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Tracey's Blood Clot - Update 6 - End of Day 7

- back to the overview
- #1 Thursday - End of Day 2
- #2 Friday - End of Day 3
- #3 Saturday - End of Day 4
- #4 Sunday - End of Day 5
              - #5 Monday - End of Day 6
- #6 Tuesday - End of Day 7
- #7 Wednesday - Middle of Day 8
- #8 Thursday - End of Day 9
-


----- Original Message -----
From: "Drew and Tracey Cope"
Sent: Late Tuesday, January 10, 2007
Subject: Tracey Update 6 - Tuesday PM - What about Bob? - Baby Steps
TRACEY UPDATE - END OF DAY on TUESDAY - Day 7

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Last night - most of the verizon based email's bounced, so if you know someone on Verizon who should get this, you might want to forward it, as they probably aren't going to get it from us because version doesn't like my mailer program.

(JOANNA, RACHEL... what are your heart rates? - see why later... )
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One of my many favorite movie quotes is from "What about Bob" where Bill Murry (Bob) takes his shrink's new book called Baby Steps as advice on how to get through life while his shrink is on vacation.  

-- Baby steps, get on the elevator...baby steps get in the elevator...
-- ah, I'm on the elevator.
-- [Elevator door shuts]
-- Aaahhhhhhhhh!!!
(Checkout the full script from this section of the movie at the bottom of this email.... )

Today... Tracey took some baby steps... We tried putting weight on her still-swollen left leg last night and that just wasn't a good idea, in that it hurt really bad in the back of her calf, and at the top front of her quad, up towards the front inside of her hip.  So tonight, after a good nap, and then dinner in the wheel chair out in the lounge watching the sunset, we brought her back in, and grabbed a nurse to let her try to walk to the bed.   She couldn't take any weight off her good leg without me providing some substantial support / lift, under her left arm, (bad leg).   So she took three excruciating steps to the bed, and then decided to surf and wiggle on her good foot the rest of the way, keeping her bad leg up off the floor the whole way.   However, if they do try to kick us outta here, moving around the house is going to be a huge adventure.  

I've got the option of barrowing some cruches, a walker, a shower seat, and a set of handles for over the toilet from the family, but it's still going to be an adventure not only doing daily nesseseties without the conveinences of the hosital, but also getting her out to the car to go for labs and Dr. visits, etc.  I explained that we'd then be 60 minutes away from the hospital best equiped to treat her should something major go wrong, that the house isn't equiped for her (though it could be worse), but the doctor's excuse for not keeping her, is that they aren't doing anything for her like an IV or anything, so he can't keep us here either.    So I gotta figure out if our insurance covers visiting nurses to possibly come and take the bloodwork for us, so that's one less thing we gotta try to get her outta the house for.    Or maybe when physical therapy see her, they'll see my point and that may buy her an extra day or two of labs to get the coum to the right levels.

The did take two tubes of blood this morning, so I'm hoping that means they did the heprin extracted test again, however the nurse said that the half life of heprin is such that it's effects would be nominal.  And doing the math yesterday, her PTT dropped 20 points in 7 hours, so if it continues to drop 20 points every 7 hours, then by this morning, her PTT probably only would have been about 20.  (Now I realize that half life doesn't calculate that way, but it sounds good.)

So
WED, THURS, FRI INR 1.2 (Fri Night, gave 5mg warfarin / Coumadin)
SATURDAY - INR 1.7 (Sat night, gave 5mg warfarin / Coumadin)
SUNDAY - INR 2.9 (Sun night, gave 2mg warfarin / Coumadin)
MONDAY - INR 3.9 (Mon night, No warfarin / Coumadin)
TUESDAY - INR 3.2 (Tues Night, No warfarin / Coumadin)

Wednesday - We'll wait and see... but her admitting Doc wants to send her home with a final guess of what her coum dosage should be.  And then he'll have us test her again in a few days.   Now, maybe it's just me... but if it was 2.9, and you guessed 2mg, and we shot up to 3.9... do you really think you are going to guess right to send us home, and that's its wise to wait 3 days before checking the levels again???   Maybe it's just me... i danno.   But if they can't stabilize her here, how are we sure she's not going to hit an extreme at home and clot up again, or start bleeding? UGG...

She needed pain meds both at 1:30 and again after her walk at 6pm.  She took a 3 hour nap from 1:50-4:50 and didn't even wake up when we did her Blood pressure.   JOANNA, RACHEL... what are your heart rates?   Tracey's is still 100 even when she's sleeping.   We wanna know if high rates run in the family, or it maybe it's her meds or asthma drugs.   My resting rate sitting her typing is 60-66... and when I jog on the treadmill, I hit 120.   Tracey sits here all day and sleeps at 98-102 and stands up and she hits 120 without doing anything.

I got the GZ Bulletin done while she was napping and uploaded it to the office.   My phone's internet just wasn't fast enough to pull photos over the VPN, so Pastor Mike's gonna take care of that for me.   Thanks to Donna and Shawn, we were also able to get the ball rolling for some Rake Stuff, so we can get the material list to Barbara so she can start on corp. donations for February.   I found out that Christiana has wireless, but they've blocked everything but port 80, I can't do email, ftp, VPN, VNC or aim, unless i change all the ports to 80, and I'm not up for reconfiguring every service I run, and then have to change it back when I get back to the office. 

Tonight after dinner, Tracey noticed that her IV spot is had a small red patch right under the insertion site.  The floor we're on (Heart ICU Step Down) requires an IV in at all times, even if we're not using it, so if she takes it out, we have to move it, and we're back to the same nurse who moved it last time, and that probably means she's gonna want to put it back in tracey's right arm... so Tracey opted to leave it in, and wait to see if the redness grows, or she starts to get irritated.

