Jerrys pancreatectomy and islet transplant

2008-12-28T14:46:00.000-08:00

Well between Oct and Nov its been a BAD few months. Dad passed away Nov 1st, after nearly 11 months fighting the non hodgkins lymphoma. he really fought hard having radiation on a thursday then into the hospital the next day , and ended up out of the hospital the following friday. He passed away the following Saturday with my sister and I holding his hands. That part was peaceful at least. It has been nearly two months and NOW im having the bad moments. Wasnt too bad at first but as things wind down -it hits. Especially songs.

Jerry took it really hard as well. I think being ill he KNOWS the feeling and sympathized with him in a way we couldnt.

Jerry continues to monitor his bgs and takes his meds on his own with no help from me. I dont have the energy nor stamina to watch after anyone much less myself right now.

2008-10-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

Well I failed again at updating. LOL, dads cancer relapsed, he has now had CVP+R, radiation to his back , Radiation to his neck, then one dose Fludarabine, the tumors in neck grew on that dose, and now hes taking Treanda as a last chance. If this doesnt work we have to set up hospice. This Treanda is supposed to work 3-7 days.. well day three dad thinks the tumors in his neck are already shrinking! SO hopefully this will help! The radiologist said theres nothing else he can do from his side of the fight. So this hopefully will help him feel better. Jerry has been taking care of himself and the house and me while i run back and forth with dad. Thank goodness he feels better now!

2008-06-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

We have had good news! Last Tuesday, dads pet scan showed 90% of his cancer gone!!!! He has to undergo three total more chemos but he will make it thru. CROSSING EVERYTHING that it erradicates it ALL! I have been busy between work, home, jerry, dad, jr and just getting by. Work is slower but we are still eeking by. The big oak in my backyard dropped another huge branch and smacked the house again. Some how we need to get it taken down or down enough not to fall on the house and ill take the rest down myself. I had to go out and get a new chain for the saws. Jerrys been picking up the yard, and keeping up the house while ive been running and working. We keep having rains, and cant mow the yard, so hes been at least keeping the debri cleaned up (live on a corner and for some reason people feel the need to throw trash in the yard ). He is getting better control on his blood sugars. His doc made that note when we visited last wednesday. hes been doing much better over all. Again we are so thankful to have received this surgery and changed his life my life and just getting a life back!

2008-04-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

well best laid plans .... i aimed to post regularly again, but things never seem to go too smoothly. Mid January, my dad ended up in the hospital with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma and at the highest level 4. LUCKILY, this is the rapid one and one that has a 50/50 remission rate. Crossing all fingers, toes ect. Jerry is still doing well. NO PANCREATIC problems at all! we were moving along well with the diabetes as well , but his gastroparesis, seems to want to interfere. It will decide not to dump his food or suddenly to dump it and causes problems with medicating and dosing insulin. but for the most part hes trucking along.. The doctor has decided (endocrinologist) that he should eat anything he wants and just give himself enough humulog to cover it. This was the original thinking of the diabetic nurses we saw before seeing the endocrinologist. didnt like it and it made him sick trying to get in all the food they wanted him too. (he needs some weight on him). but if you eat a high carb meal, and then your stomach decides NOT to empty.. your blood sugar continues to drop and you end up needing sugar. so you have to treat yourself , then of course out of nowhere the stomach decides to dump.. now youre so high its rough getting the blood sugar down. this has been just lately. so i dont think this new eat whatever you want is going to work too well. we shall see.. but for the most part this has still ben the best thing we have ever done!

2008-02-08T01:05:00.000-08:00

WOW i have been so remiss in keeping up to date. Jerry has been doing ok. He has had several colds and now has an ear infection that causes his bgs to be whacky. I think we are finally recognizing that that is a sign to look for trouble someplace. Everything has been the same, day to day survival, getting by. Last month my dad was diagnosed with non hodgkins lymphoma and that is my persuit now, i will try to be more structured and get at least posts more often that 6 months apart! my time flies fast! and i dont recall having any fun!!! oh well we will watch for fun on the horizon! We are meeting up with another fellow TP'er on sunday in Port St Lucy(Robin from Ga) I hope jerry can make the trek ok. we shall see.

2007-08-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

Its been yet another full month! Jerrys doing well! he is much better on getting his bgs regulated. He can tell you before he checks his bg where he thinks he is and be within a few points of it! He is doing better in choosing and recognizing carbs/proteins and combinations of. W e had a tree nearly hit the house (it fell over from root) that was no fun. Jerry is fixing his plant projects around the yard as well. I almost had him do the weed eating part but didnt want his arms/shoulders to ache like mine did. Ill do it later on. I tried to get jerry to go to the beach but the sun/heat just around the house makes him feel woozey so the beach is out for now unless we rented a place ON the beach front where he could go in and out easily and often. That will NOT be happening anytime soon! I am hoping jerry will get with more activities around the yard and he continues to use the gazelle on the carport. Now that i have the tree down and my knee is better I will get back with the gym program and get him doing it as well. Just over all this has been a better month. I now look back on some of those older posts and see the frustration I had with him , it was like being frustrated with a child learning to tie shoelaces. It just takes time, coordination and effort.

2007-07-20T15:01:00.000-07:00

WOW i have been very lax in updating this! Everything has been going well. Jerry is doing his own care! I totally gave it over. He has had a few episodes of HIGH and LOW usually due to a cold or illness coming on. But other than that he continues to exercise by riding his adult trike, and puttering around the house and yard, we were checking a section of the yard for a garden but figure we had better wait until i get the gasket on the well fixed as that water is SOO good for the plants. so meanwhile we will continue to work small projects around the house and carport. So if anything of importance to note happens ill Update but other than that its been and continues to be pretty calm here.

2007-06-12T00:05:00.001-07:00

I have been sooo behind in this blog. all has been the same. I TOTALLY gave over jerrys care to HIMSELF! I quit micromanaging him and let him learn on his own. After all he has to do it. Well he fought on it, tried the passive agressive approach and the IF I KNEW you would quit DOING EVERYTHING for me .. blah blah blah.. well last week he had GREAT BG totals.. in the low 130s! tonite he had 147 for 14 day total and 141 for the 30 day average. so he needs to get a bit tighter on his watch. It has been a long drawn out battle and i think he finally figured out I am not going to do his business for him anymore. The second fight is him using his VPAP , my that makes a HUGE difference in his day! and in his intestinal issues too! SO as of today hes doing pretty good! Hey at 3am, i even caught him doing dishes.. LOL note the cabinets we started working on stripping um 2 yrs ago? i want them all to be the color of the one by his left hip.

2007-04-18T08:22:00.000-07:00

Just updating quickly, Jerry has been watching his carbs very closely since his sleepy hands incident. LOL maybe he just needed a "wake up call". I wish they could figure out why he still has so much problems with bowel movement pain- ITS NOT the lower part its up in intestines. When they move it just kills him. That is the only reason he still takes the measly 10mg of pain med 2x day. well off to work. summer is here. ITS HOT HOT HOT out already. Maybe i can get jerry to get involved with some gardening. MAYBE lol

2007-04-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

Well.. surprise.. yesterday jerry woke up and BOTH his hands were numb. ALL day he fought that feeling but mind you, he sure kept his carbs down and did his meds as required and was IN RANGE all day! hmm maybe a scare did him some good? we shall see.

Today I slept in , he had to do his own breakfast. He must have over done on the carbs because it was still high and a few minutes ago, he took 4 units of humulog and his belly ache he had all morning went a way. HMMM lets see Jerry, does that make sense to you? high bg=belly ache on top of damage its doing elsewhere, maybe all he needs is a bad run and then he will see how Important it is to keep those carbs under control!

2007-04-07T19:47:00.000-07:00

Saturday before Easter , April 7, 2007,

Jerry is still fighting the carb issues. WHY has he been so defiant lately and not watched his food right? or well enough. Easter will find him a basket of REAL eggs and carrot medallions a few green onions as background and alfalfa sprouts for grass.

He is using his Vpap more regularly. He will have to learn to take care of himself as I have my own issues to deal with. I hope he realizes the damage he can be doing to himself for later on. On the 23rd of this month we go in for our bloodwork, both of us. This will be for his A1c. Im sure the doc will then be ready to discuss pumps with him. Maybe he is going to have to go that route.

