The Methodist Hospital, Houston TX - 1st Update (long)
I want to say thank you for checking this blog every day. Ever since Meagan went back to the hospital, this sleepy little blog has been getting over 50 hits a day. That may not sound impressive to you, but that's a 5,000% increase in traffic, thank you very much.
Sorry I couldn't get this together any sooner. It seems as if any time Maegan is not sleeping, then she is undergoing tests or being evaluated by doctors. Whenever she finally does get to sleep, the tapping sounds of me typing in our small, quiet room are not exactly conducive to a restful environment.
---------
D-Day
The transfer happened much sooner than I thought it would. We were told that everything was official this past Thursday morning (6/11), but we would have to wait until a room came available. Later that afternoon, our good friends Geoff and Katie Gregory came by to hang out and help us get ready. My awesome wife, despite of her condition, had made me a list of everything that we would need and I was able to be packed, with the car gassed up in just a little over 2 hours. By this point, it was already past 5pm and we were not expecting anything to happen until the next day. However, we got the call around 6:30 that the move was happening within the hour. Go time.
AmeriCare paramedics got up to the room and had Maegan loaded a little after 8 and had her in the Ambulance by 9. I left just as they were loading her up to avoid ramming my car into the ambulance to try and get her there sooner. That never works. I arrive around 11:30 and head through the maze of halls to the ER. Maegan rolled in about 10 minutes later and the nurses inform us that we are in the Jones Tower. It just so happens that this tower is on the complete opposite side of the complex. Fantastic. Luckily the paramedics knew where to go because I would have wound up hugging my teddy bear and crying in a corner. This place is stinkin' huge.
We get up to the 10th floor and they wheel Maegan in to this large corner room. The first thing we notice is that there is another patient sleeping just behind a thin curtain. Now Maegan and I aren't selfish people, but when you are sick the last thing you want is someone who is just as sick as you sharing your bathroom. So I get selfish and as it turns out all you have to do is ask, however, the floor is entirely full and we won't get a private room until someone leaves. We decide to tough it out and go through all of the talking with the nurse and doctor that has to happen before they let you sleep.
After about an hour of this, a man arrives with a stretcher and loads up Maegan. All we know is that we are heading down a floor. I'm guessing this is the point at which we are being transferred to our nice quiet, private room.
I could not have been more wrong.
The elevator door opens and we are greeted by the sounds of sick patients, phones ringing, nurses running around, and I'm pretty sure I even saw a marching band. They wheel her around the corner and into a room about half the size of the room from which we had just come. I looked in and noticed a curtain had been drawn in the middle of this room. It looks like a double room but we were told private. Is this too good to be true? I get a real bed tonight? But then reality sat in and sure enough, Maegan got moved from a quiet Presidential Suite on the 10th floor, to a walk-in closet with a roommate on the 9th. It was looking like a long night was ahead of us.
----------
Day 1
Around 2am (6/12), the nurse comes in and begins asking all of the same questions we have already answered about 7 million times. After the collecting of blood and interrogations had ceased, it was after 4am and we were exhausted. We (or at least I) got to sleep for about 30 minutes at a time until someone else came by to stick a needle or check her blood pressure.
At 7am, they came and wheeled Maegan away to have some x-rays done. Before we had left Nacogdoches, Maegan had been experiencing a lot of chest pain and a little fever. With no sleep and temperatures over 101, she was not in great shape. After the team of doctors came in and evaluated her, she finally got a little rest. Her temperature remained high and she just felt sick every time she woke up.
The neurologist came in a little while later and evaluated Maegan. He asked a lot of questions of how everything got started and how her muscles are doing now. This almost sounds bad, but it was good that he accidentally made Maegan's arm muscle spasm. He got to see first hand a small glimpse into the pain that she has been dealing with. He said that she is scheduled to see a neuro-muscular specialist this Monday. Good news: we are finally getting in! Bad news: 3 days of waiting/pain/discomfort/nausea for Maegan.
Around 3:00pm the nurse came and told us that our private room was ready. Hallelujah! They moved her and we were finally able to breathe easy. A little while later they brought in a speech pathologist to check and make sure she was swallowing ok. Everything checked out and Maegan was finally able to rest for a good long while.
Some more bad news came a little later when the nurse brought in some IV antibiotics. The x-ray from that morning revealed that she has pneumonia. She is now extremely frustrated because she has taken a step backwards, medically. Instead of just having to deal with the muscle weakness and spasms, she has non-stop nausea, chest pain and fever. At least we got to sleep at a descent time and got to rest for most of the night.
