Drum Roll Please.......

The news of the day is: We have one healthy flashing "Lima Bean." At this stage it is not really shaped at all like a baby. More just a Lima Bean with a heart beat. The heart beat flashes on the ultrasound. I am at "7 weeks 5 days" and the size of the "bean" measures correctly for how far along. All is well. The due date is Oct 4th. I have some names of some OBs. I need to see if they take our insurance. Meeting them will be the next step.

Home

He is home. Tired. But ready to be home! He is being told to eat a few small meals every day, and never eat just one big meal per day. They never found the cause so the can only assume it was some scar tissue acting up. We are just so relieved he is home.

Feb 2 - It was the worst of times, it was the best of times.....

This morning was awful. I have never seen Dave so low. We have been through a lot! He was not crying. He was not moaning. He was just slumped over and deathly still and quiet. He said some things that really shook me up. The humor was gone, heck... it felt like the light was fading. We went down together to the X-ray department and stayed there for a few hours. They put contrast down the (NG) tube (so he wouldn't have to drink the nasty stuff) and then using an X-Ray machine tracked it's progress looking for blockages of any kind in the small intestine. At one point the surgeon caught up with us there, and said that if this scan showed a blockage, the surgery would be tonight! After over 3? hours they brought him to his room for over 2 hours, then brought him back for the final check with X-Ray to make sure the contrast made it to the large intestine (the Large intestine they have looked at backwards and forwards these last few days, so if they made it there, he was in the clear - no surgery!!). The radiologist told us that it made it through with no sign of any problems anywhere. We got back to the room. The Coast Guard Chaplin came in at that point and did an amazing job of telling funny anecdotal stories and breathed some life and fresh air into the room. Dave had trouble talking from the tube, and I had been tapped beyond my abilities to give any more. I was worried that it would take hours to get the tube out ("Sorry, can't do it until the doctor signs this and he just launched in the space shuttle, gotta go, another patient needs me." type fear) The nurse came in quickly and removed effectively that Nasty Gross (NG) Tube that went up his nose down into his stomach. The sun was setting casting a glow on the buildings as we could see from his room on the 11th floor for miles. (Wisconsin is very flat!) But it felt like, to us, that the sun was rising!!! What an awesome relief!!! Within moments Dave seemed to spring to life!!!! I really want to just spend the night calling everyone and sharing the good news. But... in my gut, ....I know it is time to sleep a long deep sleep. (8:30 pm to 6:30 am ought to do the trick!) There may still be a few days in the hospital ahead - I think they have to have his system up and running right before they can release him. Chicken stock and jello will probably be his diet for a bit! If you are local, visit his room. Patient Tower - 11th floor - 131. As of 8 am, call my cell if you want... no fear of bothering me! (if you are one of the few with the phone number to his room, go ahead and call it tomorrow) I will pick Liam up from school and take him in to see Daddy around 2:45.. We are so excited! Thank you all so much for all of your support. It has been amazing!!!! The folks here were right on top of pitching in to help. And many folks were wonderful over the phone just letting me vent! Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!!

baby steps

All - Okay... so the new phone is cool and fancy and all... But I can't figure out how to send an email from it! So if I can't post to the blog with the phone, what good is it?!?! I will try to figure that mystery out over the next few days. In the mean time you get stuck hearing me blog when I am home and wiped out tired. So this will be short and ... whatever... (probably not sweet). The nasty "NG" tube is still up his nose down into his throat. It is not longer attached to suction (minor relief) but to a "gravity bag"... To sum up, it is one step closer to getting the thing out! Monday morning they will be performing a "small bowel follow through" exam. They will get some contrast down into his stomach (via nasty tube so he does not have to swallow it) and then they watch how it progresses through the system. There will be lots of trips to radiology to monitor the contrast's progress and such. This should finally put some of the mystery to rest on where exactly the hold up was/(is?). I have a new phone but the same cell phone number I've had for almost 6 years. There does however seem to be a new email address to this phone. Dishes, Laundry, Pay bills, and then off to bed. Thanks for reading. -Kerri

The nasty tube is still up the nose and down into the stomach. But its not attached to suction but is now on a gravity bag. It is a step c

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They ran some cultures on some samples. All day yest. they had this whole yellow gown rule if anyone came into the room. Which they imposed after we had napped in his bed together. So i really thought it was silly for me to wear. Any-who... He tested negative for the nasty one they were most worried about (C-Dif) so they got rid of yellow gown rule! Its so sad that that little bit feels like progress! Last night i mentioned he was having a mini colonoscopy this morning. The doctor called to say everything looked fine. That is sort of good news. It would be easier if he were to say "this heres yer problem...." which he would never say anyways.... Little Asian guys just dont say things like that. The coast guard chaplain came by last night. Dave thought it was funny that he came looking like a chaplain instead of a coastie because its easier for him to get around the hospital in that look. Dave is snoring (drugs from procedure still zonking him out) i am going to see about a new phone.