2007-03-10T20:19:00.000-08:00

Today is day 3 on diflucan and prebiotics! hes doing ok on them so far not sick or anything. Also I have gone to the store and bought whole foods and will be pre making him some meals and storing them in fridge the night before i go to work. That way he can stay within his 30 carb range per meal. My son told me he had been OVER eatting on carbs and thats why hes been having high blood sugars.. (( i could have told anyone that LOL)) i think the gastroparesis or the thrush just made him feel blah and he just didnt care to be bothered. but we have to be, since you cant just quit watching your diet because you are sick. Im going to store tomorrow and buying some seeds and some potting soil and fertilizer for jerry to start gardening - maybe a hobby he will like? we shall see he grows great pineapples!

2007-03-06T05:20:00.000-08:00

Nothing much has changed. Jerry has gotten lax in watching his carbo intake and is having high bloodsugars. We have gone to a diabetic nutritionist who asked him to write down all he ate and what his body did in reaction to his eating (shes trying to figure out his insulin sensitivity) well I wrote out his first day to show him what it would look like. He hasnt done it since. his appt with her is tomorrow morning. Im not going to say ANYTHING and see what she and he does. Jerry has had a gut ache for several weeks now. Like bad gas, but not. Richard on the TP board brought up the subject and possibility of Small bowel bacteria overgrowth, and then had me thinking, THRUSH, jerry has it bad in his mouth!!! and of course we know candida and the other bad flora can go from one end of the digestive system to the other, it can cause l eaky gut syndrome where it invades the blood system and goes all over the body making you feel ill. SO today ill call his doc and see if we can get in to see her and or get her to call in some nystatin or difluccan or flagyl something to battle this. Im hoping that SBBO or SIBO is the culprit to his ache. other than him feeling miserable and then not taking care at the moment all is the same and doing well. no pancreatic pain and IF he eats right he doesnt have to take insulin all day.

2007-02-13T17:40:00.000-08:00

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY 2007

2007-02-13T17:29:00.000-08:00

OOps ive been late posting.. jerry went to his endocrinologist on tuesday the 9th. had bad A1c return. I could have told him that.. hes eating anything he wants WHEN he wants and not on a schedule. he goes too low then over compensates and went too high. i dont know what is going on with him this past month. it was 9.0!! so now the doc wants him to keep a journal of foods then the nutritionist will point them and he will give insulin per point. dont know if it will work since jerry isnt counting carbs NOW!??? if it doesnt then he said hed put him on a pump.. doesnt that require counting too??!! well that night jerry got sick as a dog and puked tues night/ wednesday all day -thru til sunday morning.. he couldnt hold anything down. Sunday night he got some soup in. so now he can get some fluids in. sick sick sick. hes slept and even though he hasnt been eating his bgs are high! maybe hes been getting sick for somet ime? son just got over mono! ive never seen anything like that! i have been praying i do not get that mess!

2007-01-20T01:09:00.000-08:00

Link to the TP/ICT board http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/TotalPancreatectomy/?yguid=35188977

2007-01-02T08:19:00.000-08:00

we went to the pulmonary doctors office..hour away .. we got there an hour before the appointment. upon signing in, the receptionist told us they had changed our appointment for 3 hrs later that day. but they couldnt reach us on the home phone number. now the receptionist went back to see if the doc could squeeze us in, no dice... now wait... our internist doc made the appointment for us, and the doctor IS IN, so why the change? they gave the appointment to someone else! probably a regular and here we were new patient. well i asked for my check back and we left. We will NOT be using that office! So upon finding another pulmonologist in OUR area, (mom goes to this particular doctor as well) HE cant be seen until end of march! oh well we will just get by as long as we can then. I know jerrys reg doc will be ticked at the "professionalism" of the other doc she referred us to. so far jerry is doing well with his vpap. he wakes right up with no probs in the AM! and hes more rested because he doesnt snooze thru the day now. Jerrys parents are visiting so now maybe they will get him off his butt. son needs his truck worked on.. i smell a hobby forhim!

2006-12-26T15:21:00.000-08:00

Today Jerry is on 10mg of pain killer 2x day where as before it was 15mg so hes gone down 10mg a day! Tomorrow Jerry sees the Pulmonologist for the first time. Her office is behind Jerrys internists office! Im glad they are both close together and so we wont have to be explaining everything with out back up!

2006-12-24T20:06:00.000-08:00

On Friday, 22cd. one company brought jerrys Resmed machine in. find out later that they dont take Cigna. how they got called i dont know but thats ok.. turns out Cigna cant get a machine until after holidays.. sooooooooooo guess we pay the 110 out of pocket for the month until we can get another machine. meanwhile i have to call his doc and get them to order it thru another company apria i think is how its spelled. then it will be totally covered between medicare and cigna. SO goes the insurance game LOL

2006-12-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (monday) jerry had to go for yet another sleep study, the cpap wasnt enough so he needed a newer technology they said. this one learns your breathing pattern and works with you. Resmed vpap adapt SV. Today they called said they hope to have the machine by thursday. will come out on fri. Hopefully we can get it and get him some good sleep.

2006-12-13T20:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we received a call from jerrys reg. internist. she has referred him over to a pulmonary doctor for his sleep apnea, so dec 27th is his appt with the new doc. Luckily her office is right behind the reg doctors office so its all kept close to the hospital and together. Im hoping we can get his breathing machine and all done soon so we can see how much better he is when he can actually get a good nights sleep!

2006-12-05T19:57:00.000-08:00

THESE PICTURES ARE PRIOR TO HIS SURGERY. I FOUND THEM ON THE COMPUTER.

THESE PHOTOS SHOW HOW JERRYS BELLY WAS SWOLLEN AND THE PICS OF HIM LAYING DOWN ARE HIM IN HIS SICK BED. HE MOSTLY STAYED IN HIS "BED" THE COUCH, UNLESS HE GOT UP TO GO TO THE RR OR TO TRY TO EAT. I CANT WAIT TO GET PICS OF HIM NOW ON HERE!

2006-12-05T19:54:00.000-08:00

THIS IS THE JERRY I MARRIED. BEFORE HE BECAME SICK.

ill try to post the other pics I can find on here as well so you can see how he looked when sick.

2006-12-04T19:33:00.000-08:00

IT is ONE YEAR and 2 days past Jerrys surgery. We no longer have nights AND days of him laying around on couch/floor crying out in pain and misery! His only ritual WAS to try to go to the rr and to TRY to eat. (recall he ate simple sugars and tons of it!)He was completely housebound.he couldnt go out and it would be a fight to get him out into the car to go to the doctors. I mean literally id have to threaten to drag him out of the tub naked to the car!!! the whole time he would be cursing me for being callous and not knowing how much pain he was in!

TODAY Jerry sleeps full nights, Rides his "trike" adult bike, goes to stores, does dishes, cooks meals, (( now granted like most men i have to pull teeth to get him to do it, but hes NOW ABLE!)) goes off to stores and other places with his friends who have started coming back around. ((funny how they disappear when you are ill?))BUT i know they were tired of hearing our every moment tirade of what was going on! we totally understand! But now jerry is like a whole different person. He is now able to eat proteins. HECK he demolished the turkey and my gf made 2 hams and gave us one and he totally finished it too! He can actually start to "feel" his blood sugars now, Kathleen told us hed start learning the way they felt, when high or low. sometimes he can guess them with in ten points!
we have recently found out he has horrible sleep apnea, although we havent gotten his machine yet, i cant wait for him to have TRUELY restful sleeps! Im sure it will even improve his days even more! I cant explain how horrible his life was prior to the TP/ICT. he lived and wished to have cancer so he could end his misery~! now he cant wait to finish the last 15mg of pain meds so he can be totally off them! What a difference in his life. In our lives! As he learns more and more about his diabetes and foods, i can only forsee him getting even better~!

i wanted to put a pic on here but at this very moment he has a flu bug. I think when he went to the local quickie store he caught it. He remembers a guy in line ahead of him coughing a lung out. im like YIKES! i would have ran the other way! AS soon as i can though, ill put a pic on here when i catch him riding his trike! ALL i need now is that bright orange or red flag on the end of that 5foot fiberlass rod that stands up off back of bikes we had as kids!

2006-11-27T13:45:00.000-08:00

Jerry got called today from hospital they want him back up tues night for a repeat with the Cpap machine, turns out he DOES have sleep apnea. SO off we go again. wednesday morning they said they will call the insurance company for the home health to come out and set up a machine for him to use. They wouldve liked jerry to go tonite but he balked at it and said no can we do another.. ugh just get it over with come on LOL.. well ill be up at 4am wednesday to go get him,hopefully this will help him out alot!

