Friday, 4/27/2012, Last Day On Disability

WHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE   To all of you who are surprised and/or shocked by the quick release back to UPS, I can't tell you how good and ready I am for this to happen.  I'm sure the Dr. would not have released me if there was any questions that it was too early.

It is the next on the road to recovery, I  believe it it going to make life better for me, my family and my mental health.  I now have a schedule with deadlines that need to be kept.  Since these stents have been put in, my health has improved 100%.  I'm not quite so chilled all the time, I'm now have a reason to push myself to walk and get that energy back.

On Weds. night I drove down to UPS and made the walk, first to the guard shack, then clear to the other end of the building which would be my working area.  I spent about 1 hour there, got a lot of the handshaking and talking out of the way, so Monday can be just for working ( I know, " Old School " ) .  I talked with the boss's and I certainly feel they will work with me to make this work for all parties.

I do know that I was slowing down by the time I got back to the car.  So, I've got some work to do.  It will be fine.

Have a Great Day, and Thanks for your prayers and positive thoughts.  Mo have a Great Vacation in Belize.

God Bless, Captain

Wednesday, Update, Update.....................

Going to see the surgeon Dr. House @ 9:30  for a follow up visit.  Haven't seen him since before all this stent work began which was in early April.  Has this month gone on forever or what.

I have to think the DR.  is going to be surprised at the progress.  Aetna Disability is waiting by their phone to come up with a return to work at UPS date.  I'm hoping for mid May,  "It's time" as those politicians say.

I will try to give you an update this PM, I doubt I  know an exact date today.

Today's weight up to 147.7 1 pound every couple days, I'll take it.

Thanks for all you do, God Bless, Captain

You had better be sitting down, cause this shocked me.  I'm released to return to UPS on Monday, April 30th.  Light duty for 2 weeks, then where it takes me.

I had maybe thought in terms of mid May, but not Monday, but I'm ready.

Here I am and doing much better......

It's Monday morning, I'm trying to get ahead of the early risers.  The procedure was fine on Friday, the largest stent is in and I have a follow up appt. in July.  My side has been seemingly more sore this time after the new insertion.

Every time they put in a larger stent ( this is it ) the tube also increases in size, and that means that they have to mess around and enlarge the hole in my side.  So obviously that skin is much more sensitive while it heals it's self.  It is starting to feel better today.  So the wife and I have to flush the tube/stent twice a day and just keep things clean in general.  Probably in a month I won't even know it's there.

Saturday night was an unusual one for me, usually I'm up every 1 to 1 1/2 hour to take a leak, not a very restful night.  Saturday night was like I had a fight with the devil within my body.  First I laid down like always for bed.  The next thing it is 4 AM, I slept all that time with a potty break. But I was so sweaty I had to get up and strip off my clothes, the bed sheets, blankets etc. My pillow case was off course damp, but my pillow inside was totally wet.  I was very happy for the rest, but couldn't figure out the sweating thing.

Last night it was almost a normal night restful, only 3 visits to the bath, could sleep in between, I enjoyed it very much.  I feel much better, I have gained those dropped 10 pounds back, yesterday I was back up to 146, looking for 150 in the next 2 weeks.

Looking for an egg omelet in the next hour, it's cold outside, but trying to figure out what I can do.  My body is telling me it's getting closer to regaining some energy.

Got to go, luv you all, thanks for all your prayers, it has been quite a journey, they say don't judge till you walk in their shoes, well I can attest that no matter how they prepared me for this liver rebuild, I still was not prepared.

God bless you all, Captain

Friday 10:30 AM

Getting ready for the " last procedure " involving stents.  It  is scheduled for 1:30 PM, last week they were running behind.  Hopefully all on the bile duct front will be cleared up. Oh, forgot, I gained 10 Pounds from my 135 on 4/10,  yesterday was 144.8.

In the next 4 hours it will be 70 here in Indiana, then 4 hours of rain comes in, followed by 4-5 day of cold.  10 am tomorrow morning they are saying 45 degrees.  whoopee.

In that zone with no eating or drinking before being put under.  Oh Joy, of course we all know, I'm thirsty as a race horse.

See you on the flip side.  Thanks for all you do.

God Bless, Captain

Wednesday , April , 18 th

If I don't have to think about a catchy title, I can just focus on what day of the week it is.  Yes, I was even thinking wrong yesterday evening. As Sue Crago says, " Growing a Liver is hard work ".

