No news... is that good news?

Joe made it through a day with out incident...now isn't that good? Not really, but it may be good enough for now. We are happy to have an uneventful day at this point.

Really we need to get his processes and procedures straightened out...then he can rejoin civilization. Hopefully this won't take more that a week. In the mean time the staff has called what he is doing "reverse isolation" perceiving that we are attempting to keep him from getting what others have (rather than the other way around). But we don't want to de-socialize Joe, we only want the staff to wear protection that can be removed between patients...not that big a request...we hope. Pray we can get this point across.




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Location:E Cheyenne Dr,Phoenix,United States

Made it out

Joe was discharged from the hospital around 4pm. We were able to stop in to see him and he is back in the isolation room he left from on Friday. We expect him to stay there a few days while we sort out what the staff does to keep germs out. We have also been assigned a contact person to help us with hacienda issues.

Now what? Wouldn't It be nice if he could settle down for a while and just be Joe? This would be a real blessing!



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Location:E Cheyenne Dr,Phoenix,United States

Sitting in the ICU

Joe is resting comfortably after a few days here at St Joes. They take very good care of him. All his vital signs are fine. He is getting his regular feedings. The only down side to being here is that he can't get up out of bed, so he sleeps all the time.

Looks like he will be discharged to hacienda, where we expect them to put him back into his private isolation room until we can get him safely fitted with a roommate and clean processes to prevent another infection as best as any place could.




Thanks for all your prayers, texts and calls. We love you all.


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Some Good News

When I got to the hospital to visit Joe today the doctor and nurse had some good news...his temperature has returned to normal (praise the Lord) and all other signs are that he is not infected ...labs are still to come so we might still grow something that needs to be treated...

What does this mean? Well Joe is an unpredictable guy...and we serve an unpredictable God too. When we pray and we see a turn around, should we not attribute that to the grace of God? Of course we should. Listen to Jesus on this:

Matthew 7:9-11 (NLT)


"You parents-if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? [10] Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! [11] So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

At this point they are talking about sending him home in a day or two...Praise the Lord!

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Location:E Cheyenne Dr,Phoenix,United States

Re-entry

Joe was admitted back into the surgical ICU at St Joseph's hospital in Phoenix this afternoon. The staff recognized us (no kidding...it was only a week ago that we left her...and Joe's not exactly easy to forget!). Anyway he is doing ok...they have started another course of the IV antibiotics while they wait for the cultures in 2-3 days. God help us please, to see the big picture in all of this.




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Back at st Joes

Joe is back at the ER this am with a high temperature (99 is high for him). He will be admitted to the ICU again (arg!) Besides the temp he looks fine but his skin is very warm. We always appreciate your prayers but especially at these times...we will post again this evening or if anything changes...love you all.

Thank God

In a surprise turn of events...Joe made it out of the hospital today!

From what looked like a turn for the worse last night, today looked much brighter.

The day started with difficulty as we were having trouble getting a hold of the doctor...my first call the nurses were exchanging report, the second the nurse had gone down for coffee, the third got through, and we asked for the attending...he never called back. So I headed to the hospital.

Within a short while the doctor came into the room to talk. She explained that the xray looked better today, and that Joe was responding to the antibiotic. This is a HUGE change from yesterday...thank God.

Actually, that is the theme of this blog...it came to me later that it really is clear that this is an answer to prayer. God heard our cries and spared Joe for one more day, one more week, one more year...who knows...we just have to be thankful to our gracious heavenly father!

More meds

The report on Joe is mixed...one one hand he looks pretty good. He seems relaxed and comfortable, and his heart rate and blood pressure are really fine...o2 sats aren't bad either.

On the other hand, the medical report is less encouraging...the chest xray looks worse than yesterday and the infectious disease doctor said that the bug that Joe has is very very resistant to antibiotics. This means that there are very few medicines that can be used to fight it.




If you are wondering if this is serious, we are wondering the same thing. Emotionally we are upset because it feels like Joe is in a very tough spot. But in truth we really don't know if his body will respond to the medicines that he is getting...only God knows and only time will tell.

Please keep praying for God to provide comfort and peace for Joe and for the rest of the family, especially Mom at this time. She is doing ok but could use some encouragement in this time. We expected Joe would be going home by Tuesday or Wednesday but now the docs are saying he will be there for at least 2-3 more days. Patience!

Status quo plus

The situation with Joe is unchanged. He has three antibiotics that are being given IV to treat the infections in his urine and blood. He is resting comfortably and has opened his eyes every time it talk to him. The attending Dr said he also has some pneumonia in his lungs but this is not unusual when he spends time lying in bed.

