The one about Jay becoming more like Jay…..

Ξ January 4th, 2005 | → 2 Comments | ∇ Jay, family |

Well, today started off a little crazy trying to get Tiffany to the airport. We started about 30 mins late and then my father missed the exit to go to the airport and it made us even later…long story that really made me mad….but everything was just fine and Tiffany got on her airplane just fine and got all the way to Fort Worth/Dallas and found out that every flight from Dallas to Lubbock (Her final destination) had been cancelled for the last two days due to weather.

So…… the funny thing is Tiffany was going to fly out on Friday to go see friends right there in Dallas anyway so she just called her friend and asked if she could stay that a couple of nights sooner…so all is well and Tiffany might save us some money out of this whole thing..and if she plays her cards right maybe even a free fight voucher later on…here to to hoping, heh.

Well, we drove straight to the hospital this morning after dropping off Tiffany……I walked into the room and Jay’s hand restraints were off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh man, I knew that was a good sign and sure enough Sheila around 2:00 am this morning felt that he was enough in his right mind to take them off…so we walked in around 9:15 and Jay was sound asleep in his bed and I think we woke up Sheila too (She said she had a long night with Jay being sick all the time…but that he was coming out of his “state” and becoming good old Jay…just a lot slower and talking very raspy and soft (you would too with that freaken breathing tube in your throat for 7 days, heh)…….

Well, today was a great day because a wonderful person (who I am not sure if I am allowed to say who they are) bought us hotel rooms to stay in that is really close to the hotel, and is saving us all the trouble of driving back and forth from Jay’s home in Greensburg…. We can not tell you think you enough….ever! If I could I would buy you a wonderful gift of thanks and appreciation…but needless to say on a Pastor’s salary the best you can get from me is lots of prayer…which at least in my book might even come out better in the long run, heh…..

So tonight will probably be my last night @ Jay’s house and therefore unless the hotel has a computer then the blog posting will be scarce…but I am almost positive that Sheila has her computer hooked up via (dial-up gasp!!!!) in the hospital room, so maybe I can do a few updates there…and maybe is she feels like it she can send out her email updates again too.

Back to Jay though, He is so much better they have taken out every tube going into his body except they put the port in his right arm, but that is normal when he is doing all the chemo stuff and even though they had been having problems with getting it in there they got it in and he is now good to go for the chemo stuff.

he is still slow and slured in his speech, but his mind is back and you would find him laying down and every-now-and-then he would wink at Sheila and blow her a kiss…. (Like I said the good old Jay is back in town) he recognized me and we helped him remember a few of the things he said and did while drugged, and he smiled at them…but he is just so stinking tired and a little sick but a trooper (more like a Storm Trooper, heh) He had been throwing up water even, but today they gave him some kind of drug that cut down on the vomiting and he ate jello and I think it was ice cream, and then took some pills and kept it all down!!! Very good news!!!!

he was so nice to everyone even despite the pain of his new port, mouth, and throat. He turned on his own TV and sat up and even went to the bathroom by himself!!!! I feat that I was blessed to be present for..the nurse even gave him a high five for that one, heh. It is obvious that he is still scared and worried about all of this, but it is not like he has not gone through it all before….and this time he knows what is coming and is ready for it….I told him today that if I ever had any heroes above him that they have been shattered by this event! (and I meant it!) He is doing so amazingly well, that it really is starting to just be the time that he starts focusing on the cancer now and not the lungs or kidneys. He told me that he loved me and he just wanted me to know that no matter what happens, and the lovable, furry (well until the second round of chemo takes it all away), old Jay is back…….

Now comes the fun part of the chemo again and the prep work of getting my bone marrow/stem cells ready to be injected into Jay’s bone marrow. We have found out a long time ago that I am a very good donor match, so that is very good news, and originally they told us that the extraction of my stem cells would be a while off, but now they are saying that they might be able to harvest them now and freeze them for when they need them…..maybe I love cooking too much, but I want them to be fresh and at the most kick @$$ best they can be and if freezing them will negatively effect them at all then I don’t mind at all flying back up here and allowing them to harvest them from me. (especially since it has not been that long since I got over this Christmas sickness the entire Panhandle of Texas caught this Christmas, heh.

Please keep up your prayers though it is easy to get caught up in all the good news, and forget that Jay still has cancer and he is still running a small fever, and coughing up bile/mucus everytime you turn around. he is doing lots of sleeping (which is good) but he also needs to rest up because they are planning on giving him chemo tomorrow in his spinal fluid, because they said if it is as wide spread in his lungs like it just was that it is probably back in his nervous system as well again.

Soooooo…….please KUTPs!!!!!!!!!!

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Also, Nanaw our grandmother has been moved to the nursing Home where they hope she can regain her strength for a few days (max of 10) from her Panomia sp? I got nothing on that spelling) and hopefully she can get home soon to rest and get better @ home instead of a nursing home…that place is not the best of places believe you me!

