Jeffery's Journey

Saturday, March 15,2014    Day 3 Post op

Today I was working evenings from 1545-2400, so Ian and I went to visit Jeff in the morning.
 We have had our back lane cleaned by the city equipment but it had left hard chunks of frozen ice/snow behind. John had not parked his work van in our driveway. That big van is hard to get in and out with all the snow that we have had this winter. So, he was parking across the street at the church. He had already had a morning  lately where a tow truck was needed to get out of the lane. We know he needed to move it off the church parking lot before Sunday services. Of course with the van not plugged in, it would not start. John tried to boost it with our van but it did not work. That was when I left for work. Eventually it did start and then he took it for a long ride to make sure it was charged up. Ian and John went back in the evening to see Jeff. He is taking walks but also has to take his chest tubes and catheter tubing along as well. He gets tired easily but he has been doing it.
 John also had to arrange for others to usher for Jeffery and him at church Sunday morning. We had not even thought about it being our turn until Saturday afternoon. Thank you Paul for taking care of that for us.
  We also received a delicious homemade veggie /meat lasagna from John's brother, Gerhard and his family. We saved it for our Sunday meal.
   Because of my loss of sight in the right eye,  I have not been driving .John picked me up at work at midnight.


Sunday, March 16, 2014          Day 4 Post op

Most people know that our family are not "early birds", except Jeff. We did cook the lasagna for an hour in the morning before going to visit Jeff.  Jeff called to say that he "needed clothes" and he had been cold in the night and did not sleep well. His catheter had been removed yesterday which meant he could wear more than the fashionable hospital gown that opens to the back. So once he had pants and socks on he felt better. He still had in the chest tubes so it wasn't very practical to have a t-shirt just yet. He also had his initial chest dressing removed  this morning. Now his incision is visible, nice sewing skills!!!
  While John and I visited we were asked to watch a 20 min video about the medication, Coumadin. This is a blood thinner that Jeff will  now need to take for the rest of his life. The teaching has been overwhelming for Jeff and he ate his lunch instead of paying attention to the video. That's OK there is a lot to absorb. He will need to take a low sodium (salt) diet, avoid food that is high in vitamin K(grapefruit, cranberries, kale, lettuce, spinach,broccoli) These are OK in moderation.
  John drove me to work the evening shift again and Ian picked me up at midnight. Earlier in the evening  Winnipeg and southern Manitoba received an amazing amount of more snow. Unfortunately I was late getting off my shift and Ian was kept up longer. What can you do? Life happens! It was quite the slugging to get home.
Thank you to everyone who visited Jeff this weekend. He really likes to get visitors. We have been praying often with him to keep him calm.