2006-11-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

Well on Monday the 20th, jerry went to have his sleep study done. He made it thru with no issues. Now we will await the doctors answers when we go back to see her. in a few weeks. Hopefully it will shed some light on why jerry is always sooooo tired. I am hoping that if it is sleep apnea, that he can get something that will help him get a good sleep so he wont be napping all day and sleep thru his meals which make him have the severe lows that he has to rush to try to bring up -which is where he over does it and then ends up way high, due to fear of not having enough. its like a bad see saw. He has like brain fog too, where he just doesnt get what we are saying at times.. im like what is wrong with you? youre not stupid! and that is exactly what his doctor said to him at our last visit on the 16th! we cant figure out what the issue is so we can attack it and get him straight. it is all diet related right now.. HE is PAIN FREE from Pancreatic pain. he does have the gastroparesis where he hurts if he has a bowel movement but it goes away and hes pain free the rest of the day or until the next time he needs the RR. The doc thinks maybe he has depression too, and told him to double up his paxil but he and i both are scared of that. So he said he wants to see what his sleep study test says first. then we will see if he ups that paxil. I know if we can just get him to not sleep all day, he could be perfect! if i am home all day and make the meals and put them out for him, he is perfect all day! but i dont have time to do that EVERY DAY. and if i pre make it , he says its not what he "wanted". well boo hooo sometimes we just have to eat whats there. whether or not we "want" that particular meal or not that day. oh well im anxious to see test results and if or if not that it is contributing to his lethargy and scrambled thoughts.

2006-11-16T15:47:00.000-08:00

we went to the doctor today. Jerry started the day at 139.. in doctors office he was 42. so he had a rough start. The glucowatch wasnt an issue,she wasnt really hyped about it so we dropped it for now and will discuss with the endocrinologist. but the doctor believes jerry might be suffering from depression. she doubled his paxil! from 30mg to 60mg. I am not so sure about this. She also was on board about the sleep apnea and ordered a sleep study. so we will await the appt to be made. Researching sleep apnea , different things can be affected by it such as pain, blood glucose, can be from diseases of the central nervous system. it can cause high blood pressure, daytime drowsiness, morning headaches, personality changes heart failure/enlargement and snoring. I am hoping that they can fit him with a Cpap that will allow him to get a good rest. I know now ((HIND SIGHT)) all those times I was watching him make faces in his sleep he was having issues! and then the ER visit , he kept setting off the telemtry with holding his breath in his sleep.

2006-11-07T00:51:00.000-08:00

Last night jerry gave us all a good scare. including himself. hes cried off and on all day today. This has really upset him. i would think so! well he took insulin and didnt eat carbs only some protein and caused himself to go so low he woke me up with thrashing and kicking the bed, i finally got tired of telling him to stop and turned the light on when he wasnt answering me anymore but kept hitting the bed, well he was having convulsions/siezures which ever it is. anyhow we had to dial 911 and get him checked out. CLOSE CALL!! the nurse told him he was very lucky he had the siezures because most people just lay down to sleep and never wake up. SCARY SCARY! i slept in late today and now cant sleep tonite Figures.. ill be beat tomorrow! oh well guess ill go cook some hamburgers for he and son for tomorrow. also made chayote squash with apple pie spices smells devine tastes like applesauce!! i made it chunky i could have processed it longer and smoother. Next time we will try that. SO WORD UP TO ALL WHO READ THIS and are diabetic.. PLEASE check your sugars before bed and make sure you eat a balance to sustain you thru the night!!

2006-10-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

Just noting, jerrys bloodsugars are still doing well. He has been nauseated these past two days to the point of puking and laying in bed. Nothing wants to stay down. I am hoping he hasnt picked up that nasty flu bug from someplace. Im taking extra vitamins and told him he needs to do the same, when he can get food to stay down. Other than this mystery nausea/puke fest, alls well and the same.. if we can figure whats going on ill definately note it.

2006-10-10T00:07:00.000-07:00

Ok. we went to endocrinologist today. His A1c came back at 8.3.. okay that is .3% over the moderate control.. but recall his FIRST A1c (last one) was 9.5! hes getting better at counting carbs and has recently figured out how to go to bed with the right level and wake up in 90s!! he has had NO COMPLICATIONS AND PROBLEMS FROM SURGERY!! whoo hoo.. and his only probs as we recall were from him NOT monitoring his Carb intake properly.. well hes starting to match up the carbs/proteins ect now. ALL his bloodwork was phenomenal according to his doc! HE came in slapping jerry on the back and shaking his hand telling him what a great report he had and that he was surprised to see such a turn around! so we have started our 11th month post op and i guess hes figuring his body out finally! He rides his "trike" and is doing more for himself every day. I was so glad to see these docs as they are seeing his progress! I guess i just wanted it all well NOW and didnt want to have to wait for him to learn and grow with himself and im not very patient obviously. LOL.

2006-09-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

Today Jerry saw his internist she was thrilled with his average bgs! this month he was 142 and soooo much better than before. now last monday we went to the Endocrinologist office for his A1c bloodwork and will be seeing him on Oct 9th. Also the internist said since holidays are coming and stress and pain both elevate bgs, she will keep him at 3 pills per day for next two months (used to be ten per day before surgery) but jerry said if he feels good he will reduce them anyhow. I HOPE SO~ and i hope he continues to get control of his bgs and can continue doing well! Im thrilled with him this month. well medically. he can be a pna sometimes HEHE.. guess we all can!

2006-09-24T00:16:00.000-07:00

WEll its been nearly a month and its all same old same old. still hanging in there. Jerry goes Monday for bloodwork (A1c) then wed to reg doc and then back to Endocrinologist next week for results of A1c. LISA FINALLY GOT HER TP/ICT done yesterday HALLELUJAH!! her blog is awesome her hub is doing such a super job! pictures or places and people I never thought of even getting pics of to help other people identify where they will be! KADUS to you Micheal! heres link to Lisas blog, as im not sure how to link our pages yet. http://mypancreatitisjourney.blogspot.com/ ill be posting jerrys results on his tests as soon as we find out what is up. im sure his A1c will be wrong as he is still trying to figure out the carb deal and I have refused to help him count them out ect. He must learn this himself.

2006-08-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

Hello all again, Jerry did something funky somehow he has misdosed or lost some of his pills. I went to fill them for him and VIOLA' cannot pick up until the 8th. well guess who is down to less than a pill a day for that time limit! well i guess he INVOLUNTARILY gets bumped down or at the end OFF his last doses of narcotics. Ok, I must confess i will be soooo glad to be rid of them! then he can start to FEEL HIMSELRF finally and know its all him, so what ever pain/or illness he feels will be him not withdrawls. We scraped by and the "hurricane that was-Ernesto" passed us by the first time. hopefully it wont go out to sea and return as charlie did. was it charley? or one of the other 3? they all blend together over time. oh well. Guess ill learn to stucco with cement seeing as insurance companies have asked to up their costs YET again. pretty soon we wont be able to afford insurance! So i better start reinforcing the walls and roof!

2006-08-22T05:00:00.001-07:00

another update, Jerry is still doing well! he actually forgot to take his lantus one day and still stayed decently level. he did have to take some humulog twice but i was very shocked that he made thru the day with out the lantus in the background working. So far so good. Hope I didnt jinx us~ lol We have another storm out in the atlantic to watch, says by wed. we should know if it will become a bigger threat. Hope not. Those four we had hit us were quite enough for a while.

2006-08-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

Wanted to post, jerry has had his best week ever. He has had a few highs maybe once a day. He has done much better. Glad hes making progress!

2006-07-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

Today Jerry had follow up with his Internist. He was dehydrated and has been having some probs with lethargy and nausea. She suggested he try his levsin again and see if 1, it helps with nausea, 2, it helps with him getting a good rest (as it will sedate him somewhat). I hope it helps for 3 days now its like i have to pick him up and move him over LOL. not that bad just hes like a lump. not his usual self. but we will see if the levsin helps him some.

2006-07-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

Jerry made a friend! and the cabin we stayed at.

2006-07-18T05:39:00.000-07:00

Heres a pic of jerry enjoying himself. LOL

2006-07-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

Went on a vacation FINALLY! up to a cabin in Hiawassee GA. Jerry did great on his diabetes. he walked all of ruby falls and rock city on lookout mountain all in the same day! he needs more exercise like that! now that i know he can do that haha he will be hard pressed to find me letting him sit around! theres things to do places to go. WORK to be done around the house. We had a few surprises while up there, first the hill was soooo steep to get to cabin the van almost didnt make it. Then cell phones dont work up there so we were cut off, since we didnt have the number to the cabin prior to going. we did get online briefly via long distance to send a note to family and get phone number out.. GOOD thing too because our son ended up being hit from behind by a car going 70mph! turns out a creep with suspended liscense was driving a stolen car! ambulance took them to hosp before cops could get to scene and the perp disappeared from hospital! go figure! oh i also got to drive in horrible fog so bad that you can only see 3-4 yellow dashes in front of you on road and thats it! everything else was fog! in the mountains on those switchback roads talk about sweating! then we got home late and had to do the steep twist and turn up to the cabin. Ill never forget that! wish i could get a pic that would show how steep that hill was! scary. well we are home son is safe and life moves on... will post again when i can. here are two pics, one of a friend jerry made at the cabin and him on the top porch.

