Daniel's Journal

Hello everyone, I'm sorry this is so late. Olga is still climbing the proverbial ladder of recovery. When we went in this afternoon, Olga was doing well. They had her on a feed bag which later turned out to be detrimental. I guess her body wasn't ready for food yet. Olga's Mum Jane and I came home for Supper at 7:00 when the shift changes occur. When we went back at 10:00, oh my gosh what a sight. The male nurse assigned to her for the night was just outside the room and we could see Olga was in a lot of distress and pain. Bells and whistles where going off all over. The nurse finally came in and started dealing with the issues but he was very cold to us. At one point, Olga gestured for us to get him away from her. Jane noticed that Olga needed suctioning at the mouth. The nurse finally got a suction tube and drained her mouth-there was a lot! The nurse asked us to leave for a few minutes so they could change Olga's robe and sheets. After this was done he actually came and got us from the waiting room(not usually done) and there was an amazing change in his tone. He was calm and spoke respectfully for the first time since we saw him. He told us that the food that Olga had been given was not being digested and had caused Olga to be Nauseous and required draining. When we got back into the room, the container was nearly full of the fluid. It's no wonder Olga was in such pain with no way of regurgitating and the bloating she must have felt. We also noticed that Olga's head was elevated to a sitting position and her legs slightly raised at the knees. Olga has scoliosis and her back gets very sore lying down flat on her back so this new position was like Heaven to her. She looked MUCH improved by the time she LET us come home to sleep. We saw the surgeon at 7:00 just before we left the first time and he told us that Olga's BP and numbers were very good and that the breathing tube might be able to come out in the morning, when we talked to the nurse, he said itight not be until the afternoon. We will be praying for Morning as the tubes are really bothering Olga's throat. Olga tries to communicate with sign language but I'm not very good at reading the signs and she gets frustrated with me. I decided to have her write with her finger on my hand. This worked a little better, though she still writes too fast for my brain to process sometimes-I guess that she is just trying to deal with the pain quickly. That's all for tonight. It's 1:45 in the AM and we all know what Robin Williams' character in "Good Morning Vietnam" thought about the "O" in O'clock- "O my god it's early". I hope you all have a speedy and full recovery! Those of you who have yet to go under the knife, be of good courage and know that He is God who created you and knows the trials that we all must go through in this life. He knows you and loves you enough to allow you to have these trials to learn and to grow. Without pain we would not appreciate the rest of the good times we have so accept it, appreciate it, learn from it, but don't let it cripple your progression! He loves you, Olga loves you, and so do I. Thank you all for your love, prayers, and support during this trial of Olga's. Daniel