Less is More

Hi Friends,

Brian here. Naomi has the flu :(

The short version is, Ruth is shedding equipment quickly and it's all amazing and we hope to have her back in this area soon. (For those of you not acquainted with our area, we are about 75 minutes from the hospital, on a good day. It can be 2 hours with bad traffic.)

The very long version, if you like details:
I believe the last you heard from us, the big pelvic surgery had gone well (on Thursday) and Ruth was recovering. By Friday night she was approved for a regular diet again and her room was downgraded to regular trauma (not the Surgical ICU). Saturday was a nice, restful day and she ate well. Her excellent nurse practitioner visited her and shed a few tears about what bad shape Ruth had been in and all the remarkable progress. We talked with her again yesterday. She mentioned Ruth's rare condition from the accident, called Molle-Lavallee, which I won't describe here because it's too iccky, but any of you scientific types can look it up. It's the part that was removed and the hip sponge-vac is taking care of.

Sunday was good but not without challenges. The physical therapists started her on a machine which will get her leg/hip moving again. She's not supposed to move them on her own, but passive is okay. They have machines that do this for you and it sounds as if we will become familiar with all this. So they started her on a leg-lift device. She was to do it 3x two hours on Sunday. The first time, two hours was too much. They had to stop it. Later in the day, she completed one other therapy and skipped the third due to having guests in the room.

We had a good visit on Sunday and as I said, a good talk with the nurse-practitioner. She let us know that they were planning one more surgical inspection of the hip drainage site (for today, Monday). This time, they wanted to do it without going to the OR; in other words, Ruth would be awake with a heavy pain killer. They really want her to eat and every time she goes to the OR she has to stop eating in order to be anesthetized.

(Of course I don't want her to eat. I save five bucks every time she says, "Bri, I can't eat this ham sandwich and cookie they brought me. Do you want them?")

Today was quite a day. I walked into her room about 11:15 and my first impression was the sunshine on her bed. I thought, "How wonderful that she can have some sun!" My second impression was that something was weird because the sunlight was on the mattress. No blanket, no pillows, no Ruth ... as I walked in further, I saw that Ruth was sitting up in an easy chair. Whoa.

She was asleep. I just stared, amazed, for about five minutes. Grateful! God, thank you!

She woke up. We talked awhile; she had been fine sitting up for about an hour. She told me how the physical therapists had come and set her up. Then the pain began to increase until it was unbearable. The nurses couldn't come quickly enough. It was a horrible feeling to witness that, but be powerless to stop it. Finally they got her back in bed and the pain subsided.

Later today, she had the drainage surgery in her room, as they predicted. She had whopping pain meds for that and for the rest of the day was talking a bit loopy. (They also removed the remaining chest tube. This was very good news.) The nurse came in later to introduce Ruth to the oral blood thinner she will need to take since the intravenous one was gone. That's when I noticed that she was no longer hooked up to anything on the the pole-on-wheels (which has been her constant companion---you know those things that get wheeled everywhere with you, with the doses and readings and levels and drips and loud beeps, just when you fall asleep.) That was a real celebration. She also ate and drank really well today. So all in all, an agressive, challenging, painful, but generally encouraging day. I just need to ask the physical therapists to take it easy with the initial therapies.

We continue to be aware that it is God's response to your prayers, and his mercies to her, that have things going so well. We are also aware that it can be his plan to answer prayer with declining health or sorrow. His assignments are hard, but it is as we accept them with submission and look for joy that we glorify his goodness. In the book of Job, considered to be the oldest book in the Bible, the main character Job, after losing his children, his health and everything he had, was criticized by his wife for maintaining his faith in a good God. She scolded him, "Are you still holding onto your faith? Curse God and die." But Job replied, "... shall we accept the good things from God and not the bad?" He saw that whatever God chooses to send us, he is in the right. Lord, give us the faith of a Job!

The nurse-practitioner says they hope to have Ruth released in a week. We'll wait and see, but things look to be going in that direction. It was four weeks yesterday since the accident. Coming this way, of course, will not be back to normal---it is a long road to get there, if we ever see normal again. And we don't know if the move will be to home, for rest before she can do any active therapy, or to a rehab. But just to be closer, and no more surgeries for awhile, will be nice.

Again, your friendship and help through this is more encouraging than we can say.

We love you,

Ruth, Brian,
Naomi, Autumn, Adrian and Ben.