2006-06-26T06:12:00.001-07:00

quick post, jerry went to endocrinologist today, figured a change in insulin might help. so he will continue ONE shot of lantus in the AM and if needed a sliding of Humulog in place of humulin R .. turns out the humulinR for him is working like a long acting too, instead of quickly. We will watch and see if it makes a difference. Also found out jerrys feeling full and backed up to the chin might be from gas produced by the carbs sitting in his stomach. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
the swelling of his feet!!! its from NOT ENOUGH PROTEIN!!! so he did get after MR JERRY for loving those carbs (oatmeal and grits!!) lol. so we will see how jerry reacts and if his actions show improvement.

2006-06-20T16:29:00.000-07:00

Today is 20th, Jerry is down to 25mg of Methadone (started at 100mg). He is doing really good. He is still having problems keeping bloodsugar in range. His gastroparesis flares up and he either cant eat when hes supposed to or eats when hes not because hes hungry. Kind of a toss up. i did get a note in mail about an insulin pump supposedly you can eat or not eat and still keep levels good?? we will have to discuss that one with doc! Just wanted to update the drop in meds! hes coming along well!

2006-06-07T21:47:00.000-07:00

Update, Im so behind, but just to let all know, jerrys managing himself decently. He is having probs with watching his carbs adequately. His doctor did reduce his meds. so hes had a stomach ache for a few days now, withdrawls im sure. He says he will be so glad when this is over . HA! he and I both LOL one less med to buy! unfortunately its the cheapest one! We are preparing for our first trip NOT To a doctors LOL! no i take that back we went with my family to a family renunion one year! so second trip! a mountain cabin in Georgia! hopefully we will have him in better spirits! I think he will like it and can walk all he wants! We just got back from my gf moms funeral and hes been sleeping off the ride. Still no pain hallelujah! so that part was success!!!!!!!

2006-05-24T16:18:00.000-07:00

Time to keep up.. Blood glucose doing ok and im not doing any of it. he did have a bad weekend but he KNEW what he did and corrected it. I went off for a weekend and he had a blast! lol so back on strict again. He is doing pretty well by himself and will have to keep it up, because the nurse is OUT lol. on vacation. on leave. Now if I can only interest him in things to do OUTSIDE so I can get him back being a bit more active. pain issues are simply from his gastroparesis (only when he has to have a bowel movement) other than that we are NOT missing MR P!!!

2006-05-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

Jerry had a doc appointment on the 8th, He has had a perpetual belly ache, just enough to be bothersome. The doc put him back on his erythromiacin therapy, 1/8th teaspoon before meals, and to use RR. The first day he said it helped but hes back to the same ache. its like a tooth ache in your belly. sooooooooo we wonder what this is, i ask when sugars are HIGH and Low , the same ache. We will have to watch and see what happens he hasnt had any scans or tests (other than some blood for the diabetes part). Maybe its the reduction in pain meds? but as far as all the panc pain still gone, and hes getting better at his bloodsugar monitoring and did have another low episode thursday night. but we took care of that quickly too. My gf told us to keep frozen OJ concentrate in freezer and to spoon it out to him if he pulls a low and it worked really well!

2006-04-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

As of today jerry has had a few days that he almost made it the whole day in his target range. He is getting better, but still wont write down what he eats. Lets hope that he can come around on that too! But as for the day to day, he still has his ups and downs, mainly because he wont write down and log what hes eating, he eats between times hes supposed to eat and no matter how much i point it out he still does what he wants. Irritates me. but HE has to do for himself! Don and Sam are now out of the hospital!! yeah!

2006-04-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

I came home from work on friday around 5 i think or maybe i left earlier. Jerry had kept his blood sugars in the 90s all day!! i was sooo pleased!! now if he can only do that for more days!! well last night at 12:55,before bed, he was 316, i stepped out to do something.. realized he just said something that registered with my brain about insulin.. im like NOOOOOOO came running out and it was too late he had taken his 9units of humulin.. im like crud crud .. that was perfect to go to bed on he would have woke up in range! well needless to say we played murder..at 2am he was 86, then 40min later 44. then at 330 we got him up to 100, after numerous juices, glucose gel, glucoburst,several bd tablets, two packets oatmeal, cheese, then 30 min later he was 55 !! tehn 56 , 71, 67,74, then at 6am he was 79 and i crashed, went to bed, i see at 8am he was still 79 then 11 he got to 148 ! i got up and at noon hes 276 now 2pm 385! this is nutty. well he never went to sleep so im sure he is going to crash too, so ill have to be up to make sure to wake him. what a bizarre start to the weekend.

I hope Don and Renee' had a better one! same for Sam T. hope this was a good weekend for her!

2006-04-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

Today I came home from work and Jerry has kept his blood sugars with in range all day!!! so far so good!! im so glad! now lets see if he can do two days in a row! still cant figure out why we have to put him up in 300s to get him at a decent level when he wakes up in the morning. but that will come around too! I think about Don and Sam all day, I hope they are doing well!! Mainly we are doing day to day same ol same ol just juggling foods to figure out how to get jerry thru the day right!

2006-04-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 7th, Sam T had her surgery too! same place same doc! lol.. well i have found out shes shes up and walking already! GOOD FOR HER!! she might beat jerrys 11 day stay !! I hope so! i hope shes outta there quick! and on the way to her reclaiming her life!

2006-04-03T00:30:00.000-07:00

Today is my 39th bday. Don is getting ready for his surgery. I just wanted to post, I have finally calmed down from the surprise awakening on wednesday morning! lol. BOY not knowing what to do in that type of situation, #1 i should have just dialed 911! I now know we will do all we can to prevent that happening again, but knowing we are not perfect and eventually it will happen again we are prepared. It really was scary for me though, I have never seen anything like that EVER! my gf is like no biggie celeste, just next time dont freak, dial 911 and go with it let those who KNOW What they are doing handle it. AMEN i sure will!!

2006-03-29T08:59:00.000-08:00

hes at 137 finally. so the gastroparesis is a factor too. we found out the problem. last night he had the one egg sandwich and it wasnt enough carbs to bring him up to where he needed to be and then to hold him over night. i went back thru his glucometer, he was 40 then 87. so 87 before bed, but not enough to get him thru overnight. so i guess he either needs to be higher and a good meal before bed or just make sure he gets the good meal before bedtime. we will have to watch and see. hes finally resting easy, and im beat! goign to crawl in bed now.

2006-03-29T04:22:00.000-08:00

I forgot part of it.. too. his ears bothered him..........

oh and while he is on the floor and im making tea, i peeked around and hes got one hand covering one ear, and the other hand pullin his other ear out like hes trying to hear something.. im like what are you doing???????? hes like huh?and sucks on/in his cheeks (recall he has no teeth, had to have them pulled due to all thepuking hes done from panc issues) i think he looks like a monkey at this point.. im like what are you doing??!!! my ears he says.. im like they hurt? yes he said .. WELL quit PULLING on it dummy!! OH, he puts both hands over both ears and rolls over.. i went in to finish making tea and wiping counters. ugh and of course i sit here typing hes asleep on floor behind me.. GEEZZZ WHOS GETTING THE REST?? laughable enough to cry!

