The Life and Lungs of Kim

Home. Relieved. Overwhelmed. Tired. Love. Grateful. Home.

Yea for getting up out of the squishy chair by myself! Yea for the Jennifer Justus Rees sighting today! Yea for Cheryl Long who is been a rock these past many weeks and has to take care of her own self, too! Yea for Downtown Abbey being free on Amazon Prime! Yea for the triple grande mocha that I'm drinking right now! And yea for the HIGH likelihood that this is really, truly and for real my last night in this hospital!!!

Today's visit with the kids, along with an afternoon of sun shining into my hospital room and a wheelchair ride throughout the hospital, did good for my soul. I wake up each morning (well, I really wake up at 10pm for an hour-long nebulizer treatment, midnight for vitals, pills and blood draw, 4am blood draw and weight check, 5am X-ray, 6:30am doctor visit, 7am pills...and this is still a better schedule than when I was in ICU) trying to figure out what I can do. Can I get out of bed myself? No, unless the bed is super high. Can I walk to the sink by myself? Yes. Can I get off the commode? Nope -- and do I need one or two people to help me stand up from it? Can I get back into bed without someone getting my legs up for me? Most of the time. And everyday it's a little different and it's mostly two steps forward, one step back so my overall trajectory is great though I go through times of just wanting my legs to work again, darn it, and be able to feel like I'm ready to p...

Tomorrow will mark 5 weeks since we got the call and checked into the ICU. It’s been a pretty wild ride, but the rumor is we’re looking at a high probability of a discharge on Monday! There are a few things that need to be done before then (nutrition info, drug education at the pharmacy, general home care stuff), but there is confidence that we can all get wrapped up and bring her home. Her trache finally came out (picture below), and it’s been replaced with a gauze dressing while the hole in her throat heals up. The medical issue still holding things up a bit is the tubes in her chest for draining excess fluids away from her lungs. She was down to one of these (from four), but they ended up putting a second back in to speed things up a bit. They’re looking for a very low amount of drained fluid for the day, and while Kim’s close, she’s not QUITE there yet. Still, her progress has been taken into account when considering Monday as the possible go-home day. She’s still pretty weak, but...

Yes, ok, I know, I know. I am SORRY. Please forgive me for skipping a day. Or two.  Or *cough* three. Here’s the thing: Now that Kim is doing so well, there is a lot less to tell you guys! Each day is an incremental gain on the day before, in which Kim walks more, eats more, talks more… everything is more! Which is great and all, but makes it challenging for me to write anything incredibly interesting, e.g., “Kim is doing better. Again.”.  However, after a few days the small news gathers into bigger news, and I’ve got some tidbits for you at last. So forgive me? Here goes.. Kim has been officially transitioned to “floor care” which means she’s no longer technically an ICU patient because she’s doing so great and doesn’t need the constant nurse attention. I say “technically” because they haven’t actually MOVED her to the floor (AKA across the hall to the rooms with better paneling and fewer nurses) because there aren’t any beds available over there. Even still, the in...

...so this is the flip side, eh? Last time I wrote on Facebook was a month ago, as I was readying to be wheeled into the operating room for my double lung chronicle of events from my amazing husband has been invaluable. I've got bits and pieces floating in my head, intense emotions, blurry thoughts, and so many other things. And it's still hard to focus for too long on many things like writing as my attention is necessarily devoted to relearning to walk, breath, eat, talk and other talents I thought I'd mostly mastered a few years ago. But I wanted to let you all know I'm on the mend and am finally more "Kim" than not. Love to you all and so much gratitude for my village, it hurts my heart (but this time in a very good way).

Kim’s physical therapist, the alluring and dynamic Brandon (just for you, Shannon) asked her to walk 170 feet today, so naturally Kim did 470 instead. Her loop around the ICU resembled an Indy 500 victory lap, complete with cheering fans and a winner’s medal (the nurses made her one on gold paper and pinned it to her chest). In short, she rocked it and the fans went wild.  She also passed her barium swallow test with flying colors and celebrated with her first real food in a month: meatloaf, mac ‘n cheese, sherbet and ice tea. Her CT scan showed a bit of fluid buildup around her heart, but not enough to be overly concerned about. They’ll keep an eye on it over the weekend, but the team doesn’t feel like it’s going to impede her progress at all. Personally I think they’re just using it as an excuse to keep Kim around a bit longer since they’ve all fallen hard for her.  More tomorrow!