I got a couple of comments from the cheap seats on my blog yesterday.  " I read your blog, it sounded like you were drunk when you wrote it. "     Well, I can assure you I was not, it may have been confusing but not drunk.  To back up my side of a non drinker, I had 1 beer on the fishing trip in FL, the one b4 that was on 3/17/2009 which was my 62nd BD and welcome to early Social Security.  I don't think I qualify as drunk.

Then a comment came in via voice in the ear, " Glad to see you sliced your own apple ".  So I took a little writer's license of embellishing a little fiction along with the truth. I did eat the apple by myself, nobody had to feed it to me.    " I'm growing a Liver here "  give me some space.

I'm feeling fine, have to type my life in only black and white now.  Appetite is back, energy is getting there, getting ready to go dump the recylclables ( recyclables ) if more people could spell that word, we might all participate, and stop by a small breakfast place in town and actually order a 1/2 order of biscuits and gravy ( low fat of course )

I leaving for now because now the spell checher is going off every other word.

Thanks for your continued prayers, God Bless, Captain

Tuesday, April 17th , 2012

These days are starting to run together, I have to really put together facts to figure out what day it is.  This morning at 6AM I awoke with a start thinking it was Friday and I had messed up the NBM, nothing by mouth, routine that I will be on for Friday for the next procedure.  And then, it is only Tuesday.

Ate some pizza yesterday, slice of cherry pie in a bowl with milk added.  Sliced an apple and dipped it in caramel sauce. Slightly more energy that I will test later today.  Can't type it here and ruin the surprise for the wife.  Shheeeeesssssshhhh,  now what the heck it everybody thinking?  His he walking a car lot and buying her a car, yeah, right, on my weekly $45 check from disability.  Let's just control ourselves, this is the Midwest.  I haven't received any royalty checks from any movies for a while, trying to think of the last one.       Thinking, thinking, thinking..........................oh, I remember...........NEVER.........lol

Sense of humor.....................coming back.
Sense of appetite..................coming back.
Sense of energy....................working on it
Sense of God........................He's always there

Thanks for all you do for me and others, God Bless you, Captain

In case you missed Sue's Bowling Update yesterday in the comment, Goal was $ 3000.00, raised
over $ 6,000.00.

Ok, I'm Back...............

The last 3 weeks have been really hard on me mentally, with new procedures trying to fix the bile duct and I just had to crawl under a rock for a few days.  I'm peeking out now, and things are looking up.  So I hope the low has been reached

On Friday I had the second stent replacement and this Friday the 20th will be the last one.  I know more about the process, it seems to be working much better and now for the energy part.  The first stent was a size 10 inserted into the bile duct. This last Friday , the 13th, they pulled the 10 and the tube, and exchanged it for a size 16, the opening is getting larger.  This Friday they will pull the 16 and replace it with a size 20.  This is the last one, and it will remain in their for a year.  The tube will be hanging out the side for that year, with some maintenance.  No swimming, bathing, showers are OK, don't worry.

We had the Bowling for Sue Fundraiser on Sat. the 14th.  It was very successful, and I will Sue brag on the numbers.  Sue you can leave a comment, and tell my people your joy, I don't want to steal your thunder.  I got to see some friends from UPS, TJ from the Captain Balloon business,  Mike, his wife Ann and his son Phillip were there supporting use.  I sat.  Didn't even pick up a bowling ball, did do some walking around.  According the the Doctor's liver regrowth plan, we should be pretty much done with major construction ton the liver, so my improving appetite can now go to me.  Will be watching the scales for proof.  ( Starting to have to many spell-check problems )  So I'm going to leave you now.

Thanks for all your prayers, God Bless you all, Captain

Thrusday = April 12th,2012

Today is my Father's  90th Birthday.  Happy Birthday Dad.

Had a kind of rough night last night.  Just tossing and turning over what I wondered was happening inside my abdomen.  I told you I capped off the tube running out of my body at 6:30 PM Tuesday.  That means, all the bile I had been collecting outside my body is being forced to drain inside my body  I have been on edge since then because every other time this tube was blocked off bad things have happened, jaundice, temperature and chills, landed me in the hospital for a bacterial infection in the bile.  Tomorrow, I'm supposed to go back to IU for a larger stent to be placed, which should help the situation.