2006-03-29T04:00:00.000-08:00

Well this morning was a heck of a morning already. LOW BLOODSUGAR IS NOT PRETTY!
This is what happened:

I came home from work yesterday and shortly was in bed. i slept on and off all eve and woke up at 1am went back to bed around 140.. well jerry said his bloodsugar was in low 40s. so hewas going to have a packet of oatmeal (28carbs)and a fried egg sandwich. im thinking ok, that would work to bring up his sugar, and also get his reg carb in. okay. so i roll over and went to sleep. well i woke up at 530ish, hes talking REALLY LOUD and off the wall im like oh crap, jump out of bed, hes wobbling down the hall flops on the floor and is crawling.. im like wtheck is going on..im telling him to stop sit. hes babbling stuff that isnt even coherent to be words im like crap crap crap.. i got his bg check , 34. crap.. so i get a glucose gel out and cannot get him to take it. like a baby shaking head side to side wont let you get it in.. i go get my son up.. hes like dang it my first day off work and we have to do this?? im like hey.. i need help scream later.. so im trying to get the glucose in , i need to go rr, son sit with him, i now feel human , can focus and im coaxing like youd do a baby, finally get him to open up and i squeeze 1/3 tube in, he holds it in his mouth.. ughhhhhhh wont swallow.. im like dang ittttttt. well wait. its sugar its going to melt LOL! he will have to swallow. yeah half swallow half drool!!!! well eventually i got that down and another 1/3! thinking OK now in a few he will start being better.the orange cat goes by he points at him. WHOAAAAAAAAAA wait the race is onnnnnnnn he gets up , his legs wobbly under him and then tries to sprint after the cat, he bounces off two walls trying to get down the hall, hes getting lower as he goes, legs giving out,( now this is a short skinny legged man his drawers bagging around him)(i have to admit it was comical if iwasnt so mad!) he flops sideways onto the air mattress at the foot of my bed, tries to cover up.. im like OH NO YOU DONT!! ill let the air out!! ((we had the mattress from son-i hadnt let air out yet THANKFULLY!!)) ( now i might not at all!!)) anyhow i bugged him enough hes up and at it again, right to the living room and onto his knees in front of couch then onto his back on floor, hes still babbling all this time incoherently, son had the Oj/pineapple juice for him that i had tried to get him to drink, well i checked his bg level again, its been like 20 min.. it went up ONE STINKIN POINT!! 35! im like no way!!!well son squatted down by him and coaxed him into drinking the drink thru a straw, boy was jerry was out of it.. sons laughing.. (stress) im like ok.. that should help alot (39 carbs in that drink) well finally i go in kitchen, son went to his bed, and we left jerry laying on the living room floor rolled up in his robe where he wanted to lay, he wouldnt get up on couch. i made some tea, wiped the counters, kept looking in seeing if he looked diff. i checked his bg it was 57. ahhhhhhhh much better.. coming up.. i tried to get him to do another drink, at least now he responds and is coherent, hes like if i drink this im going to be sick.. so he took a bd glucose tablet. so i sat here to type, going to check him now....87!!!!!!!!!!!! now do i dare go to bed?!!!!!! think ill wait a bit make sure he eats some breakfast THAT I FIX HIM, make sure he EATS IT! then ill crash from the adrenaline rush.. now all that ""Rest"" i got yesterday feels like i didnt get any!!!!!! i just asked him if he remembers what he did this morn? hes like no what.. i told him his son will brief him later.This was bull. had he eaten right last night before bed.. HAD I STAYED UP to make sure.. oh well he came reallllllllly close to waking up in the HOSPITAL today! the droooling was just about the breaking point for me. SOOOOOOOOOO THE LESSON?? DONT LET YOUR BLOODSUGAR GET LOW IF POSSIBLE!! i knew it would happen accidentally a few times until we learned how to make it work right for his body, but i wasnt prepared to be awakened like that!!! the other time i walked in from work to find him OUT of it asleep was one thing, but waking up and being slapped with it up like that was a kick in the pants!

2006-03-23T09:07:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note, Jerry has already dropped another pill, ten mg, so now hes taking 80mg per day in place of the 100mg. we will stand on that awhile and see how he can do. by our next visit then we MIGHT think of dropping another we will see. hes doing ok on his blood sugars, he sometimes makes me wonder if they did a lobotomy on him LMAO he will ask me some of the most bizarre things, such as he will eat and THEN take his sugar and THEN be like i take insulin right?? im lIKE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO after 2 hrs.. sheezzzzzzzz hes like oh yeah right.. ughhhh sometimes i think hes testing me to see if ill baby him and take back over.. well NO WAY JOSE!! your body your responsibility!

2006-03-16T15:44:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the doctors again, jerrys internist, she started his knockdown. He is to take 90mg methadone per day instead of 100mg. SO it begins!

2006-03-13T18:30:00.000-08:00

another pic of jerry holding a pillow to him, in case he needed to cough.

2006-03-13T18:10:00.000-08:00

Found a picture of Kathleen visiting Jerry right after surgery! she came down and pushed her pole along to see how he was~!! IT was great having someone there who KNEW how he was feeling, and could encourage him to hang in there!!

2006-03-13T08:19:00.000-08:00

Here is a pic of Jerry having his staples out. I found a few more pics on the computer here LOL.

2006-03-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

Just a thought and observation.

We went into this surgery, miserable and with no future to forsee if we didnt do this. He was going to continue to go down hill as more systems were disrupted in his body due to a MAD Mr P!(pancreas). Knowing that the surgery was the first half of the battle, knowing that we would have recoup times and learning lessons to adjust to.

Its just so hard to have been thru the surgery, Seeing the MAJOR difference in Jerry pain wise (none!!) and the gastroparesis reversed, its hard to not want to be WELL RIGHT NOW!! He is learning his body, and just like any new task you learn, it takes trial and error to accomplish. Lordy knows, im still a hazzard on a bike! im dangerous not only to myself but anyone around me! So the task is for Jerry, ups and downs, learning how certain foods affect him and how to use that aquired knowledge to his benefit. Also hes learned that exercise helps him feel much better if his sugars are elevated, but that he still must watch blood glucose level so it doesnt go to low.

Also we learned that we should have made an appointment with a diabetic nutritionist SOONER before we got home so we could have some guidance right now. It helps. FLORIDA IS HORRID for health care, and we had to go thru 2 dieticians to find one who seemed to click with Jerry. I already had the endocrinologist picked out.

I think as SCARED of the surgery as we were, THAT wasnt the scary part LOL. The SCARY part is the waiting time to be well. how odd is that. not scary but impatient. THAT IS THE HARDEST PART! I cant tell anyone what a difference this has made in Jerry! he is up and about, going outside and riding his TRIKE! he hasnt had a LIFE , even limited as this is until hes better, in almost 14 years!! This was a blessing and we should have taken the call 5 years prior. But that old paralyzing fear, had us in its claws!

Just seeing that pancreatitis has a course. IT is ALWAYS DOWNHILL!! times may vary between people, different complications may develope but the end is always the same. Uncontrolled pain, neuropathies and brittle diabetes.

So why was having this surgery so scary? the worst pancreatic outcome could have been, hes brittle, and in pain. That is no different than where he would be anyhow.

THE upside, chances could be he could have REDUCED pain, NO pain, and or be a mild diabetic or NO diabetes!

As it turned out, we are thrilled to report... Jerry is PAIN FREE (wonderous miracle), diabetic and on insulin..( BIG DEAL!!) IT is a TRADE OFF of wonders we could only have hoped for! well im getting long winded and need to get some sleep. I re read these posts and Laugh (big snows...to US it was! LOL im sure the natives thought it was nothing!) and to see Jerry and see how fast he progressed just astounds me!

2006-03-06T07:26:00.000-08:00

We are just now home from the Endocrinologist. Jerry just had his bloodwork returned. alls well but hes not producing alot of insulin for himself. the doc did say that it was kind of early to be tested but we did anyhow, 2 mo after surgery, but we thought they might or do start working immediately. oh well we will wait and see we go back to the endocrinologist in 3 months.

Here is the run down of what was done..

