TRACEY UPDATE - 3PM on WEDNESDAY - Day 8

Name that movie... and then guess the next e-mail's subject line...

Well... the Doc is intent on sending her home.   We've seen the Respiration guy, the physical therapist, the occupational therapist, been given a bunch of free tools to help her care for herself at home, handed a pair of crutches and told... "try to walk on it as much as possible and keep moving."  

We haven't seen pharmacy, social work, or the discharge nurse and we're still waiting for the EchoCardioGram (no, it's not a brazilian alps yodoling blackjack based type of engraved invitation to leave... it's this thing where they look at your heart in real time, like viritual reality - I wonder if they'll do the 2-D or the 3-D version)... and so long as they don't find any surprises down there, the'll kick us back to the room, and then out to the curb.   (he wanted her to do it outpatient, but I explained tha'd cost us an extra co-pay and I'd really rather do it while we're already here and he didn't fight me on it...)  

So we'll run by Steven's house and pick some stuff up and head home tonight.   But I've watched them discharge our roommates and so it might not happen until 9 tonight.  We'll see. 

Today got started early with a 3-tube blood draw at 5 AM... (again, them trying to get us outta here) meaning that tracey has been playing catch up all day in terms of sleep... in between walking (kind of) for therapist, letting doctors listen to her, and having blood pressure taken shes been napping as best she could.   Of course the therapist wants her up and attempting to walk to the bathroom and everywhere else so she doesn't form another clot.   Her INR came back at 2.3, way down from the 3.9 we peaked at.   The doctor was talking about 5mg when he came in to talk a few minutes ago, and I reminded him that 5 is what we started at and two doeses, plus a one at 2mg took her from 1.2 to 3.9, and he changed his mind to 4mg tonight, 4mg thursday, and then a blood test Friday AM to see where we stand.   That sounded more reasonable to me, but also makes me wonder, if I changed his mind that easily, by just asking a simple question, how much of this is science, how much of it is art, and why do they call it practicing medicine.  I was really nice about it though.  Don't make me draw up an excel spreadsheet for this thing and start writing scripts... you all know I have the perfect handwriting for it.

Notes are being faxed to family doctor and the Hemotologist.   Labs will go to the Family doc and they'll have to give us a referal when we're ready to meet with the Hemotologist.  The Pulminary Doc never did come back to see us again, so I guess he's happy.  I am gonna ask the nurse if he signed off on the discharge as well.

I danno what life's gonna look like at home.  We'll see if getting better rest and being able to sleep in will give her more energy to be able to do things for herself.   I'm telecommuting for the time being, and the VPN will work better when I'm on cable and not through my phone.  But I was able to get the Adult Rake Signup forms copied and Christine's gonna have the MC's lable it.  Also got the JV foundations flyer out thanks to some help back at the office.  Once we're home, I should be able to drop in to pick up stuff and grab things i need, but until we get home and we try it for 24 hours, we'll see how much full time help Tracey wants from me, but I have a feeling she'll still be getting her kicks on Email and AIM.   I might have to dig out the long network wire outta the basement.  We'll see.  She wants to be able to start tutoring sooner rather than later and that might happen, however her subbing work will have to wait till she's better on her feet and less reliant on the crutches.  Her driving foot is fine, but I doubt she's gonna be too excited about driving anywhere.  She just gives me that famous Tracey "you've gotta be kidding, don't make me punch you" look whenever I suggest that she'll be driving herself to the labs and followups before she knows it...  Bottom line, I think the first 24 hours home will be very telling.

If anything changes tonight this afternoon, I'll let you all know.  The docs won't redo the ultasound or the cat scan, but assure me that the clot is definately still there, and that nothing will have changed in the time she's been here, other than she's now on drugs to keep it from getting worse, and since she's not having any life threatening problems (breathing, etc), that she's fine.  (I would have just loved to have them take the scans and see the problem completely gone and be able to credit God for a miraculas healing... that would have been FUN, but I guess that won't be happening, and we'll go with the 6-12 months of warfarin / Coumadin and count our blessings and continue to pray that she stays healthy and that the clots desolve without further incidnet and that new ones DO NOT form.

Please continue the emails.   We got a great one where someone had used a mac photo editor to warp their face.  That was cool and got Tracey laughing good & loud.  A few good e-cards too.  Her tissue trashcan basketball percentages have been dropping all week, so if you have some shooting tips, she could use those as well. :-)


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-- Drew & Tracey --
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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
I only had to wait three years for her to graduate Eastern.

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


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