Ry’s Blog

Wed, 28 May 2008 23:35:28 -0500

What a day! I decide to leave a little earlier than usual. I normally leave the house by 8:30am, getting their one hour later. So i left earlier to see how the Houston traffic was an hour earlier. Not too bad, and I got there at 8:30am.

I park in the garage across from the hospital on Fannin, and get my laptop and walk across the skyway to her building. Stop walk up to the elevator and push up. I get in the elevator and push floor 8. I walk up to the check in desk, get my visitor’s badge, sign in, and walk through the secure doorway. Walking past 8 rooms, I enter Trudi’s room.

I enter the door and see two nurses, this huge chair, and Trudi sitting in it. My jaw must have hit the floor. She was sitting there with her protective neuro-helmet on with the remote control in her right hand. Praise the Lord, she was sitting up, with support and assistance, of course. What a special chair, this Neuro-Chair as they call it. It lays back and makes it easy to slide her back to her bed. Amazing, and I’d like to have had a photo of my face when I saw her sitting there. I was completely overtaken with joy for her, it made the day. I was so proud of her for having the courage and strength to do go through that ordeal. They were planning to have her sit for a couple of hours this evening before going to bed for the night. Way to go, Trudi.

One of her cousins stopped by and she remembered him, and was very happy to see him. They just talked and let the joyous moments engulf Trudi as she is trying to take all of this in. Her processor has been seriously damaged and will take some time to update and adjust. But she’s doing it, one step at a time, sometimes, big steps, like getting in that chair and sitting in it for 3 hours, this morning.

About 5pm, the Neurologist stopped by to check on her. We talked a few moments, catching up on Trudi since I last saw him on Friday. He spoke with her and joked a little bit about her kicking him if he pinched her again. This time he told her to kick him if she wanted to, so he did the pinch test on her left leg and arm.

First he pinched her on top of her foot, nothing, then I saw him pinch harder, and she moved her foot out of the way. So he pinched her just above her knee, and she tried to move her leg out of the way. We talked about this wonderful event and he went on to finish his rounds. About 10 minutes later, he came back. I was on her right side, holding her hand and loving her for what a great miracle is occurring before us. Some movement in her left extremities.

She is paralyzed, no doubt about it. With the breathing tube out and the swelling having gone down in her face, she is paralyzed on the lower quadrant of her left face, it is sagging slightly, her lips and cheek. The doctor says more than likely half her tongue could be paralyzed, too. So she will feel my kisses on the right side of her lips. We can deal with that.

I mentioned to him that she seems to be having difficulty with her eye sight. He said yes, the stroke was so massive it got the back of her brain, too, the right half of the back of the brain. That is where sight is processed, occipital lobe, or visual cortex. That explains why she is always wanting me to stand on her right side, she can see me on that side, even though she is laying on her left side because of the bone missing on the right side of her head.

Each eye’s optic nerve crosses over to each side of the brain. The right eye’s left field of vision goes to the right brain and it’s right field of vision goes to the left brain. So each eye can only see the right field of vision, it’s dark on the left side of her sight. So when looking at a clock, she will see the numbers 12 to 6, so now I understand why she wants me standing on her right side.

As I was saying good night to her, she puckered her lips for a kiss. I am afraid to kiss her because of the sterile environment in her room. She was smooching for me to kiss her, so I looked up at the nurse and asked if it would be okay to kiss her, she said, sure, go ahead. I kissed her several time and she kissed me back. That was overwhelming for me. I kissed her and said goodnight, as emotion was filling me with instant joy and peace. Waving goodnight, I left the room in tears, I couldn’t stop them. The nurse walked out with me seeing I was overwhelmed with emotion. I looked at her and she was crying, as well. This was one of the best moments in my life. Praise God for His healing of Trudi.

On that wondrous note, I’ll say goodnight and may…

God Bless You All.