His C peptide.. was 0.5 bilirubin(ast, Alt)are also high, usually the ALP is coming from the liver. If calcium and phosphatate measurements are abnormal, usually the ALP is coming from bone.

his thyroid, all kidney functions rest of bloodwork the complete panel all beautiful-dead center on them all!!!

now his A1c (measures glucose control over the 3 month period) was 7.8 --- recall he had test done at 2 months.. so thats actually good according to doc.
norm values are: 4.1 to 6.1
good control 6.2 to 7.0
moderate control 7.1 to 8.0
poor >8

So all in all doc was very impressed and encouraged and encouraging~! we wont have to return for 3 mos. then we will have more bloodwork then 2wks later another visit to see the results. So far so good!

oopps i just found other page.. damn.. LOL

white celll count.. 11.8 H.. norm 4.1-10. (not too over)
MCH 25.6 L (norm 26-32)
(mean cell(corpustle) hemoglobin-)"MCH") Often the MCV and MCH/MCHC values begin to fall before the actual anemia begins to develop; these changes represent the body's final attempts to continue producing red blood cells without an adequate supply of iron.
(but hes barely under so im not fretting this)

platelets 578 H (norm 140-440) again not too high over?
gran 8.4 H (norm 2.0-7.8) again just over...
(grans are granulocytes..
Granulocytes are white blood cells packed with tiny sacs of chemicals (granules). Granulocytic chemicals play a role in:
Destroying Microorganisms
Activating the Inflammatory Response, characterized by swelling, redness, warmth, and pain)

2006-03-03T21:41:00.000-08:00

Well things have settled down nicely, hes healed up from that wound (infection area). I still cant believe that happened. Reducing his lantus to 30 per morning has cleared up the early morning wake ups at 50! lol now hes in the 80s-90s in the mornings. He is doing great thru the daytimes as well. we did have a set back yesterday, we all slept in late and it was NOON when we finally did get up.. WHEW talk about tired people. well needless to say jerry was way low, then he drank two orange juices, and then ate lunch (breakfast) LOL, then turned around and ate an oatmeal, oops put him up in 250s. So he played fun that day getting it down and regulating it. He did do it though. so good for him. He is taking more and more active role in his own health now.. FINALLY!!!!!! (mommie was getting tired) (not to mention Cranky as all get out)! I reinjured this blasted knee again somehow. So he will have to do for himself! He is making better food choices and monitoring himself and Writing things down now, although not as much as he should.. but somethings written down are better than NONE. but instead of harrassing him about not putting everything he eats down on it, i just keep telling him how great it is for what hes doing and gee surprise, he flourishes under praise where the harrassment made him balk and resist .. duh me. I think i was just too frustrated. He finished the last of his antibiotics today, so our revisit is in 2 1/2 weeks to doc for check up. I guess ill p ost now, as occurances happen, as things SEEMMMMMM to be coming around. i guess maybe that infection had been what was messing with his blood sugars all along!!! Making us all nuts not being able to figure out why one thing would make it high yet drop him low another time. I will post again when something of interest occurs.. for now its same ol same ol, NO PAINS!!!!!! and his gastroparesis pain is sooo much less too! so bonus again!

2006-02-23T06:25:00.000-08:00

Well the past week has consisted of playing russian roulette with sharts and, trying to figure out how to keep jerrys bloodsugar up overnight.

i was worried we would have a prob today.. but it worked out ok.. they stuck him like 8 times, finally once in the WRIST! and side of hand with a butterfly before they finally got some blood. what an ordeal that was thank goodness he doesnt mind needles at all i guess all the years as a pin cushion, you get used to it.. well we went back out to van and did insulin and he got a dose of OJ and 2 bites of pbj sandwich, went back in to dietician appt. She still believes that since jerry can go to bed with a bg level of 333 and still wake up 8hrs later at 50, that the lantus maybe too high for him too. so since he hasnt had to take any of the other humulinR in a few days, shes telling us to back off the lantus too, try 35 then 30 units instead of the 40units and to call her next tues with update. we are back home and im going to pass out, i stayed up all night to make sure he didnt get up , forgetting that he had fasting bloodwork to do and eat. LOL. anyhow.. im off for zzzzzzzzzzzzz's!! gonna feel soooooooo good to lie in that bed!!

2006-02-17T19:13:00.000-08:00

HORRID NOTE::: thursday we got home from dieticians office and my phone rings... its jerrys doctors nurse from other city, shes rushing and panicky, telling me to quick give her the number to the pharmacy and for me to IMMEDIATELY get to pharmacy and start jerry on this antibiotic. IM LIKE ummmm when we saw doc ten days ago.. he was put on augmentin, last pill this morning, shes like NO NO NO.. go to pharmacy and get this doxycycline im like OK??? but why? the culture of his wound they took turns out to be MRSA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMGGGGGGG did the chair tilt or my world?? MERSA!! no wayyyyyy .. thats from HOSPITAL!!!!!!!! yes she said most likely since he was a surgical patient.. YIKESSSSSSSSSS omg.. so we are like cloroxing everything. anywhere he goes i clorox! hes restricted from MY ROOM. and just omg.. i feel like glove and gowning when i walk im my front door.. i guess the only good thing is from before(ten days ago) the wound is totally healed, no redness ect.. this new antibiotic is 15 days. I found a NAVY report online that tells of using doxycycline for MRSA, and afriend that i do her hair, told me to do as i am doing and to bleach the tub after him! uh yeah!!!!!! gives me the heebies..im bleaching everything! lol told jerry dont wear any clothing he didnt want bleach in!

2006-02-17T19:07:00.000-08:00

thursday we saw jerrys endocrinologists dietician. She said jerry isnt eatting enough "free foods" and must limit carbs to 30 per meal (3 meals) and 15 per snack (3 snacks) but all the protein he can handle.. she is an older lady and very nice. I think jerry got along with her very well. We go back on thurs morning for a fasting bloodwork, and we will also see her that day too. Shes checking on him! yeah!! she thinks his reg. insulin isnt right and that he needs a faster acting one available. So first a steady diet then the insulin. she will review and modify/explain his diet journal, where he needs help or is doing great . So much better this time around~ CROSSING FINGERS!!

2006-02-13T19:35:00.000-08:00

I seem to find jerry yanking me back and forth. TODAY I woke up at 1040, yelled hey jerry take your meds, do your bsugar. well from that point until 1 something i continued the chant before it dawned on me HEY SHUT UP. i got up to take a pill, had still a good 8oz or more water in my cup as i walked by him to go to my room, the water found itself coating him. Needless to say he got up then. I simply dressed and left for the day. I came home around 730 and he was up and watching tv. so he mustve done what he needed to , or not. There was nothing written on his papers, just the first bloodsugar level. that was all. so he will have nothing to show the nutritionist, i guess what ticks me is -damn its embarrassing to sit there and have someone think what an idiot when hes not! and worse yet--IM married to it!! 20years !! where is this thinking coming from?? when do i care what others think? HE irks me that all these years i have stayed up around the clock doing research, suffering being soo tired at work, LITERALLY holding my head up with one hand while scouring the most innate websites, JUST in case something was there i could use to help jerry. YEARSSSSS i did this. NOT that i begrude him it, because he COULDNT do for himself . he was too sick to sit here, but that he throws it back in my face, as being worthless and countless, by not picking up the reins and taking care of himself from this point on is a blow and shows me he couldnt give a crap for what i went thru. The years of sitting beside a hospital bed in an upright chair(up to 12 days at a time) (i might have eaten a snack ONCE a day, and if a Friend hadnt brought me meals ONE stay i wouldnt have eaten at all! ), fighting doctors, my legs swelling my back aching (i even had to sleep on the floor at the door once )and still juggling bills and missing work making all of it harder he just cant seem to give it any value by using it to better himself, just ticks me off.. guess im whining. woe is me.. all my sacrificing for what?? more grief? i guess im brooding and being selfish, that i would actually expect him to take care of himself. sheez. maybe i need my head checked !!

2006-02-12T08:46:00.000-08:00

oops that last sentence in last post should have been: how do you make someone love themselves as much as you love them! and the frustration is YOU cant. sometimes i just want to grab him by the arms and shake the mess out of him and some sense in!

2006-02-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

Needless to say, Jerry has picked up and straightened up for the most part, hes been taking bsugar levels and eatting carefully. Hes even writing down most of his food diary, although hes skipping parts, which irk me but ok hes making the effort to be responsible for his own health. HE no longer is direly sick like before so im not backpacking him anylonger. he can walk on his own legs. He will come and ask , hey if i eat this do i need to eat that? and or can he have this or that if his bloodsugar is high or low and i just question back to make him decipher it out. if its wrong choices, i might say hey how about a this and or that instead an dif he chooses to ignore the suggestion, well then he will have to cope with the out come himself because I wont be stepping in. I guess he will have to be hardheaded and learn the ropes the hard way. but as i said , hes been doing quite well for him, logging his bg levels a nd eating right.. he had a great day on the 9th! he was between 95 and 117 all day!! and he rode his trike around the block to boot! i mentioned that i had noticed he seemed more apt to be up and about and doing things when he kept his bg level in range. he just looked at me and went about his business. LOL. maybe that will sink in too???? i guess my fight and what made me so angry...is how do you make someone care enough about themselves as you care for them??

