The Good with the Bad

• Last weekend I attended a course down in St. Paul addressing vestibular rehabiliation. It was amazing and I learned so much. Much more than I ever did during school, that's for sure. Joe and I also got to spend a few minutes with my sister, as well as seeing her boyfiend Kyle whom we do not see too often. Anyways, it's amazing how time flies when your're enjoying yourself and the company you have.

Emily and I at the Town Brewery in Minneapolis, MN.

• Unfortunately, the good weekend ended sooner than expected. On Monday, I ended up injurying myself again at work. If I didn't have to do lifting, I'd love my job but that isn't the case. Since most of the patients I work with have injuries that leave them debiliated, I'm the person who helps them move. A very rewarding job, but physical. So, Tuesday I was nursing an injury but dealing with the problem.

• Wednesday I had off. So I scheduled a massage to relax a little more, and then planned on taking care of some other things around the house and then cooking something for dinner. Little did I know, none of that was going to happen. I was heading out of the house to grab my breakfast when I got a call from my mom who was down in the cities visiting my sister. She said she had a big, huge favor to ask of me. She had gotten a call from my uncle's dentist saying he needed to be admitted to the hospital because the abscessed tooth he had pulled last week on Friday was not healing and he required medical attention. He still had significant swelling on the right side of his face and in fact, he looked just like the Nutty Professor (except he isn't black). That is how bad the swelling was. It was freaky looking!!

• So, instead of a relaxing day, I drove out to Ashland to pick up my uncle to bring him back to Duluth to St. Mary's to be admitted for the infection he has in his mouth. Upon arriving at his house in Ashland, I realized this was the first time since 1991 I had been in this house. That was when my grandmother had passed away. 17 years is a long time, let me tell you. As I walked into the house, I realized everything look the exact same. Nothing had changed. The flooring, the walls, the bathroom. It was freaky. And of course, I started to get a little emotional. It was so weird. I expected to see my grandma walk around the corner to start cooking or something. Just weird and unexpected emotions to have. I didn't expect to have any, but I did.

• Well, upon arriving at the hospital, the registration nurse told me and Uncle Jim that he was MRSA + and required to be in a private room. I looked at her and asked how she had gotten that information. She said she didn't know but they would look into it to see where this came about. I explained to her no one had completed blood work or even a nasal swab to test for this, so he shouldn't have been marked/flagged as MRSA+. This was disturbing and boggling to me, but I just let it be. We walked up to his room, and my parents soon showed up before we knew it. We sat around for about five hours before any doctor showed up. Upon his arrival, I decided to I needed to get going home to relax. It had been a busy, and emotional day. My mom said she'd call and give me an update when they knew something.

• At about 9PM, she finally called me to say Uncle Jim was going down for a CT scan, and we'd know a little from that. Well, about fifteen minutes later, she called again and said they were taking him directly to surgery because of how bad the infection and that this was life threatening. So, I stayed at home, while they waited at the hospital to find out the results. Around 11:30 that night, my dad called to give me an update: Surgery went well. They were able to intubate him through his mouth, meaning the swelling was not affecting his trachea. They had to surgically open the side of his face, one incision under his jaw, and another just caudal to his right clavicle. They had to do two incisions, secondary to how severe the infection was and how far it had spread down the right side of the neck. They had cleaned out the infection as much as they were able to, but may still need to go back to surgery to clean it again. After surgery, they admitted him to the ICU for close monitoring.

• Thursday morning, he was still intubated, but doing well. He was then exbutated on Friday, but still in the ICU for continued care. Yesterday, after I talked to Dr. Eyer, a critical care doctor I work with at my facility, we were informed he was going to be transferred our to a general medical floor because Uncle Jim was considered to be medically stable. After hearing the good news, my parents decided to head home. Well, this morning I talked to my mom again, and she had informed me the Uncle Jim was transferred out, but then was readmitted to the ICU because they had found bleeding in his abdomen and required to have a couple units of blood. I was informed this evening they are attributing the bleeding to diverticulitis, something that is actually stemming back to his achilles tendon repair back in May. Partially because of all the NSAIDs and Tylenol he's been taking for pain, along with his diabetes medications. At this juncture, he is still in the ICU, but should be transferred back to a medical floor soon; however, it is dependent on how things go.

• Honestly, this has all been a very trying time. I've seen infections before, but this is something I have personally not had to deal with and it is just nerve recking.So, in a nut shell, that's what has been happening. Hopefully things will start heading back to the good, but in the mean time, it's just a waiting game to see how things will pan out. Wish us luck and pray for Uncle Jim.