I'll know a lot more tomorrow.  Thanks for all your prayers.

God Bless you all, Captain

Quick Weds Update

Eyes do not need any surgery. It's something to watch in the future, but may or may not require surgery.  It's something that happens to old people with near sightedness. So that's positive.  I guess that's like saying if I live long enough I may need the surgery.........lol

Yesterday I capped off the tube leaving my body, so that my bile is running into the intestine like it is supposed to.  So far I don't see any jaundice, abdominal pain, no changes so far.  I was very worried about this as every time we have capped it in the past it has created problems.

Friday I go back to IU to replace the first small stent, installed last Friday, with a larger one, and of course the bile should even run better.

Will keep you up to date, ate something yesterday afternoon, and this AM.  Maybe we have pushed over the latest roadblock.

Thanks for all the prayers, God Bless, Captain

New Lowest Point

I never knew it would be this hard to recover from this surgery.  I now feel like I'm starting over again from day 1.  I have no energy, this morning I was panting and holding on to everything just taking a shower and drying off afterwards.  I actually felt nauseous while drying off and was slightly sick.  I now weigh ( I'm not proud of this ) 135.8 down 10 pounds from last Thursday. In high school, I wrestled at 120, in college 130, so this pretty low.  Now remember this is after 2 nights in the hospital, last Thurs and Fri. nights, not eating hospital food, drinking boost. Ate on Sat. ok, then started losing my appetite on Sunday.  Monday Am ate a couple of poached eggs, then rest of Monday I drank boost.

So, I've got to turn this around now.  At noon today I have an appointment with an eye surgeon to check out something the local eye doctor found.  Will know more later.  Getting old is not for sissies.

Thanks for your continued prayers, God Bless you all, Captain

Happy Monday

Hope everybody had a great Easter and day spent with your families.

I'm feeling a lot better today, I must say I was kind of down in the dumps over the week-end, mentally exhausted, when will these little setbacks end? etc.  I have some energy this am, ate some breakfast, slept pretty good last night.  OH, and got my taxes done and e-filed, and done, and done.  Refund from federal will cover payment to state.  wheeeeeee.

Now to call Comcast and discuss their bill. and how to lower it.

So I'm looking for a good day.

God Bless you all, Captain

He IS Risen............Happy Easter

Today is Sunday and I came home yesterday very tired and emotionally drained.  We finally arrived around 1:30 PM.  I cleaned up and ate a sandwich and a Vitamin  water.  Hospital food totally is bad and you just loose your appetite when you go in there.

I'm feeling better, eating better, trying to get some energy back.  I still taking an antibiotic pill.  I have a new drainage bag from the topside of the stent, you would think it would drain very little but I'm pulling out 400- to 500 cc's every 5 hours since arriving home.  The original tube is pulled, so this is the only one I have and I may have it for a year, eventually getting rid of the drainage bag.  The tube will be used to change the stent size every so often.  To place larger stents, whatever, since it is now in place.

May God be with you on this and every day.  God Bless, Captain

ERCP not as planned................

Yesterday was supposed to be a in and out procedure of putting a stent into my bile duct.  Obviously we die not prepare to spend the night in the hospital and therefore I did not have my computer to update anyone, no clothes were brought with us.  Just unprepared, I was pretty frustrated

What happened was this.  You remember my link to what an ERCP was and entailed.  When they got all through the body with the scope and the wires, they just couldn't get the wire pushed into the constricted. Normal procedure takes around 30 minutes, my Doctor spent 1 1/2 hours trying to make it work.  Could not get it. 

So then the decision was to keep me overnight and go into the liver from above with a needle.  Obviously it is a much shorter route, more direct and they would be coming into the constricted area from above.

Long story short, today was a success, and now we're hopefully back on the road.  I'm in the room going thru a sort of recovery and will have to stay here again tonight.  Most likely to be released tomorrow.

God Bless  you all, thanks to you for the prayers. Captain.

Thursday 7:30 AM

Getting psyched up for an ERCP procedure, let's wrap some duct tape around it and be done with it.  Have to be there at 10 AM.

The refrigerator is fixed, better than it was new, and according to the repairman better than a new one. So that is done.