2006-02-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

Nothing is always 100% GOOD. Tuesday the 7th, day after jerrys bday, I had a major melt down. I had awakened jerry , got him to do his blood sugar test (117) and fed him breakfast and i went to work, 9am. at 530pm i got home and jerry was laying on couch same spot, soaked head to toe in sweat, sheet he had around him soaked too, NO bloodsugars had been done all day, no list of foods NOTHING nothing was done all day, OH BUT there was a REGULAR dr. pepper drink sitting on end table by couch. I WENT OFF! i dont have reg. anything in house. (cept a stash of Oj cartons for emergencys for him) well, if he can get up and ride an adult trike to the store 3 blocks away, HE sure can get up and feed himself food and check sugar, and such. NOPE IM DONE! ill help anyone who cant help themselves but blatant disregard and negligence burns my butt!!! here i am at work trying to make ends meet, with a bum knee thats killing me more and more, (i have no insur. so cant go to doc yet-ok those who know me, know thats an excuse cuz i hate docs and prob wouldnt go if i had insur anyhow. ) and i come home to a man half out of his world, he couldnt even HOLD the little tube of glucose to get his bloodsugar back up.. I POKED HIM it was 42!!! well after I ranted and fumed, I sat down and made a print out of his meds. his surgery date and what he had done (tp/ict) and in 99 he had gallbladder out. then his ssoc # and bdate. taped it to my china cabinet so its the first thing paramedics can see on way in.. told Jerry hes on his own. live or die its his decision because i cant be his wet nurse any longer. i quit!

2006-02-06T15:18:00.000-08:00

We went to the doctor this morning. He did have infection and she gave him antibiotics for it (oral) and told him to use a wet/dry compress. Use diluted peroxide on a gauze pad and then cover wound with it and then cover that with a dry pad (LARGE bandaid). do this for 5 days to help draw out the infection.

We go to the new endocrinologist's dietician on the 16th, then the following 24th jerry goes for bloodwork and then on march 6th we go find out what the bloodwork says! The endocrinologist is also checking for amylase/lipase and seeing if islets are functioning yet, but he told us it is still way early (being only 8 weeks post op) we will see. more hurry up and wait. meanwhile we get to have fun NOT with the belly wound.

Here we did it YET again.. ANOTHER BIRTHDAY in a doctors office or hospital setting!! we just cant seem to break the chain!!

2006-02-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

Well, IT explained itself to us this morning. He ended up draining infection. Sooo we will get ourselves off to the doctors. Hopefully its just topical and nothing working its way INward or from the inside coming out! Dang, I guess he needed that post op evaluation one way or another huh? too bad the nurses fell thru on us when we came home. DANG FLA!! VISIT and get out as quick as possible you surely dont want to get SICK HERE!

2006-02-04T15:56:00.000-08:00

Got a picture of Jerrys Belly with the Red spot. This also happens to be a section that when the staples were removed gapped open a bit so I wonder if its fluid trapped in the space? or a hernia like the doc thought it might be. I sure hope its not infection though. Yikes. Crossing fingers, legs and eyes.

2006-02-04T15:54:00.000-08:00

HELLO everyone!!

Todays post::
the good, the possibly bad & the positive future!

we are having SOME FUN lmao.. well not, and yes we are.. up and down.. okay. we went to a diabetic nutritionist, she put jerry on this horrendously high carbo diet. the deal is eat what you want, then give yourself enough insulin to cover it.. ((im thinking here youre dumb lady...)) well jerrys bloodsugars were haywire. omg they were horrid 300-400-596 being tops. well, while we were in Minn, i had already called down and had an appointment made for jerry with my endocrinologist, who on Feb 2cd, agreed that this diet was NOT for jerry!! Jerry needs high protein and high fat !!! well finally someone who agrees, why feed a diabetic all the carbs (sugar) he wants.. sheezzzzzzz well , the doc was very good, being we on feb 2cd (8week to the day from surgery(dec2cd)), were just new from surgery, he said he didnt think the islets would show up but we are going to have bloodwork done to see anyhow. he is doing a whole lot of work up on jerry bloodwork wise that is since hes a new patient to him. Also we have an appointment with THIS doctors diabetic nutrionist and will be glad to see her!!

on another note, jerry developed a red spot on his incision, well its about a half inch long . Right on the cutline up and down. well its red from one side of the staple marks to the other. it was about the circumference of a quarter. in a day its moved up and down from the center point maybe 1/2 inch more so now the red area is like 2 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 wide. My endocrinologist said it did not look like infection but a hernia. To watch it and monitor it , if it worsens to take him to the doc, or ER. well im thinking we might make that ER trip. (faster and closer than our doc whos an hour away) well jerry DID lift trash bags to take out , i had a fit but he had already done it and came in holding himself saying he did something.. HMMM you think?? anyhow, if something comes of it we will definately update. I feel anticlimatic and i think thats why i neglected the webpage but i forget that the after part is JUST as important. BUT THE PLUS OF IT ALL:::: the endocrinologist said that Jerry is going to be so glad he did this in about a year he will be like a new man. MORE positive reinforcement. YEAH!!! just being pain free from MR P is a blessing alone!! and the reversing of his gastroparesis is a bonus!!

2006-02-04T15:53:00.000-08:00

OH I forgot to mention, just for information sake, Jerry will turn 52 on Feb 6th. So he was 51 when he had this surgery. Imagine how well someone else would do if they had this surgery before waiting so long?!!

2006-01-19T22:48:00.000-08:00

I was going thru my files and came across the list of local hotels near hospital, here they are.
LOCAL MOTELS & HOTELS NEAR THE UNIVERSITY

If you need a place to stay, the following places are close to the University. Some charge rates by the number of beds and some by the number of people. Please indicate to these motels that you are a patient of Fairview-University. Most of the places listed below have shuttles available to the hospital and clinic buildings, so you would not need to worry about parking.

Days Inn:
2407 University Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414 (612) 623-3999
7 blocks from hospital and clinics

Econo Lodge:
2500 University Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414 (612) 331-6000
8 blocks from hospital and clinics

Best Western University Inn:
2600 University Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414 (612) 379-2313
Complimentary Continental Breakfast included.
8 blocks from hospital and clinics

Radisson Metrodome
612-379-8888 (one block from hospital)

Holiday Inn-Metrodome:
1500 Washington Ave S, West Bank
Minneapolis, MN 55454 (612) 333-4646
About 15 blocks from

*Note: A “rollaway” is a bed on wheels that can be put into a room to sleep additional people. The cost is in addition to the basic room rental rates. Rates may change at any time. Please call to verify room prices and availability.

2006-01-19T13:49:00.000-08:00

We went to the dietician. what a great thing toO!! we were feeding him to work around insulin and trying to feed him to MAKE the blood sugar levels right. NOT wrong back up .. we should be feeding him then working insulin to keep blood glucose levels right. DUH US. its soo hard to unlearn the ol atkins low carb lifestyle, and to feed feed feed the man. not that he didnt eat before.. OH he ate.. JUNK! and i was the atkins person. well, turns out he gets 75 carbs per meal!!!!! total of 284 per meal and 117 protein and 29g fat!! i swear to you id not be awake nor walking on that plan!! luckily its to put weight on him 2300 cal diet. jerry is at 144. The nurse kept saying he was too skinny.

for breakfast he has to have 2 starches, 2 fruit, 1protein 1 fat ,1 milk..

well this morning he ate one egg, and one toast and was belching and upset because he was so stuffed he hurt. theres no way he can eat all they ask. but he can work on it , as he gets better maybe he will tolerate the mass amount of food. lunch added 2 veggies to that pile above and DINNER!!!! total of 3 PROTEIN added!! its a 2300 cal. diet. they want him putting weight on and here im taking it off LOL. funny how opposites attact. tall/short fat/skinny/ ect..

BUT THE BEST THING OF ALL!!!!!! his blood glucose levels have been PERFECT ALL DAY!!!!! no up down and scare me to deaths!!!! its been a very good day today. he rode his HUGE old person TRIKE lol. and he went to the super walmart with me to shop for him (groceries). WOW 2 1/2 cups whole strawberries is alot to eat at one sitting!! he just shook his head.. said puree it maybe he can drink it. LOL!! Hes trying!

2006-01-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

Here is Jerrys incision so far. He hasnt had any complications THANKFULLY!!

2006-01-12T19:51:00.000-08:00

We went to his first class today. We got there, and the class is for type 2 diabetics. HELLOOOOOOOO he doesnt have a pancreas. can this work too? well they want him to have ONE on ONE class with a nurse AND the dietician. OK. good. now not until monday and Tuesday. thats ok too. 2 days not 3 LOL!!

