Monday, February 4, 2013
I'm alive!!!
I cannot believe it's been 3 weeks. I am doing so much better. Nick went back to work last Monday and my mom spent the days at my house all last week. I don't have any nausea anymore and I don't have much pain either. I am still very dizzy but I can tell that it is getting better also. I feel like my face is also getting better. My eye doesn't bother me as much or get dried out like it used to. I used to have a hard time falling asleep because I couldn't keep my eyelid shut, but that doesn't happen anymore. I can move my nose better and my smile doesn't look quite as crazy as it did for a little while there. I feel almost like myself again. I am still not driving mostly because I get so dizzy when I turn my head back and forth. I also still get very worn out easily. We had my family over for Claira's birthday party on Sat. night, I was a little nervous at how I would handle all the noise and chaos that comes with having 26 people over 12 of them young kids but I was fine. I guess the constant noise from my 6 kids has gotten me used to it. It was fun to have everyone over. I am always frustrated with my loss of hearing in my right ear. Everything sounds so different and quiet. It is very confusing not being able to tell where sound comes from. I also have ringing in that ear, it drives me nuts sometimes. My ear is feeling more normal but still at times feels like it's stuffed up. It feels like I have water in it and my voice echos in my head when I talk sometimes. I am trying to be patient I know eventually I will get used to it. I am on my own today with the kids and so far it's going just fine. It feels good to be mom again. Thank you everyone for all your concern and prayers. I feel so blessed, this recovery has gone quicker and better than I had prepared myself for. And thank you to everyone for the meals, yummy treats, sweet cards and messages and for shoveling our snow for us. Thank you everyone!
Monday, January 28, 2013
Weekend 2
Steph has been doing good the past few days. I feel like I've typed that before. I probably won't be updating this blog now as often unless something different happens.
She did get pretty dizzy today (Monday) but I think it is because she is really doing a lot more now. She still didn't need any prescription meds. She couldn't feel her ear before but she said she can feel it now.
Her face is continuing to get worse. It is just a little bit at a time. It is really just a waiting game on how much more paralysis she will get in her face. She really feels self conscious about how her face looks so I hope it doesn't get much worse. I think it is cute though.
She did get pretty dizzy today (Monday) but I think it is because she is really doing a lot more now. She still didn't need any prescription meds. She couldn't feel her ear before but she said she can feel it now.
Her face is continuing to get worse. It is just a little bit at a time. It is really just a waiting game on how much more paralysis she will get in her face. She really feels self conscious about how her face looks so I hope it doesn't get much worse. I think it is cute though.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Thursday and Friday Week 2
Steph has been doing so well the past couple of days. She is still pretty dizzy when she walks around but she gets some relief when she is sitting down and doesn't move her head. She washed her hair for the first time on Thursday. We just made sure to not scrub close to the incision and just let the soapy water run over it.
We just We went to the store for the first time and Steph was worried about getting dressed. I told her she wouldn't be the only one in her PJs but she refused and got into jeans and boots. We counted 7 people in PJs in the 30 minutes that we were there.
Her face continues to get a little less controlled. The right side eye lid won't close all the way and her smile is just a little bit off. She won't let me post a picture of her face, she said she looks to crazy without makeup and her hair done.
She has to put eye drops in every 2 hours. The eye drops and ibuprofen for swelling is all she is taking now. She hasn't needed the pain meds for the last few days. She didn't like taking them anyway because it made her just feel gross. It did help with the pain though.
We just We went to the store for the first time and Steph was worried about getting dressed. I told her she wouldn't be the only one in her PJs but she refused and got into jeans and boots. We counted 7 people in PJs in the 30 minutes that we were there.
Her face continues to get a little less controlled. The right side eye lid won't close all the way and her smile is just a little bit off. She won't let me post a picture of her face, she said she looks to crazy without makeup and her hair done.
She has to put eye drops in every 2 hours. The eye drops and ibuprofen for swelling is all she is taking now. She hasn't needed the pain meds for the last few days. She didn't like taking them anyway because it made her just feel gross. It did help with the pain though.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Thursday morning week 2
Steph has been doing well the past few days. Tuesday we went to the doctor and she said it looks like the redness in her throat is just from the breathing tube they use during surgery. So no Strep, which was great news. Steph came in to the pharmacy with me to pick up some other stuff. Afterwards she slept for a few hours. When she does a lot of work it seems to wipe her out and make her head hurt. She didn't get up much on Wednesday because she was not feeling up to it, probably because of all the walking we did at the Doctor's office and pharmacy and the driving around the day before. She started feeling better Wed. night and ate a pretty good dinner. She was feeling well enough that she skipped her pain meds that were scheduled for the middle of the night and early morning.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Monday, week 2
Monday has gone alot better than last monday! Steph has been getting more of an appetite. She still doesn't eat very much but she has an appetite now. She even had me take her to arctic circle for a reeses pb cup shake and then to subway for a cold cut trio. She hasn't had as much nausea today as the past week. She has wanted to get up more and get around so it will help her brain figure things out quicker. We went for a little walk on the sidewalk just in front of the house. We went back and for and that was long enough but Steph said it seems to help to breathe the cold air. She sleeps for a few hours after we do the walks. It really takes it out of her.