Was bothered twice by the disability people yesterday, what a pain.  They have my disability ending on 4/11 and even though I sent in paperwork signed by my surgeon extending the leave to 5/7.  They want to see notes, what a waste of time on all sides.  So much for resting and recovery while on disability.

OH well, I'll deal with it.

Well got to clean up to go take a nap.  See you on the flip side.  Not sure when.

God Bless you all, Captain

Preparing for another Procedure Updated 12:26 PM

 The procedure is scheduled for tomorrow at 12 Noon, Hopefully all will be good after that.

 I had a pretty good day yesterday, appetite is definably coming back. But behind my back Doctors are conferring and looking at my X-rays, etc.

Yesterday at the end of the day ( 4:20 )  I was waiting on a refrigerator repairman to call or show up, a Dr. Fogle from IU called me directly.  I was familiar with him as he had done a colonoscopy, and an upper GI last summer looking for sources of cancer in my body besides just the liver. Anyways, he had received an email from Dr. House ( surgeon ) who is on vacation to look at my recent bile duct x-rays. They both felt that an  ECRP was needed asap, not an emergency, but soon.

You say what is an ERCP.  Here is a  ERCP link.  Remember we've been talking about this possible constriction area where my bile duct gets pretty narrow.  They believe that is causing all the problems, bile backup, allowing the bacteria to form, causing the temperatures and the shakes and chills. The procedure will correct all that.  This extra tube still protruding from my body, and the drainage bag. This procedure would allow an up close look at the problem ( with the microscopic camera ) they can then send down a tool kit and repair and fix the problem at the same time.

It is done as an outpatient procedure, but I would be out under a general anesthetic, not a local. So it would probably take about 6-7 hours total.

I do not have a firm date of when it will occur, waiting on a call back from the Doctor's office to confirm, I will let you know with an update, should know this AM.

Oh, and the refrigerator needs a new compressor, around $600.00, hopefully might be fixed late this afternoon.

Oh, I finally received my first disability check.  Are you ready for this?  They are paying at a rate of less than $ 10 per day.  So for a 5 day work week, I am getting $ 45.00.  Is that a joke or what?  I called them yesterday and told them what I thought of their plan.

But the insurance is fantastic.  I received the insurance payout report from my ins. carrier, I owe nothing $ 0, on my bill for the hospital stay for this operation, and nothing to the surgeon.  So for that I am forever grateful.

Got to go take some antibiotic and wait on the Dr's. call,  See you later.

Thanks for all you do, God Bless, Captain

Tuesday 8 AM

Pretty restful night, up to bathroom 2 times only.  Feel rested, not that if I laid down I wouldn't take a nap.

Yesterday's blog continued, we were released at around 10 Am, stopped at a Jimmy John's and I ate 1/3 of an 8" sub, but that was something and more than I've had since last Thursday.  Returned home and laid down for a 3 hour nap.  You just don't get good sleep in a hospital, sorry.  Up, not napping, the rest of the day.  Ate some potato salad and another third of the same sub.  Ate 1/2 of a pecan roll from Panera Bread with my Antibiotic pill at 9 PM.  Appetite seems to be coming back, slowly is good.  Going to have some raisin oatmeal here in a minute, with next antibiotic pill ( every 12 hours ).  Took my temp. was 98.4, yeah.

Obviously just another rest day.  May or may not run 1 errand.  I'm doing better.  My old friends from Avon are heading to Washington, DC to visit their daughter and grandchildren.  May they have a safe trip.

Thanks for all the calls, texts, emails of prayers and concern.  The journey has it's ups and downs, just continue is the key.

God Bless, Captain

April 2, Where have I been ???

Yesterday was April Fool's Day, And this was no Joke.  I'm going to do this blog different since some of you are early risers and may look at it while I'm typing and see nothing new since Sat.  So, every paragraph or so I'm going to publish it so you know it is currently changing.  And you will know to come back in 10 minutes for more of the story.

Sat. morning I was feeling better, waiting on the Dr's call back from the Hospital.  Now I want to say, this is not really a complaint about the hospital as I'm sure they are busy, but most of you know I can get impatient and just go what I want.  "Katie bar the doors.  Here he comes. "

 My wife had to work on Sat. afternoon, and while she was gone, I had terrible shakes, I could look down the comforter and see it shaking while under it.  My temp. was back up.  Now a resident from the hospital had called late Friday night, remember, but on Sat. nobody else tried to call me that I knew from Dr. House's office.  I should say if I didn't, Dr. House took his family to Walt Disney World for a vacation so he was out of town.  Isn't that the way it always works out.

