Destination Georgia

I hope everyone is sitting down. June and Ernie are NOT leaving Lexington today. Once again our plan to leave today has been aborted. This morning the discharge nurse came by the room and was preparing the papers and making all of the arrangements for discharge today, and then informed us it would be around 6:00am Tuesday. That was OK, and then everything went downhill from there. Most of the doctors had come by and spoke with us. It seemed apparent that all of the doctors had conferred with each other and all had agreed mother would be returning to Georgia and that there would be no need to remain in Lexington. Moments later the orthopedic staff returned and informed us that June would be allowed to leave the hospital but not the state. The next stop will be St. Agnes House for ten more days. Now the best case scenario of returning home will be May 11th.

Why you ask? Dr. Shaeffer the orthopedic surgeon decided he wanted to have the staples in June’s incision removed here in Lexington and he did not want to pass along his unfinished work to another doctor. He also wanted to be sure the antibiotic regimen would not be interrupted. They said that the germs, a form of staph would become resistant to the antibiotics and could come back stronger and more resistant if stopped and restarted. Mother will continue the antibiotics for four more weeks.

Now, the bad news. As if this was not enough Dr. Ain, the oncologist came by and revealed some previously unreleased information. He said that if June had not been here for her appointment on March 27th and they had not found the fluid in mom’s pleural cavity then it is likely she could have asphyxiated in her sleep and we would not be having this conversation today. He also said that if the asetabulum or pubis bone had fractured it could have caused an embolism and that could have resulted in her death. This should give you an idea how serious this has been and how close mom’s window of life had closed.

Now, the good news. Given these recent revelations we are on a corrected course of action. Dr. Ain gave no indication that we were not on anything but a contain and correct mission. He has not given any doubt that this has been a serious situation but one that has options to proceed forward. This battle is far from over and the combatant is growing weary. Mother calls out to the Lord, "Please help me!" time and time again. I know He has or we would not be here today.