Well, it's not good. Not religious but prayers are welcomed.

Thinking good thoughts.

Family can be complex. My uncle outlived his wife by two decades and only son by a decade. His only daughter was effectively never contacting him again, mostly due to a misunderstanding when her mother passed that never got resolved.

I paid the airfare to fly his daughter in and then drove her to be at his hospice bedside and played referee in case things went rodeo since I did not ask my uncle for permission since was not sure the daughter would get on the airplane.

My uncle did not recognize her for ten minutes as he thought his daughter was a new nurse he was expecting. He had accepted he would never again see his daughter.

Was a nice reunion that day and things were patched up over the next three hours. I try not to meddle. Especially with family. Usually just screws up things even worse. Uncle passes three weeks later.
 
@Dave N : I am relatively new to HT, I have been following your ordeal from beginning. Your courage and internal strength is beyond anyones expectation and gives others hope they will be as strong when called upon.

Prayers and hope sent with deepest sincerity you and your daughter's path gets easier and rapid recovery for your wife.

Your family's ordeal shows us that Every Day is a Blessing and we need to hold our loved ones tight when we can.
 
Having a bit of trouble with her body temp. It keeps slowly going up. 101.3 today, was 100.4 yesterday. Ice packs on groin trying to cool her down. A bit concerning but they're working on it. Now for the good news. Finally got an open room and moved her OUT of ICU. They removed her chest tube and took her off the ventilator. Letting her breathe on her own for 24 hours and see how well she does. It's a start!
 
all that positive news is a plus, hope they get the temp thing under control soon.
 
Prayers my friend. Focus on “there is a reason why” no one may understand for ages or ever but “there is a reason”
 
Got a surprise today. Walked into her room and she talked! Got enough strength in her lungs again to talk to me. Just short bursts between breaths but they have some valve thing that let's her do complete sentences. Temperature has also come down under 100 finally. Working on her speech and eating again. Now she has to get some strength back in her hands to work her phone and other buttons easier. Has a squeeze ball but says it's too hard. Was surprised when she asked how long she had been there and I said 4 weeks and 3 days. She also is kind of scared she may not be able to come home. I said let's just go one day at a time and see what happens.
 
Last Friday I walked into her room and she said she was getting transferred. No, I hadn't been contacted. OK, they said 6:30 was set to move her to a long-term hospital nearby. That was where she would be doing rehab and waiting until she was good enough to remove the trach and have the surgery to fuse a couple vertebrae. Well of course, 6:30 came and went. I never got to eat. Finally around 8:15 they loaded her on a gurney and moved her the dozen or so blocks to the new joint. I walk in the front door and they say visiting hours were over at 8! Say what? We just got here! They let me in to help get her settled in, get the meds ordered, etc. It was after 10:30PM before I got home, after getting up at 4 for work. Grabbed a quick mouthful of something out of the fridge and went to bed.

This place feels like a cross between a hospital and a nursing home. The nurse said it was usually busy working with patients during the week and then weekends were pretty quiet. They have visiting hours and today will be the first day I won't visit. I have to take our daughter to her doctor appointment this afternoon and if I take off work earlier than I am already the place won't even be open. Guess I'll find out how things went tomorrow.
 
Dave, your thread is followed to share our support of you and yours as you work through hurdle after hurdle. You and your family are a humbled reminder for myself to pray for God to aid your strength, endure the curve balls, and overcome the hurdles. We each have our way to express our support - I recall Cushman once shared he lights a candle in support (from a past member's experience). For some reason that resonates with me how people share they are with you and your family.

My heart is with you and yours. I've been in a similar medical situation and Hunt Talk became invaluable as a support mechanism, even if to voice out what was going on. Hunt Talk is much more than a "Hunt" forum in this regard.
 
Been a while so I better catch up. First, our oldest girl came to see her and I kept my mouth shut until she walked in the door. They ended up talking and when she asked if she could come back sometime the wife said yes. The next day wife said you should have told me. Uh, you always wanted family to get back together and now you didn't want her there? Said she was embarrassed to have anyone see her. Well I hate to tell you this but it's all we have! Got her to let our nieces visit yesterday and that went real well. Saw some tears coming from the flowers and the goodbyes. My parents asked about seeing her but were fine with however she felt, knowing her situation.

Medically, her breathing has improved. She's in the middle of their test to see how long she can go without supplied oxygen. Roughly another 48 hours and that will mean the trach can be removed. Good news on that. Now the not so good. She really hasn't had much of ANY physical therapy for her arm and hand strength. Wasn't our understanding on how this place worked. Seems like our description of part nursing home is correct. Do what they have to do and leave her alone. No extra help, no therapy to speak of, came back 2 hours after they say "I'll be right back to do that". They have a gal that comes in to move her legs around on a regular basis, but she's paralyzed and won't be using them! Work on her arms! She doesn't have the strength to squeeze foam earplugs to put in her ears. After a week and a half they finally came in and tied some resistance bands to her bed to pull on. And left. I'm about ready to come unglued at someone.

Way back on day 1 the neurosurgery folks talked about fusing some vertebrae in her neck to help make it sturdier as well as reduce her arm pain. Seems like once the trach is out she can go home! I said "Hold up". First, we haven't gotten any info on what needed to be done towards being released. They gave us a list of nursing homes in our area. No way to do in-home care. When I asked about the surgery and explained what we were told the case worker made a call and said there wasn't any surgery scheduled. Well of course not! They were waiting for the trach issue to be fixed first! Guess I need to phrase my questions better.

Back over there shortly to see how much I can get answered before I have to leave for our youngest girl and get her to therapy for her ACL. For being affiliated with the other hospital there sure isn't much communication between the two.
 
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Saturday was her 60th birthday. Brought her some munchies to snack on. Chocolate chip cookies the kid made, Hershey's Special Dark Kisses, and a chocolate cupcake minus the candles. Things are going better. Eating more and able to use her hands much better. Has a therapy "game" to work on hand strength at her own pace.

Found out today that she will be moved back to the first hospital to the rehab ward. They said she will work there for 3 weeks and be released to go home. The main goal is to be able to go from bed to chair and back by herself. Otherwise they are concerned about being alone during the day while I'm at work. We kind of told them what they needed to hear to get things moving. A nursing home would be the only other option if she wasn't "ready" and we've already been denied once due to the suicide attempt. Sounds like that would be the issue with any others as well. Not sure how they plan on her transferring to a chair and back using only her arms but we'll find out soon enough.

Found a guy that has a church group that builds wheelchair ramps but he hasn't returned my call. Not much time left so I guess I'm on my own and better start buying some lumber and gather a few relatives and friends to get one built. Thankfully, it's not 100 degrees!
 
After doing some research and talking with my BIL about what they did for their daughter I'm out of room for a ramp. Looks like there are electric lifts that will work for our porch. Under $4K and shipped here in about a week. All I would need to do is rip out the steps and run power out there. Not sure what is under the steps if I would need to pour a base or not. Still would have plenty of time to get that done. Guess I better get my truck ready to sell. 🙄
 
After doing some research and talking with my BIL about what they did for their daughter I'm out of room for a ramp. Looks like there are electric lifts that will work for our porch. Under $4K and shipped here in about a week. All I would need to do is rip out the steps and run power out there. Not sure what is under the steps if I would need to pour a base or not. Still would have plenty of time to get that done. Guess I better get my truck ready to sell. 🙄
Can you squeeze a ramp in with a corner?
Straight run gets long if you are shooting for 1/4" per foot.
 
I'm sure you've looked into it, though I thought I'd mention that I was offered medical transportation services when I broke my hip. Might buy you extra time while you get a ramp sorted out.
 
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