respond, but appreciate all of you who check this blog site who care so much for our family.  Will try to post the MRI results tonight.

His sister brought a sign with scripture "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."
Amen & amen.