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other than that please pray for me to get rest every chance I can get it and that all this eating out food does not cause my heart to explode, heh…..I love eating out don’t get me wrong but I am big enough as it is much less getting fatter by the hour, heh.

Thank you all for everything and God bless you all…..you have no idea how much I love and appreciate you all, and of course Jay and Sheila feel the exact same way! Love yall and please KUTPs!!!!!!

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OH P.S.

I still would not call the room to try to talk to Jay his voice is so bad that it would be impossible for him to talk back (and he would want to would try too, heh) and it would not help the healing…but you can call the room and most of the time you will get one of us staying there with him. Thanks!

the one with Jay’s room number….

Ξ January 4th, 2005 | → 3 Comments | ∇ Jay |

Sorry, but I forgot Jay’s room number is 718 and the phone number to his room directly is:

(412) 578-1084

I would call the room yet, until Jay is thinking better, because all of Sheila’s time is spent trying to get him to do what everyone needs him to do. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and we are leaving now to go take Tiffany to the airport! God bless yall and have a wonderful day! KUTPs!!!!!!!!!!!!

The one about Jay getting out of ICU and into the Cancer ward!!!!…..

Ξ January 4th, 2005 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Jay |

(Welcome to all of you who are from Sheila’s email chain…you can check back here anytime for updates while Sheila is at the hospital and not being able to send out email updates. So put this blog on the fav bookmarks, heh.)

Well, great news tonight! Jay is out of ICU and now into the Cancer Ward. This is really good news, if and only if they moved him because he could handle it. Basically, when we got there this morning Jay was his usual self fussy and very squirmy in his bed…and they were continuing to keep him drugged because he was hurting himself by moving around so much and causing his urine catheter to have some blood in his urine, and so they would just keep giving him drugs in the endless cycle because it was the drugs that was causing him to be mad and upset, but he would have to have them to keep him from hurting himself…but the good news is we went to go eat dinner between the 6:00 (end of the second visiting time) and 9:00 pm (start of the last visiting time and the nurse came into the waiting room and told us that Jay was in T7 now (the Cancer ward section of the hospital!!!) Tiffany, Sheila and I jumped for glee (Momma and Daddy had already left to go back to Jay’s house) and we ran to his room. Now we ran partly because we were happy he was there, but also to make sure he was not yelling and causing the new nurses in T7 lots of problems.

Well, he was doing just fine, and when we showed up his O2 nose tube was off and his feeding tube was gone out of his nose! (We found out later that he removed it when they transferred him from his ICU bed to his T7 bed, heh….and t& nurse told his his lungs did not sound bad and he was sure confused (ha ha) but then we told her how much better he was doing and that we were just trying to get the drugs out of him to he could start to think straight. The nurse was worried about the feeding tube being out, but Sheila and the nurse decided that they would just leave it out for now. also, other than coughing up green bile (which he was doing anyway with a feeding tube) Jay was his usual drugged self, except he was starting to become a little more normal. For example, he kissed Sheila 2 times!!!!!!! He would answer us when we asked him questions but on top of all of that he still was trying to make a deal with Sheila to let him loose from the straps that were holding him down, he would say, “Our marriage is based on trust so just untie my hands and trust me”, ha ha or something like, “Lets make a deal….give me a little more length on my hands” heh heh, He was still very worried about his hands being tied down (as anyone would who did not know what was going on) but all in all he was making better informed decisions. I even tried to leave and all I did was pick up my back pack and he forcefully asked me why I was leaving! heh. So he is starting to understand what was going on around him and every now and then he would have glimpses of his right mind and say, “You just can’t understand it is like a really long bad dream” So, needless to say…we are going to bed happy tonight, but Sheila stayed behind to sleep in his room with him and take care of him, while Tiffany and I drove their car back here to their house!!! Man there are some scary parts of Pittsburgh that we never wanted to see, and we only got lost twice so we considered that a good night! heh.

So Jay is still very much in need of our prayers to finally come out of the drugged state that he is in but much better. Please pray for him to get out of it and get healthy so we can focus on his cancer now, please pray for Sheila because she is not going to be driving home each night and will be staying up there with him taking care of him wit the nurses, so she will probably not get as much sleep, but will love being able to be with him at all times, and lastly please be praying for Tiffany because she is flying out tomorrow morning from the PIT airport and we (my father, mother, and me) have to get her there in time for her flight and fight Pittsburgh morning traffic! (and of course please pray for her safety going home).

Now I have to go to bed tonight so I can wake up and drive her to the airport. Love you all and God bless you all!

Love yall and please KUTPs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Here is Sheila’s email from this morning and my blog will be her new emails until she can write them herself.

Jan. 3rd Morning:

I called this morning and the nurse said that he made it through the night
without them having to place him back on the ventilator. He is still VERY
restless and pulling at his restraints.
I’ll let you know more tonight.