Hello quilty friends,
It's been awhile since I've posted a Jim update but I've been thinking of you. I know you are there cheering us on and it means the world to us.
Today was his 81st day in the hospital. For those of you who haven't seen my previous posts, my husband tore the inner lining of his aorta on November 4 and had an emergency surgery which lasted over ten hours. He was in ICU for eight weeks, a rehab unit for two weeks, and a regular hospital floor for two weeks. The change to the regular floor was not an upgrade; they put him there because he couldn't handle the rehab since he was regurgitating everything he tried to ingest, even through the tube feeding. They have done multiple x-rays, c/t scans, etc. and they can't find what's wrong. They tried re-instituting the tube feeding day before yesterday but he still keeps on throwing up so they had to stop it again. He has had almost no nutrition for five days. No wonder he has lost 43 lbs. (He needed to lose it, but this wasn't the way!) They are going to do an upper GI in the morning. Hopefully they will be able to figure out what's wrong and it will be easily treatable. His next stop will be a rehab nursing home where he will be for a long time. He tells everyone that comes to his room that his goal is to go to the nursing home by his birthday (next Tuesday). I was flabbergasted when those words came out of his mouth; this is the same man who asked me years ago to never put him in a nursing home.
Everyone keeps telling me to take care of myself so I've been doing the best I can. I see family and friends a lot and I have a great network of family and friends. My sister is doing updates via e-mail so I don't constantly have to call people and let them know how Jim's doing. She sends updates to over eighty people.
I treasure the concern, thoughts, and prayers of everyone. I know I'm getting a lot through the forum, too.
The best thing I have done for myself is (drum roll, please) I went to a quilting retreat last weekend, from Thursday to Monday. It was the second time I have been to this one and I am fortunate that it is less than an hour from home. People travel from all over the southeast; I feel fortunate to be so close. I had a wonderful time; my BFF was there and she completed her very first quilt top--a Jelly Roll Race with a flange and three borders! It is so pretty. I saw a wonderful picture on this forum of a Labyrinth Walk quilt, got the pattern, and made the blocks at the retreat. (When I saw the picture, I thought, "Well that's just half square triangles and 90 degree triangles so I can do that." One of the male quilters said that's the quilter's way of saying "Hey Bubba, Watch this!") I cut and labeled carefully and still wore out my seam ripper. Here's the progress I made with the squares; borders to follow.
Julie's graduation quilt.jpg
Hugs,
It's been awhile since I've posted a Jim update but I've been thinking of you. I know you are there cheering us on and it means the world to us.
Today was his 81st day in the hospital. For those of you who haven't seen my previous posts, my husband tore the inner lining of his aorta on November 4 and had an emergency surgery which lasted over ten hours. He was in ICU for eight weeks, a rehab unit for two weeks, and a regular hospital floor for two weeks. The change to the regular floor was not an upgrade; they put him there because he couldn't handle the rehab since he was regurgitating everything he tried to ingest, even through the tube feeding. They have done multiple x-rays, c/t scans, etc. and they can't find what's wrong. They tried re-instituting the tube feeding day before yesterday but he still keeps on throwing up so they had to stop it again. He has had almost no nutrition for five days. No wonder he has lost 43 lbs. (He needed to lose it, but this wasn't the way!) They are going to do an upper GI in the morning. Hopefully they will be able to figure out what's wrong and it will be easily treatable. His next stop will be a rehab nursing home where he will be for a long time. He tells everyone that comes to his room that his goal is to go to the nursing home by his birthday (next Tuesday). I was flabbergasted when those words came out of his mouth; this is the same man who asked me years ago to never put him in a nursing home.
Everyone keeps telling me to take care of myself so I've been doing the best I can. I see family and friends a lot and I have a great network of family and friends. My sister is doing updates via e-mail so I don't constantly have to call people and let them know how Jim's doing. She sends updates to over eighty people.
I treasure the concern, thoughts, and prayers of everyone. I know I'm getting a lot through the forum, too.
The best thing I have done for myself is (drum roll, please) I went to a quilting retreat last weekend, from Thursday to Monday. It was the second time I have been to this one and I am fortunate that it is less than an hour from home. People travel from all over the southeast; I feel fortunate to be so close. I had a wonderful time; my BFF was there and she completed her very first quilt top--a Jelly Roll Race with a flange and three borders! It is so pretty. I saw a wonderful picture on this forum of a Labyrinth Walk quilt, got the pattern, and made the blocks at the retreat. (When I saw the picture, I thought, "Well that's just half square triangles and 90 degree triangles so I can do that." One of the male quilters said that's the quilter's way of saying "Hey Bubba, Watch this!") I cut and labeled carefully and still wore out my seam ripper. Here's the progress I made with the squares; borders to follow.
Julie's graduation quilt.jpg
Hugs,
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