Wednesday's update

Steve has done well so far this week. He had a bit of trouble Monday morning with his stomach, but has been better since then. Today was his first day totally on his own : ) He texted me today and said that he was ok and everything was on good and right on track! It's funny how good that made me feel. He was able to handle his medicine and his feedings all by himself. His progress really is coming along nicely. He even went outside to enjoy watching his pigeons flying around today. He is tired now and is sleeping a lot but I think he enjoyed himself today.

Steve looks a little different than he did before surgery. I know that he is still healing and that a year from now he will look different still. But for now, I can't help but think how adorable he is. He is so sweet and loving, always worried about everyone else instead of himself.  

Steve is quite agile despite his leg. He is getting up and down the stairs very well. He wanders around the house trying to figure out what to do with himself. His attention span is not very long because of all the medicine he is on, but he is bored. He would love to have visitors, so stop by if you like. He is also using his computer a little bit more if you'd like to email him (stevebowman@bellsouth.net).

Lent starts tomorrow. Have you decided what you will add or take away to remind yourself of the sacrifice Christ made for us on the cross? Will you pray more, do charitable deeds, give up sugar, soda, or coffee? Whatever you decide, do it with grace, humility and love. Have a great evening!

Good day!

We had a good day. Today was all about Rebecca. She had a fabulous birthday. The youth group at church came over to do some mission work in the yard. They celebrated Becca's birthday with her! She was the star of the day. Just what she needed. 

Meanwhile, Steve did very well today. His pain was a bit hard to control. His jaw is pretty painful, but I think we got it under control. His migraine is gone, so that is good. He was on the couch all day. He took a bath and felt really good this evening. His leg is sore - throbbing a lot, but he is able to walk around without his crutches. We have been able to keep his food down and has not had the chills at all. Praise god for answering our prayers! I know it will still take time for him to heal, but he just looks so much better now that the infection is under control, it is hard to hold my excitement in check. 

Thank you so much to our church and all the girl scouts who have been providing for so many of our needs. I cannot begin to express our feelings of gratitude to you all. We are honored and humbled by your loving kindness! God bless you all.

Steve is home again

I brought Steve home today about noon. He is doing so much better! We will work on getting a routine and schedule down for his food and medicines. He will be resting too. He is determined not to get down and out again. He told me today that if he lays down he stays down and he is not going to let himself do that again. Yes, he is getting back to his old self now. It was so nice to have a real conversation with him today. I've missed him. 

Take care and thanks for all your prayers!

Doing better

Steve is doing much better today! It is amazing what a difference 24 hours makes. He looks and acts the best I've seen him since his surgery. He was sitting up a good part of the day. He was walking around the room more on his own. His trache hole is closed up so we do not have keep the gauze bandage on it anymore. All of his surgery spots are healing nicely. We were able to feed him full cans today with no problems. His left shoulder is sore, so we are wondering if he slept on it funny or something. 

The doctors think Steve's infection is from the IV site that gave him trouble on his right arm. He seems to be responding well to the antibiotics. I knew he was back to his old self today because he was bugging the nurse about pain medicine, not giving him enough of course : ) He might get to come home tomorrow.

We had a visit from one of the chaplains. Steve perked up right away and had a long, interesting conversation with him. It was hard to tell who was "preaching" to whom - ha! It turns out that the chaplain was just diagnosed in November with bone cancer and is undergoing radiation. He and Steve were able to relate so well to one another. I think it was a blessing for both of them.

We praise God for our many blessings!  He answers prayers so faithfully. Have a good evening.

In a room

Steve was admitted to the hospital this morning. We got to a room at about 5 am. He is doing better now that he has fluids in him. They put a new end piece on his feeding tube so we will not have any more problems with leakage. He has a migraine and is noticing his pain again so they are working on that. The main concern is his chills that cause him to shake so badly. They think there is an infection causing this so they are still running tests to see if they can find anything. In the meantime they are giving him a stronger antibiotic that should work on the infection no matter what type it is or where it is. So now we wait for the results. At least he is more like himself and I know he is being taken good care of. 

Hopefully Steve will come home sometime this weekend. Sunday is Becca's 15th birthday and he told her his goal was to get home to celebrate with her: ) 

Emergency Room

Sorry for the delay in my posts. I have been so busy I just have not had the time or energy to blog. Steve has been doing a whole lot of sleeping. I had gotten him settled in his feeding pattern over the weekend. He saw a nurse and physical therapist on Monday. That seemed to go pretty well. I could not get him to feed himself though. He did okay Monday night. He was very tired from all the activity on Monday. So on Tuesday I let him stay in bed and sleep. Monday night his feeding tube came open and the contents spilled out. We got everything cleaned up and started over with liquids, food and meds. The same thing happened again on Tuesday night. 

Today I worked hard on getting water and food in him. Evidently it was too little too late. After talking to the visiting nurse and the doctors office, we got Steve in the car (which was a very hard thing to do), and I drove him to Emory to the ER. I realized in the car on the way over here that I should have brought him yesterday. It is so hard to know. Hind sight is 20/20. Steve is very emotional and irrational. He is hooked up to an IV and is calming down a bit. He keeps crying over his dad. He has these vivid memories about his dad being here before he passed away. 

We are waiting for the doctor to come see us and I imagine that we will be admitted tonight. The girls are quite upset over this whole experience. Please keep them in your prayers tonight and tomorrow. I know that we will be fine. This is just another part of our journey to healing. 

The other day I found myself writing some verses down and putting them in my purse for later. I had no clue why I did that until now.  I pulled it out tonight and found Philippians 4:6 - 7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." I am the world's worst about memorizing verses. I guess I just I need to keep writing them down and keeping them in my purse: ) 

More later...

Weekend update

What a beautiful day it is outside! It is so nice to have the warmth of the sun shining in. Well, we have had a pretty good weekend. Saturday morning started off rough - Steve ended up vomiting the can of food I gave him. He was so weak after that (from exhaustion and not enough nutrition) that he slept all day on Saturday. I decided to try giving him the nausea medicines the doctor had prescribed for him to use during chemotherapy. I fed him a little bit of his food each half hour all afternoon and evening. By 11:00 pm I had managed to feed him 4 cans and he kept them down! That was progress! He asked me to cut his pain medication doses in half also. 

This morning he was more coherent when he woke up. He is still very weak and shaky on his feet. He has lots of chills, but no fever. I'm sure his body is working so hard on healing that it is taking all his energy and using all his white blood cells. Steve's leg is healing nicely and is not a big source of pain anymore. The swelling in his face has gone down a lot since he's been home. I keep telling him what wonderful progress he is making. I know it is hard for him to realize it because it is all so daunting and the path of recovery is so long this time. 

I will be returning to work tomorrow. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we are at the next step on this road - Steve doing a little more for himself. We are so fortunate to have friends and family who can help by stopping in to keep Steve company and remind him when to take his medicine and food. He can do it all himself, but when he falls asleep, he loses track of time and needs a gentle wake-up call! Have a great week. 

"Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." Ephesians 6:10 (NIV)