Bob

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 10:18:32 PM

Today, Trudi had two more surgeries, the tracheotomy and feeding tube insertion. Both we well, with no complications. Whew, glad that is over. All of the tubes have been removed from her throat. With all of that gone, she looks wonderful.

I arrived and she was sleeping. The nurse said she was responsive most of the night, but complaining of her stomach hurting. The pain medication is causing her to “back up” in her bowels and causing some discomfort. They will take care of that problem.

When she woke up for a few minutes, I was at her side and talking with her. The first thing I say is, you guessed it, “You look wonderful, today, and I love you”. And then ask her if she can see me, and she nodded yes. Then back to sleep she went.

It was about noon when they came to take her for the tracheotomy and gone for about an hour, hour and a half. And of course, she was sleeping due to the drugs they gave her for the surgery. I take this time to work with her left side, pushing on her foot, which moves her whole leg, and grasping her left hand and moving her fingers, wrist, elbow, and a little bit of her shoulder. Gotta keep those nerves stimulated so they can find a place to make new connections in her brain.

She rested this afternoon, as I emailed and watched her. I will stand at the foot of her bed and just watch her. And while watching her, I am pushing on her left foot, almost like a walking motion the foot would make when walking, and that puts pressure on her knee and hip, too.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow, and hoping she will be more alert. It’ll take a while for the drugs to wear off, except for what she is getting for pain, which isn’t much. Just takes the edge off of it.

Overall, she made progress by getting through the last two surgeries and getting the tubes out of her throat. She looked so much better, and the swelling in her right eye as gone down even more, where she can open both eyes equally.

Thank the Lord for all of you, you’re Angels for us, and seeing us through this difficult time. Allowing me to share this journey with you is certainly helping me travel down this road, too.

Now, I’m going through all of her things and finances, to make certain all of her commitments are taken care of, too. Lots to do, wow. And I’ve gotten a list of Rehabilitation Hospitals in the area. There is one that I’m already leaning toward, and it’s a block away from Memorial Hermann Hospital and all of her doctors and surgeons are affiliated with it. She has the best doctors available, and if we can keep them during rehab, the better, just in case something happened. They would be able to continue to see her. The other Rehab Hospitals are good, and I will visit each of them in order to make a good decision about the best care for Trudi. Of course, there are no Rehab Hospitals in our local area, just in Houston and the Clear Lake area, so we’ll use one in Houston.

I’m trying to get things taken care of ahead of time, so they aren’t a distraction for me later. I’m focusing all of my attention on Trudi. Trudi could spend a month or two in Rehab, or a year or more, depending on her impairments and her rate of recovery. We’ll cross that path when we come to it, I just want to have it all in place when the time comes for the next journey. The Journey Home.

Thank you all for listening, or reading, haha, and being there for us. You may not be with us in body, but believe me, you’re with us in Spirit, no doubt. All of your positive energy and the healing hands of God are truly making the difference.

Good night, and until next time…

May God Bless You All,

Bob Holcombe

Tue, 27 May 2008 13:29:55 -0500:

Angels,

Trudi just got back into her room after another surgery.  She has a tracheotomy and is breathing much better. The breathing tube is out and I can hear the difference.  Her breathing is deeper and easier for her to take breaths.  The machine is assisting her with her breathing, but they are reducing the size of the diameter of her tracheotomy every four to ten days, by 2mm.  She has an 8mm trache and then wil go to 6mm and so on until she is breathing on her own and can swallow on her own, and they can close the tracheotomy.

In an hour or so, she will have a feeding tube inserted into her stomach.  She will be unable to swallow for a while while her throat heals from the irritation caused by the tubes down her throat.  This may help her communicate by lip sinking, and if I can read her lips, that will be most excellent.  If I can’t ready her lips, her nurse says she’s pretty good at it since she deals with this every day.

More great determination from Trudi, she’s fighting this and will continue to progress each day.  Your prayers are working and we are witness to those miracles that have occured and will occur.  We are so deeply grateful for all of your prayers, and be certain, they are coming through loud and clear.

