March 20, 2012  

  I don't know what day of the next 50 years it is,  I have lost count, there is barely enough time to think and then it's time to go home and fall into bed exhausted!  Jim is doing better than me I think, he is getting more strength and stamina every day.  He is still having trouble with his back pain, but he thinks it is muscular rather than from the spinal cord infection.  He is going to be released from Rio Rehab Thursday morning to go for an MRI at Kaiser and visit to the neurosurgeon.  It will be a long day and we will probably be pretty tired by the time we get home.  Jim hasn't been home since the 17th of February and he is anxious to be home and we are both anxious about being home and away from the security of this place.  Both hospitals, doctors, nurses, cna's and cleaning people have treated us with the utmost kindness and sensitivity and we are very, very appreciative.  Our family has been awesome and prepared our home so it will make Jim's return easier to navigate throughout the house. 

Thank you to all our friends too, you have kept us prayed up and all your offers of help are mightily appreciated.  We will need help for sure when the weather straightens up.  Friday, our first day home we are having our septic tank replaced!  What fun, but we are not sweating the small stuff, we are just happy to be able to watch the "poopy" process together!  We will look forward to your calls and visits, just let us know before coming over as Jim will probably need extra rest from having to rely solely on me most of the time.  We will be having in home nurses for IV checks and wound dressings.  On the 27th we are supposed to see the Infectious Disease doctor and hopefully the infection will be cleared up.  The wound vac is awesome, but the machine is a little cumbersome and heavy.

We will try to keep everyone up to date, but blogs may be rather infrequent depending on our schedule.  We probably won't be out and about for a couple of weeks, depending on how Jim is doing.  We don't want to expose him to too many germs yet and until he feels comfortable walking.  He will be going home with a wheelchair and walker and still is quite wobbly in the knees.

Praying for Spring to bring some sunshine so we can get out and do some walking.

Love to all, Pa and Ma Gibson