-------------
Day 2
This morning (6/13), they carried Maegan down for a CT scan of her chest. The doctors wanted to check and make sure she does not have a pulmonary embolism. *As of this evening (8:30pm) we have not heard any report and can only assume that a PE is not present. Because of her nausea and the size of her small veins, (the injected dye they use to show up on the scan blew her vein) we had to wait in the CT holding room for over 2 hours. Finally, an IV special ops team came and scoped out a descent vein on her arm. She was in and out in about 10 minutes.
Just as she was finally back in bed, 2 physical therapists came by and wanted to get her moving. Because my wife is a trooper, she fought off pain, exhaustion and nausea and did everything they asked. They had her sitting up on the edge of her bed under her own power, but the force of the bed on her thigh caused more cramping and spasms. I made her lay down (or else she would have kept fighting) and they left her with some exercises to do while stuck in bed. It was at that point that I realized that she has more or less been stuck in bed for over 2 weeks. Reality check:
She is 22 years old.
It has become a task for her to role over on her side or even raise her head up to take medicine or drink water. She has been in a wheelchair for a couple of months now but was still able to walk under her own power. Now, she can't even begin to stand on her own much less get around the room.
This is the girl who can ignore pain if it's getting in the way of her goal. This is the girl who was the first in her family to graduate college (she did it in 4 years and graduated magna cum laude). This is the girl who fought fever and fatigue to go and work in the speech and hearing clinic. This is the girl who put up with me through college and still wanted to marry me. This is not the girl who wants to spend the rest of her life bedridden and drugged up.
That's not gonna happen.
By God's grace and healing, she is going to walk out of here under her own strength. She will return home knowing that even though she may not ever be able 100%, she will return to a normal lifestyle. This is not going to stop her from living life to the fullest. God is bringing us through this for a reason and He will bring us out.
Keep on praying knowing that God will answer.
-Philip & Maegan
Sorry I couldn't get this together any sooner. It seems as if any time Maegan is not sleeping, then she is undergoing tests or being evaluated by doctors. Whenever she finally does get to sleep, the tapping sounds of me typing in our small, quiet room are not exactly conducive to a restful environment.
---------
D-Day
The transfer happened much sooner than I thought it would. We were told that everything was official this past Thursday morning (6/11), but we would have to wait until a room came available. Later that afternoon, our good friends Geoff and Katie Gregory came by to hang out and help us get ready. My awesome wife, despite of her condition, had made me a list of everything that we would need and I was able to be packed, with the car gassed up in just a little over 2 hours. By this point, it was already past 5pm and we were not expecting anything to happen until the next day. However, we got the call around 6:30 that the move was happening within the hour. Go time.
AmeriCare paramedics got up to the room and had Maegan loaded a little after 8 and had her in the Ambulance by 9. I left just as they were loading her up to avoid ramming my car into the ambulance to try and get her there sooner. That never works. I arrive around 11:30 and head through the maze of halls to the ER. Maegan rolled in about 10 minutes later and the nurses inform us that we are in the Jones Tower. It just so happens that this tower is on the complete opposite side of the complex. Fantastic. Luckily the paramedics knew where to go because I would have wound up hugging my teddy bear and crying in a corner. This place is stinkin' huge.
We get up to the 10th floor and they wheel Maegan in to this large corner room. The first thing we notice is that there is another patient sleeping just behind a thin curtain. Now Maegan and I aren't selfish people, but when you are sick the last thing you want is someone who is just as sick as you sharing your bathroom. So I get selfish and as it turns out all you have to do is ask, however, the floor is entirely full and we won't get a private room until someone leaves. We decide to tough it out and go through all of the talking with the nurse and doctor that has to happen before they let you sleep.
After about an hour of this, a man arrives with a stretcher and loads up Maegan. All we know is that we are heading down a floor. I'm guessing this is the point at which we are being transferred to our nice quiet, private room.
I could not have been more wrong.
The elevator door opens and we are greeted by the sounds of sick patients, phones ringing, nurses running around, and I'm pretty sure I even saw a marching band. They wheel her around the corner and into a room about half the size of the room from which we had just come. I looked in and noticed a curtain had been drawn in the middle of this room. It looks like a double room but we were told private. Is this too good to be true? I get a real bed tonight? But then reality sat in and sure enough, Maegan got moved from a quiet Presidential Suite on the 10th floor, to a walk-in closet with a roommate on the 9th. It was looking like a long night was ahead of us.