Someone had tried to call and the phone cell phone rang only 2 times and stopped.  The phone number was from NY state, so I thought was it was a wrong number call and they hung.  End of story.

Later, I was looking at the phone again and noticed that the phone number was the same one that had been used on Friday night, so now I assumed they had transferred from NY to Indy.  I tried to call the number back and left a message. That nobody with liver knowledge had called me back.  By now the wife had returned and was concerned because of the shakes and temp. spiking from normal to 102 and return to normal again, on a repeating basis.

Well, I started putting clothes on, and getting ready to leave the house, because we needed answers and if they couldn't get back, then we would go to them.  So we left for the hospital. I tried to call the NY # again just to give them a little warning of what we were doing, but the mailbox was full, couldn't even leave a msg.

So, this is still Sat. and I wasn't going to wait another 24 hours.  At first we were going to go to the emergency room and just wait thru the turmoil, asking for a Liver Specialist.  This was not a broken bone or something like that.  Then, while the wife was driving, my mind was running other scenarios thru.  We ended up, going straight up to 3 Surgical, which was was I had been cared for during my stay in the hospital and the chance might arise that I would know the nurses and I could get quicker care and answers.

Well, that won't, there was a Dr. House asst. right there on the floor. who we had met before, and sat us down in the visitors waiting room to talk thru what was going on.  But, I had put them in a position where I was not a registered patient of the hospital and they couldn't order any blood work or any tests.  But, I left there with a prescription for a strong antibiotic, and some info, and all the right phone numbers.  I went back home for another day, everybody hoping that the antibiotic would do the trick.    SO AS THEY  SAY don't try this at home, but I got what I wanted in that given situation.

Got back to Lebanon, and all pharmacies had closed at 6PM, it was now around 7:15,  I'm talking CVS, Walgreens, Kroger, all open, but no pharmacy.  The local pharmacy which we always use, we called the owners home phone number, and the person on call for emergency's was at a wedding reception in Indy.  We finally got the pills and I took one at 11:45, now I had felt good after returning from the hospital, and actually ate a slice of home made pizza that tasted good.  The only food I had even thought about eating since Weds. night.  I was drinking Boost and Powerade since Thurs, morning.

At 2AM I threw it all up.  Since I had only taken the antibiotic 2 hours before I thought about re taking it, but the wife convince me that it had already been absorbed into my system. Starting at that time I started taking my temp. again. it was 101.

At 3AM it was 101.5, at 345 it was 101.4, I then decided after reading the antibiotic label, that I was supposed to take 1 pill every 12 hours, so I figured not very much would happen in 2 hours before I had thrown it up last night.  So I took another one.  At 5AM temp. was 101.5, 7AM it was 100.3, and @ 9AM back to 99.3.

But, at 11 AM it was back to 102. and we started making calls to the hospital and this time the system worked.  To be safe, they wanted to see me, come to 3 Surgical, they would register me and keep me overnight for tests and observations.  So I'm back in the hospital. It is now Monday morning and I felt like I had to update you all.

As soon as I was in the hospital bed, they were drawing all kinds of blood cultures, blood test, urine tests, it went on and on, and I didn't want to impede all this activity so I didn't try to blog yesterday, sorry.

I was low on magnesium, first and only result so far of testing, so I'm now hooked to that and have been taking nutrients and antibiotic all night.  For some reason, since midnight I've been on a nothing by mouth routine, in case more tests are needed, that have not yet been scheduled.  It is now 7 AM and kind of waiting on some Dr, Resident or somebody from Dr. House's office to advise us.

Sorry this has been so long, but, the Drs. just came by and now I can add more.

After all the tests, the bile shows some bacteria in it, and that causes the liver to struggle and the feelings I've been going thru.  They have contacted Dr. House thru email and we are going to try another antibiotic pill, if I can hold it down without problems, I will be going home soon.  I have ordered a fruit cup, and a V8 for breakfast, and a Boost as back up.

So now we are all up to date, nothing serious, cause we listened to our body and nipped it in the bud.

Thanks for all your prayers even though you didn't know the details,  God Bless you all, Captain