More later, after the feeding tube insertion.

Love you all, and know that each of you are in our prayers.

May God Bless You All.

Bob

Friday, May 23, 2008 8:34:42 PM

This one is from last night, but today we heard that she will be off the vent by MONDAY!!! So we can finally hear her speak, and finally have a sigh of relief.
Love,
liz

Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 23:32:57 -0500

From: “Holcombe, Robert”
It’s been a week and a day since Trudi’s open heart surgery and stroke May 14th, 2008 a day that will be remembered as our first day’s journey down a road, never traveled. This is a new road, one with lots of curves, speed bumps and dips, high mountain passes, and low valley crossings, sudden stops and starts, in a car never driven as hard as this, before.

From the first I heard about her stroke, our lives have suddenly changed forever, in a wink of an eye, it’s a new world for us. And as her man, husband, friend, and lover, I will be at Trudi’s side forever more. It’s my turn at bat and I won’t take a strike like this without knocking it out of the park, for her.

Trudi had a restful day. Last night, she received a blood transfusion due to a low red blood cell count. This was probably due to some bleeding from her surgeries. Her brain is still swollen, but pressure is outside, not inside. They are having CAT Scans done every three days, or so, to monitor her brain. It could be up to a month to two months before they attach the “bone flap” back to her skull. It’s the piece of her right skull they removed to allow the brain to swell outside rather than inside. And it’s not a small piece, either. It’s kept in sterile water in the freezer while she heals. Awesome stuff.

Trudi was stable enough to move to the Cardiac Critical Care ICU, this evening, that’s why my journal entry is later then usual. With her low blood count, her heart surgeon, along with her medical team, agreed to move her to the CCCICU so they can monitor that area of concern, and, of course, the two protocols are opposite from one another. Brain wants more blood, so boost pressure to get more to the brain, but the Heart wants lower pressure as not to cause any leakage around the graft that replaced a section of her ascending aorta.

It’s a carefully balanced symphony of different departments playing the same tune for one patient. And in Trudi’s case, it’s the happy medium between Brain and Heart. Because of the aortic repair, they couldn’t give her clot busting drugs or remove the clot, either procedure would have caused a sudden rush of blood to her brain and done more damage, rather than leaving the clot where it is, and finding a blood pressure that would get more blood to the brain without causing leakage around the aortic graft. Geezerz!

What a day, Trudi resting and healing. Praise you all for your love and prayers, it’s felt each day, as Trudi and I share our miracles with you. I didn’t know if I’d be able to deal with this type of crisis, and so far, with my family’s and friend’s support, I’m holding up and taking care of what needs to be done, being at her side. Don’t get me wrong, I’m having my deepest moments of despair and sadness, yet, when coming out of those emotions, I’m better prepared to feel them the next time they emerge. It’s like I’m turned upside down, at times, and I don’t know which way is up. Spin, spin, spin, where he stops, only He knows. And that keeps me focused on myself and Trudi, being able to go with the flow, and swimming with the current. Listening to the inner voice is most important, but it’s so quiet amongst the noise in the consciousness, it’s difficult to hear, at times. So…

I get home and settled in with a cup of coffee, sitting in the quiet, listening to the the little voice within me, and floating on a cloud of prayers, I am able to see the day in it’s Glory. Once I’m relaxed and have meditated with God and myself, I sit here and put it before you, as I see it, that’s all.

Quiet takes a little time to find, but when you take the time to get quiet, there’s no time. It’s an experience that is totally relaxing and freeing to my spirit, and is when I feel the power of your prayer. Thanks

There are endless thoughts rushing through my mind, not counting the emotions to go along with them. It’s like my mind is a boat, filled to the top with various items, and my emotions are the rapids, and I’m hanging on for dear life. Thank God I’m a good swimmer.

I’m rambling, so, Good night, and,

God Bless You All.

Bob Holcombe