----------
Day 1
Around 2am (6/12), the nurse comes in and begins asking all of the same questions we have already answered about 7 million times. After the collecting of blood and interrogations had ceased, it was after 4am and we were exhausted. We (or at least I) got to sleep for about 30 minutes at a time until someone else came by to stick a needle or check her blood pressure.
At 7am, they came and wheeled Maegan away to have some x-rays done. Before we had left Nacogdoches, Maegan had been experiencing a lot of chest pain and a little fever. With no sleep and temperatures over 101, she was not in great shape. After the team of doctors came in and evaluated her, she finally got a little rest. Her temperature remained high and she just felt sick every time she woke up.
The neurologist came in a little while later and evaluated Maegan. He asked a lot of questions of how everything got started and how her muscles are doing now. This almost sounds bad, but it was good that he accidentally made Maegan's arm muscle spasm. He got to see first hand a small glimpse into the pain that she has been dealing with. He said that she is scheduled to see a neuro-muscular specialist this Monday. Good news: we are finally getting in! Bad news: 3 days of waiting/pain/discomfort/nausea for Maegan.
Around 3:00pm the nurse came and told us that our private room was ready. Hallelujah! They moved her and we were finally able to breathe easy. A little while later they brought in a speech pathologist to check and make sure she was swallowing ok. Everything checked out and Maegan was finally able to rest for a good long while.
Some more bad news came a little later when the nurse brought in some IV antibiotics. The x-ray from that morning revealed that she has pneumonia. She is now extremely frustrated because she has taken a step backwards, medically. Instead of just having to deal with the muscle weakness and spasms, she has non-stop nausea, chest pain and fever. At least we got to sleep at a descent time and got to rest for most of the night.
-------------
Day 2
This morning (6/13), they carried Maegan down for a CT scan of her chest. The doctors wanted to check and make sure she does not have a pulmonary embolism. *As of this evening (8:30pm) we have not heard any report and can only assume that a PE is not present. Because of her nausea and the size of her small veins, (the injected dye they use to show up on the scan blew her vein) we had to wait in the CT holding room for over 2 hours. Finally, an IV special ops team came and scoped out a descent vein on her arm. She was in and out in about 10 minutes.
Just as she was finally back in bed, 2 physical therapists came by and wanted to get her moving. Because my wife is a trooper, she fought off pain, exhaustion and nausea and did everything they asked. They had her sitting up on the edge of her bed under her own power, but the force of the bed on her thigh caused more cramping and spasms. I made her lay down (or else she would have kept fighting) and they left her with some exercises to do while stuck in bed. It was at that point that I realized that she has more or less been stuck in bed for over 2 weeks. Reality check:
She is 22 years old.
It has become a task for her to role over on her side or even raise her head up to take medicine or drink water. She has been in a wheelchair for a couple of months now but was still able to walk under her own power. Now, she can't even begin to stand on her own much less get around the room.
This is the girl who can ignore pain if it's getting in the way of her goal. This is the girl who was the first in her family to graduate college (she did it in 4 years and graduated magna cum laude). This is the girl who fought fever and fatigue to go and work in the speech and hearing clinic. This is the girl who put up with me through college and still wanted to marry me. This is not the girl who wants to spend the rest of her life bedridden and drugged up.
That's not gonna happen.
By God's grace and healing, she is going to walk out of here under her own strength. She will return home knowing that even though she may not ever be able 100%, she will return to a normal lifestyle. This is not going to stop her from living life to the fullest. God is bringing us through this for a reason and He will bring us out.
Keep on praying knowing that God will answer.
-Philip & Maegan
posted by p-melt at
4:04 PM
3 Comments:
we are constantly praying for you both and are looking forward to seeing ya'll tomorrow. Hang in there.
I'm so glad you guys got to go to a bigger hospital. Maegan's a real trooper - she's gonna get through this, especially with a hubby like you. :)
Praise God you are where you are in life both Physically and Spiritually !!! With a team of specialist (no they aren't perfect) and a larger information base to pull from....Megan will be on her way to recovering her old life before you know it. God always has you where He thinks you needs to be for the moment and always gives you what you need to get through it !! Yall can and will get through this and Praise God !!! He is on your side !! Love you both, thanks for the update, Kim
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