this Justin

I have nothing but good news to share tonight! Justin had been struggling with some pretty violent episodes of vomiting, not necessarily from nausea, but from feeling very full, burping, and indigestion. Of course it takes awhile for all the bowels to wake up and all his pieces parts to start working together again, so…

Just think, this time last week Justin was still in surgery. To me, the time has gone by in a blink, for him, an eternity. Today was full of goodbyes. Adios epidural, sayonara catheter, farewell right side drain. It was also a day of learning. Learning new diet regimes for his ileostomy and gastrectomy… Folks,…

Ahhh, such a good day! Although the doctor opened Justin’s eating restrictions to a “GI diet,” which is bland and low fiber foods, he took it really slow and over the course of lunch and dinner only had a couple bites of mashed potatoes and pancakes and a couple sips of a smoothie. He complained…

The good news… the doctor cleared Justin to start munching on some solid food. The bad news… his midline IV crapped out and labs will now have to be drawn separately. He took a 30 minute walk in attempt to hide from the nurse. I’m not kidding when I say needles give him anxiety! But…

Is there anything better? Overall, Justin had a good day. He has been so thirsty over the past several days he may have overdone the liquids this morning… Although his ostomy was draining well (really well, in fact), I don’t think his little half-sized stomach was quite as ready. From a dead sleep his reflux…

… clear liquids that is! Even the smile is somewhat genuine. The improvement continues. Everyday Justin’s eyes get brighter and his energy improves. He has already been up for a walk this morning, standing taller and at a pretty good pace. The next steps will be slowly introducing more nutrition, weaning him off the epidural,…

The NG tube is out! And he was allowed to slowly chew some ice, unfortunately, that wasn’t documented anywhere and night nurse revoked this sweet, sweet pleasure. Boo. Justin has taken two really great walks and been awake most of the day. He still has one walk left tonight… to fulfill his goal… I won’t…

Justin was downgraded to floor status yesterday afternoon, but with this insanely busy hospital, a room didn’t become available until nearly midnight. I think we both got better sleep with less interruptions and a touch more privacy. Justin has already gone for a long walk, just he and I, which was a treat for me.…

Justin will kill me when he finds out I posted this! But I’m so proud, how could I not? Overall Justin had a good day, that is, from my perspective. He was awake more, probably a third of the day, even got some quality HGTV time in. But sleep still dominates his desire, and of…