The plan is to start a pic line and continue iv medications for a week or two at hacienda after 2-3 more days at the ICU.

We are praying about one issue which you can join us in...the hospital, while it is a good one, treats respiratory issues in a way that causes a lot of up and down cycles that can be avoided with continuous monitoring. We would also like to see them put him back to the settings he came in with before sending him back.


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Second trip... this time for a stay

Well, Joseph was admitted to St. Joseph's hospital in Phoenix this evening.

Just to catch up on the events this week...he went home after visiting the ER on Monday, but things still weren't quite right. As it turns out the infection he was diagnosed with and treated for continued to plague him, and after a day the facility picked up an extremely low temperature (even for Joe) this AM so they sent him back this afternoon. They decided to step up the antibiotics to IV. On top of that his blood pressure dropped enough to admit him.



So now he is in the surgical ICU, and being watched carefully. He is very comfortable and looks quite good as we headed home after another long day. In summary, he has a rash (more like blotchy skin) on his legs, low blood pressure and low temp, but really he looks good and is in good care which makes us very happy.

The truth is, this is really the longest stint Joe has had without an infection (4 months). God had decided to spare us the repeated monthly infections that we were having so that we could move down here and get settled...HE is gracious!



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Joe and the therapy dog

So many of these posts have been about hardship and difficulty that I wanted to post one good one ...this is a picture taken at hacienda in the activity room. Joe has a regular visitor who comes in to see him and the other residents. What is really interesting about this picture is the other person who is in the picture (smiling no less).

Update from the ER

We spent the last 4 hours in the er and have had excellent attention...the nurse and the dr did all the right labs and determined that joe DOES have a UTI infection so mom was right and the lab was wrong .

His med has been changed and the plan is to send him back to the facility to keep an eye on him for the next few days. He may also have strep since there is a strange rash on his legs to boot.

Joe is awake now and his HR is up a bit...we asked to stay a bit longer before departure but now it has stabilized so we are on our way back to Hacienda.

Thank God for good medical help in the US...for mother's intuition...and for the prayers of faithful friends.

Hospital time

Joe is heading to the hospital tonight after all the prayers. He is not terribly worse, just not heading in the right direction. The nursing home has done all they can do and he still needs some help...truth is we don't know what kind of help he needs. HR is elevated in bed and not much output...could still be a UTI or maybe viral. Please pray that he recovers quickly.

This life is filled with so many troubles...thankfully this is not all there is.

Update 1

Got a call this evening that two of the tests were negative (that's good) and Joe was able to stay up in his chair for longer this evening because his heart rate was staying low. It's hard to believe he doesn't have an infection but time will tell. Anyway we have to be thankful for the good news and keep praising God for each day!

lab Test Time

We suspect that the UTI infection may be back. It's been four months since Joe was hospitalized but he is showing signs if infection beyond the norm. Hacienda has been very cooperative and has taken labs and a chest xray to rule out the obvious. They also started him on a typical antibiotic at our request. Now we have to wait for the results ...hoping they come back before he has to go back into the hospital. Please keep him in your prayers...it may take several days before we see any more change so don't feel like you have to get an update right away...just pray and we will keep everyone posted. Thanks!

House hunt

We have left you all in the dark for some time...only because it has been really tough settling in and getting ready to move at the same time.

Yep we have been here a month today, staying at Gina and Peter's lovely place in lovely Scottsdale. We have enjoyed it thoroughly...it's a great location on a golf course with a pool. Scottsdale, in case you don't know is an upscale community in the Phoenix valley area. And so as such there is plenty of shopping and restaurants, and things to do.

Things to do...now that's funny to think about, because we have done little except the essentials...getting Joe in and squared away is the all consuming issue, but finding a new place for ourselves has been next. The criteria has been to be close to Joe and work for me, and no..absolutely no work to maintain. We planned to rent for a year from the beginning, but we did not expect the rental market to be so aggressive. What with so many foreclosures, and college students coming into town the nice places were getting scooped quickly.

So we finally found one...funny it was one of the first places we heard about, but the landlord is in another state and he was having trouble getting us access. It is a townhouse in Ahwatukee (yep) We finally saw it last weekend and we were able to strike a deal with him quickly. We are now waiting for new carpet to be installed and our move in date is targeting sept 17.

So as much as we love scottsdale, we are looking forward to moving to the closer locale. It has plenty of tile and good access for joe's chair, and a nice patio and two one-car garages. Laundry is upstairs and there is a pool right around the corner. The most important feature is a room for Christa Joy, which will double as a guest room. When she is not here you all are very welcome (one at a time, please!!) We miss you all so very much!