We also have the kids home tonight for the first time. They have been having sleepovers at grandmas house after dinner the past few nights. Steph loves having them around.. She has even been reading books to them.
I'm not going to get too excited because it reminds me of how she was doing so well on Wednesday last week and then Thursday was the worst day for her. I'm crossing my fingers it doesn't go backwards tomorrow.
The bad news is that Steph has had a sore throat that keeps getting worse over the last few days. It kind of looks like she might be getting strep throat. We messaged her doctor to see if maybe its just from the breathing tube they use during surgery but I don't think it is. Guess we will find out when we go to the doctor's office tomorrow.
We also have the kids home tonight for the first time. They have been having sleepovers at grandmas house after dinner the past few nights. Steph loves having them around.. She has even been reading books to them.
I'm not going to get too excited because it reminds me of how she was doing so well on Wednesday last week and then Thursday was the worst day for her. I'm crossing my fingers it doesn't go backwards tomorrow.
The bad news is that Steph has had a sore throat that keeps getting worse over the last few days. It kind of looks like she might be getting strep throat. We messaged her doctor to see if maybe its just from the breathing tube they use during surgery but I don't think it is. Guess we will find out when we go to the doctor's office tomorrow.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Saturday and Sunday Morning
Steph is excited to be home. Her mom has been taking the kids for sleepovers at night but they come by for visits during the day. Steph is so happy to see them and she visits as much as she can but she gets so dizzy with her eyes open that it makes it hard.
She has been fighting headaches and nausea since coming home. One of her pain meds she cant take because it compounds her dizziness pretty heavily. After taking it she said her head just spins and nothing helps. The other makes her jittery and anxious so it is hard to fall asleep when she takes it. She skipped a round of meds at 4 am partly because of feeling ok and partly because it is hard to fall asleep after taking it.
I am trying to have her watch more tv and sit up. It really makes her sick to do so. She is walking a little but mostly just when she has to go the bathroom.
I can't tell if she is feeling less pain or if she is figuring out how to handle the pain because she hates taking taking the meds due to how they make her feel.
She is eating and drinking very little still. The nausea makes it hard to eat very much and she still gets alot of pain just trying to chew.
She seems to be getting a little better each day so hopefully that continues.
She has been fighting headaches and nausea since coming home. One of her pain meds she cant take because it compounds her dizziness pretty heavily. After taking it she said her head just spins and nothing helps. The other makes her jittery and anxious so it is hard to fall asleep when she takes it. She skipped a round of meds at 4 am partly because of feeling ok and partly because it is hard to fall asleep after taking it.
I am trying to have her watch more tv and sit up. It really makes her sick to do so. She is walking a little but mostly just when she has to go the bathroom.
I can't tell if she is feeling less pain or if she is figuring out how to handle the pain because she hates taking taking the meds due to how they make her feel.
She is eating and drinking very little still. The nausea makes it hard to eat very much and she still gets alot of pain just trying to chew.
She seems to be getting a little better each day so hopefully that continues.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Friday
Steph was doing pretty good this morning. Pain in check and no nausea. Then I took her for a little walk and she took a shower. After her shower she got really sick. The headache also started to return. She was mostly sleeping or trying to sleep all day. If her head got better then she felt like throwing up. Which she did only once while the nurse was trying to talk to us about what time we thought we would leave. That was about 11 or Noon. Even with alternating pain meds she was really uncomfortable/dizzy.
I was expecting her to be a lot better by the time they send a patient like her home. The doctors all said that she will be dizzy and sick when she came home but I was thinking she would be able to function. If we do anything it is so debilitating to the point that if feels like the workout wasn't worth it. She laid in bed today writhing in pain from 9ish to 4 after one lap around the nurses station and a shower. That doesn't feel like she is progressing at all. It's depressing. She was doing so well on Wednesday. She deserves another Wednesday.
She slept for a little in the afternoon and woke up at 3:50 for her meds. She said she felt good enough to come home after we talked about maybe just staying one more night. I asked the nurse if she thought Steph was good enough to come home. The nurse said that there were a couple other people that had that same surgery that went home today feeling just like Steph, and that it was a pretty normal condition for Steph to be in from her experience. Steph and I decided that she could be sick at home but at least she was home.
On the plus side, now Steph can be just a few feet away on the couch while I make meals. Now I don't have to worry about leaving her while she isn't feeling good to go all the way to the cafeteria for meals. I skipped a bunch of meals this week because she just wasn't doing well enough to leave her alone. I should have brought more granola bars! if I did go get a meal it had to be when there wasn't any meds due, because they would often forget and let her go without for a little while. I had to also make sure that I had already fed Steph. She couldn't feed herself and I don't know if the nurses do, or have time to do, that kind of thing. I didn't feel like I could just leave her with the nurses. They weren't that involved and Steph probably wouldn't ask for help if she needed it. If she was going to throw up there is no way the nurse would have made it in time to hand her the bag. Little things like that kept me from leaving her alone. They probably just didn't worry about her as much since I was there all the time. Shot myself in the foot on that one.