So we're babystepping things.  We're due for a Physical Therapy Consult, an EchoCardioGram, and someone from Pharmacie to come and "explain" the warfarin / coumadin home therapy, so we've got a lot to accomplish tomorrow if they really want to kick us out tomorrow, but I can't imagin that the physical therapy people will recommend that she go home yet.  But we'll see... Baby Steps....

So tonight, the nurse came in at 8:45 (after 2 reminders from us) to give tracey here 8pm drugs... and she had three pills... Tracey looked at it, picked up the 180 Alegra, and said she was only supposed to take it once a day and she already had it this morning.   The nurse looked at her funny, checked the chart, and the chart says Take own meds, twice a day.   So is she reading the chart wrong, or have the other nurses all week long been reading the chart wrong by not bringing it in.  Tracey refused it regardless, in that she's only ever taken alegra twice a day when she was on 60 and not the 180.   Makes you wonder... If you ever go to the hospital, stay on top of your meds, ask what they are giving you, and compare it to what you know you are supposed to be getting.   Sheessshhhhh!!  But after a good conversation with the nurse, we have somone on tonight who loves her job, thinks Tracey and I are the cutest thing (sitting in bed, playing on the computer, watching tv), doesn't want to see tracey go home too soon, explained that PT, EchoCardioG, and Pharamcy visit had all been ordered... confirmed that the chart did reflect a PE in BOTH side of her lungs, and was all around very helpful for the 5 minutes that we talked.   She's a sweet asian woman who misses a few articles as she forms her sentences, but her acent is non-existant which makes her easy to understand... and best of all, so far, she likes us.   (Kid voice) She brought tracey a BIG cup of ice.  All the other nurses would only bring the small little cups, and you hate to ask for water every 15 minutes.  They track in's and outs, and I haven't asked for their numbers, but according to my numbers, we are down by over a third from where we were upstairs when they give us the big cups, and it's not like too much water can hurt you, and I'd rather her drink a lot and protect her kidneys and keep her blood flowing... so we might have to take full advantage of the big cups why we can get them... otherwise I'm gonna be sneaking cups back from the cafeteria and into the room.  And the lack of an IV would only make up half the difference that we are seeing... so we need to get her drinking more.  

So Tracey got to watch the sunset.   We got some neat emails again today... darwin awards, two e-cards, some youth group teens saying hi, and something we never thougth about.. someone sent us a "You Tube" video they made for tracey... So all you YouTubers - lets see your best "get well soon" video work   :-D    Your prayers are so appreciated.  We are very blessed and we know it.   God is all over this room, and our batch of nurses.  

Her new roomie is doing much better today.  Still on Oxygen but breathing better.  Getting lots of phone calls, trying to sleep and anxious to go home.   But she can get up and walk herself around now, which is a 1000 times better than when she came up from the Cath Lab, so keep praying for Janice too.  And pray that her family spaces out the phone calls a little better so that Janice can sleep.  They keep waking her up, so she takes the phone off the hook, so the call goes to the front desk, who calls the nurse, who puts the phone back on the hook so it starts all over again.   Tracey has ear plugs so it doesn't bother her.... much...  ;-D

Baby Step Dialog from "What about Bob?" is listed below.   Blessings :-)

Thanks for the continued prayers.  You are making a tremendous difference, and in turn, we are able to impact those here.  

--------------------------
-- Drew & Tracey --
--------------------------
1Thes 2:6-12 We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.

-- Good things come to those who wait --
Jacob served seven years for Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. - Gen 29:20

www.DrewandTracey.com
www.GZYouth.com
www.GZMConline.com
www.ProjectRake.com
www.NLPCFamily.com


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[DOCTOR:] Bob, there is a ground-breaking new book, that has just come out, Now, I have writed this book, of course it applies to you, but, I'm sure that you can see when you see the title, exactly how it could help.
                  
[BOB:] Baby Steps ?

[DOCTOR:] It means setting small reasonnable goals for yourself one day at a time. One tiny step at a time.  Baby steps.  For Instance, hum... When you leave this office, don't think about everything you have to do in order to get out of the building, just think to what you must do to get out of this room, and when you get to the hall, deal with that hall,and so ...You see ?
                  
[BOB:] Baby steps !  Baby steps. Oh boy ! Baby steps, baby steps,
baby steps through the office,
baby steps out the door,
it works !
it works !
All I have to do .. just take one little step at a time, and I can do anything !
Baby step throughout the office, Baby step throughout the office.

[DOCTOR:] That should give you a lot to digest while I'm on vacation..

[BOB:] va va va va ..vacation ?

[DOCTOR:] Oh, certainly my secretary told you, as this afternoon I'm taking my family on vacation until labour day.

[BOB:] That's a month !  What if I need you ? What if I need to talk ?

[DOCTOR:] Well my associate, Dr Armand, will be happy to talk...and Bob, I'll be back ! Just read baby steps.

[BOB:] Baby steps, out of the office.

[DOCTOR:] Very good.

[BOB:] Baby steps to the hall.

[DOCTOR:] Very good Bob, keep going.  That's it !

[BOB:] Bye.

[DOCTOR:] I'll see you in a month !

[BOB:] Baby steps to the elevator,
Baby steps to the elevator.
Baby steps onto the elevator,
Baby steps into the elevator,
I'm in the elevator,

[elevator door closes]

[BOB:] Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/w/what-about-bob-script-transcript.html

Drew & Tracey received their Bachelor of Arts in Youth Ministry from Eastern University in 2001 & 2004.

We minister with the Ground Zero Youth Ministry and Cross Fire / Image Quest.