We made it home at about 5. The kids were so happy to see her. They made some get well posters with grandma that were hanging around the house. They were so sweet and gentle with her. They would grab her hand and hold it or rub her hand on their cheek.
Steph is happy to be home but she is pretty beat up from all the driving. She describes the pain in her head as a thousand pounds of pressure behind her ear and around her forehead. I wish there was something better we could do but the Doctors all said the best thing is just to keep getting her up and eventually the brain will start figuring things out and the left side will compensate.
The docs said that from now on she will still get more dizzy than normal when she does certain things like stand up to fast or spin around to look at something. Dr. Reichman, who had this same surgery when he was younger, also said that when it is dark it will really give Steph vertigo. Before the surgery she mentioned that when she would wake up in the middle of the night to check on the kids she would often stumble or have to grab the wall to balance herself. She didn't realize why until Dr Reichman mentioned that. She has already been dealing with a few of the side effects since the tumor was effecting the nerves that control those things.
The long term effects of being deaf on the left side is that she won't be able to tell what direction sounds are coming from without a special kind of hearing aid. On Thursday she asked me why she could hear people talking outside her hospital window. She was laying on the bed with her eyes closed with her left (good) ear facing the window. I told her that the nurses were talking outside her door, that was on her right. It was a surprise to her how she could really not tell where the sound was coming from. She also has a hard time now picking certain noises out of a noisy room. Like one person talking to her in a group of noisy people. I think birthday parties are going to be overwhelming at first. She was already having trouble talking to people in that situation when she still had some hearing on the right. She is tough though and will figure it out. I told her I would make shirts that say "speak up into my left ear" but she didn't want any.
I was expecting her to be a lot better by the time they send a patient like her home. The doctors all said that she will be dizzy and sick when she came home but I was thinking she would be able to function. If we do anything it is so debilitating to the point that if feels like the workout wasn't worth it. She laid in bed today writhing in pain from 9ish to 4 after one lap around the nurses station and a shower. That doesn't feel like she is progressing at all. It's depressing. She was doing so well on Wednesday. She deserves another Wednesday.
She slept for a little in the afternoon and woke up at 3:50 for her meds. She said she felt good enough to come home after we talked about maybe just staying one more night. I asked the nurse if she thought Steph was good enough to come home. The nurse said that there were a couple other people that had that same surgery that went home today feeling just like Steph, and that it was a pretty normal condition for Steph to be in from her experience. Steph and I decided that she could be sick at home but at least she was home.
On the plus side, now Steph can be just a few feet away on the couch while I make meals. Now I don't have to worry about leaving her while she isn't feeling good to go all the way to the cafeteria for meals. I skipped a bunch of meals this week because she just wasn't doing well enough to leave her alone. I should have brought more granola bars! if I did go get a meal it had to be when there wasn't any meds due, because they would often forget and let her go without for a little while. I had to also make sure that I had already fed Steph. She couldn't feed herself and I don't know if the nurses do, or have time to do, that kind of thing. I didn't feel like I could just leave her with the nurses. They weren't that involved and Steph probably wouldn't ask for help if she needed it. If she was going to throw up there is no way the nurse would have made it in time to hand her the bag. Little things like that kept me from leaving her alone. They probably just didn't worry about her as much since I was there all the time. Shot myself in the foot on that one.
We made it home at about 5. The kids were so happy to see her. They made some get well posters with grandma that were hanging around the house. They were so sweet and gentle with her. They would grab her hand and hold it or rub her hand on their cheek.
Steph is happy to be home but she is pretty beat up from all the driving. She describes the pain in her head as a thousand pounds of pressure behind her ear and around her forehead. I wish there was something better we could do but the Doctors all said the best thing is just to keep getting her up and eventually the brain will start figuring things out and the left side will compensate.
The docs said that from now on she will still get more dizzy than normal when she does certain things like stand up to fast or spin around to look at something. Dr. Reichman, who had this same surgery when he was younger, also said that when it is dark it will really give Steph vertigo. Before the surgery she mentioned that when she would wake up in the middle of the night to check on the kids she would often stumble or have to grab the wall to balance herself. She didn't realize why until Dr Reichman mentioned that. She has already been dealing with a few of the side effects since the tumor was effecting the nerves that control those things.
The long term effects of being deaf on the left side is that she won't be able to tell what direction sounds are coming from without a special kind of hearing aid. On Thursday she asked me why she could hear people talking outside her hospital window. She was laying on the bed with her eyes closed with her left (good) ear facing the window. I told her that the nurses were talking outside her door, that was on her right. It was a surprise to her how she could really not tell where the sound was coming from. She also has a hard time now picking certain noises out of a noisy room. Like one person talking to her in a group of noisy people. I think birthday parties are going to be overwhelming at first. She was already having trouble talking to people in that situation when she still had some hearing on the right. She is tough though and will figure it out. I told her I would make shirts that say "speak up into my left ear" but she didn't want any.
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