2006-01-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

Sorry been a week now since posting, We have had a few good days and a few bad ones with his bloodsugars. the numbers are variant. Saturday he was 501 then up to 544! finally got down to 160. Saturday was our 20th wedding anniversary and what a way to spend it freaking over bloodsugar levels. lol oh well next years will be better! This Thursday we start his diabetic nutrition classes. Hopefully we can get him to understand carbs/protein/fats. This Friday our son turns 19! The incision is healing beautifully and he hurts but not like he did. what a difference two weeks makes! i cant wait until we can get him to keep between his ranges of 80-120 so he can move on with his life. right now our days consist of taking his bloodsugar level when he gets up/ giving him his lantus, eating breakfast/ taking bloodsugar before lunch/ eating lunch/ blood sugar before dinner /dinner and then bloodsugar before bed and a snack before bed. and watching the numbers and adjusting foods the best we THINK they need to be.

2005-12-31T18:48:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years!!! Lets hope its a better one for EVERYONE!!

2005-12-31T18:45:00.000-08:00

This morning jerrys blood sugar was 125!!!!! so lets hope that reducing the insulin helped! he had lunch of 112 and dinner uh oh.. forgot dinner #.. anyhow, much much better and hes up and about more readily as well. Maybe we can get him outside for a change!! He says the incision area around his belly button is sore/stinging like inside not outside, who knows.. maybe healing? but things seem to be much better.

2005-12-30T04:22:00.000-08:00

I forgot to state that yesterday mornings bloodsugar was 44! after 8oz orange juice and 3/4 a banana, 20 min later he only raised to 51. so more OJ. finally got him up to 78 then 95 at the end. scary stuff. today we start the first trial of lantus at 30. i hope it helps if not ill call doc and have her OK lowering it again. We'll give it 2-3 days.

2005-12-29T16:54:00.000-08:00

todays dish... hehe.. okay jerry takes 40 units of Lantus every morning same time. ( this is long acting insulin that runs thru the body 24hrs) well , jerrys bloodsugars have been in the 50s the last 5-6 mornings. scary. well i dropped him 2 units, to 38 then to 36 this morning. i called his local doctor, she called back and dropped him to 30! so lets see how it works. im gonna give it a few days and if his bloodsugars arent up enough ill call doc again!! i think hes getting WAY to much insulin per the caloric intake hes taking in. i could be wrong, Maybe when he starts being able to eat more normal portion sizes he might need to up it again but for now i think hes way under eating, over medicated. cant wait to get to the nutrition part of diabetes education on the 12th, 19th and 26th!! Our 20th anniversary is Jan 7th, sons 19th bday is Jan 13th.. hehe a friday again !!

2005-12-27T18:13:00.000-08:00

well to keep up to date, jerry now is having low blood sugar .. here we were worried about HIGH. i think either, A>>>we are afraid of being too high and hes going to long with out eating, or B>>> his lantus is too high. 40 units in morning. WE not having seen a NURSE as of yet!! just dropped the lantus to 38 just to see. but i do have to say jerry isnt eating much and we really have to get him eating and moving about more. He is still hurting , and he says it hurts to breathe, its the incision area, the cuts he says hurts. I had him show me where. but other than surgical pain and healing it is really much better now! he walked around our yard 5 times. 100x100 lot. He also hurts from that. we arent regretting the surgery. Just impatient for healing.

2005-12-22T19:34:00.000-08:00

we saw jerrys primary doctor today. shes going to give him another month recovery and see if we can step down the dilaudid first. then once off those we will step down the methadone as well. gonna be a long haul. We also got referred to a diabetes education center not far from us behind a local hospital. Three thursdays, 4 hours each evening. 430-830. but we need the info. We showed her Jerrys blood sugar numbers and she thought wed done pretty well with maybe 3 that were a tad low. HMMM jerrys bubble gum surprise and another where he ate pineapple and forgot and then did blood sugar and another was an early morning one. but we will learn how to manage and rearrange his foods to maximize his diet.

2005-12-18T21:23:00.000-08:00

got home saturday early eve. beat to all get out.. went to bed. got up twice and got jerrys meds in him. his bloodsugars are between 77-120. so no fast acting insulin needed.. just the lantus in the morning. Today was good too. he did drop to 55 and drank some orange juice. he wanted half a cup more and dumb me i gave it to him. so thats why he dropped, i think. well hes better now. the flight home was hellacious! hit turbulance and turned so sharply to the right a lady 2 rows up came out of her chair and across the aisle. then the idiot wouldnt sit backdown she held onto the bar above the other man. thankfully there wasnt any more lurches like that one but it was rough and you could have heard a pin drop after the that first almost half roll until we landed! so glad to be home. our cats are funny they mustve missed us. one wont let us out of her sight. shes laying right in front of this computer screen sleeping. I did laundry and she went to back door and sat. then i went to clean tub and put hubs tub chair together and she went with me into the bathroom. shes determined we are getting out of her sight again!! shes also not a talker, but boy she let us have it when we got home!!!

2005-12-15T15:16:00.000-08:00

Jerry is doing well today. we had a slight scare, he chewed three bubble gum balls, the big ones, against my better judgement. well i thought oh well he will have to learn. and sure enough, his blood sugar at 8 am was 95 , after the gum it was 241! so hes like throw that stuff out now. I guess if he wants a gum ball, he is going to have to buy the diet kind. sugar free ect. He is having neck/shoulder pains, that the doc when questioned said it was the nerves acting up from learned response. it will fade over time. We can deal. Anythings better than waiting for that next acute attack,never knowing if its the one that will kill you or cause a cyst or cancer. so now we just deal with keeping the bloodsugar level. not a biggie so far. a shot in morning of long acting lantus, and then check blood sugar before meals we can do that ! he also got some lidocaine patches he puts near his incision for 12 hrs and then it has to stay off for 12 hrs. Being nothing to do but sit , i slept and woke up around 1145 last night and watched out the window, there mustve been some christmas parties going on in the main ballrooms/conference rooms because it was valet central down there and the guests were dressed to the nines!

2005-12-14T15:47:00.000-08:00

Jerry stretching up in bed so i could TRY to get a pic of the tracks left when they took out the staples. they were titanium im like HEY jerry take them home get them melted down to the shape of a mini pancreas thats crunched lol (in other words a knot) only we would know what it was hehe. that stuffs expensive! or keep one in near bellybutton as it will be the only piercings he will ever get! notice the tat on right arm. he covered an old tat with my name and a thundercloud and lightening bolt.. im like good choice because i was going to have a fit when i got home. he looks funny trying to stretch up YET not STRETCH to cause pain.

2005-12-14T13:40:00.000-08:00

I tried to get pic of jerry just before she took staples out and then after. i still havent figured out this camera. sometimes it needs flash sometimes it doesnt and when you think it does, it doesnt and vice versa. so of course, neither came out. here he is taking off the winter coat LOL~

2005-12-14T13:31:00.000-08:00

We are both back at hotel. They didnt say anything about coming back on friday. she released him with a follow up at his doc with in five days. they also took the staples out. we got slammed with some heavy snow, and of course i had my roller bag, his coat and his b ag of clothes/shoes to lug over there . the wind was the worst. and the sidewalks werent cleaned off yet. SOME FUN folks.. NOT! but we made it. so now well just hole up and watch his insulin and meds and plan on early sat flight home to the 60s! we will leave these single and negative temps far behind~!!!

2005-12-13T21:23:00.000-08:00

i kept meaning to get a pic of the view out jerrys window. unfortunately the mighty miss, defrosted lol i sat one day and watched the iceflows back up and before the day was done as far up and down as i could see was solid white. im sure it will be soon again. Thats another hospital in the distance. Helicopters would fly over from that one. the airport is to the left and barley visble when you look out. Cant wait to get home!!! it will feel like a heatwave!!

2005-12-13T15:10:00.000-08:00

TOMORROW IT IS!! Dr.Leslie came by this morn and told us that its a go. jerry will be leaving hospital after 11 days!!! we have a flight home on sat. and have to go back to hospital for bloodwork on friday. also they are setting up home health to come check on him i think she said three times a week. do blood work ect. and to follow up and see how he is doing on insulin ect. Ill have to make up a chart for him i guess. well, i was soo worried about them telling us that month long ordeal, and then about going across the river to a rehab center. WHEW what a relief! so jerry will have a day and a half to just relax before getting on plane. Minneapolis is supposed to get upwards of 6-10 inches of snow starting tomorrow. and letting up by friday to flurries. Hope its not bad so we can get out of here!!

2005-12-12T13:49:00.000-08:00

WELL YOU WONT BELIEVE THIS ~~ i got really great pictures of jerry today, as he was feeling his oats!! and all anxious i got here as quick as i could hooked up and there are NO PICSSSSSS on my hobble/run here , i mustve jiggled something and it cleared the camera!!! im just sick over it!!! another lesson i didnt think i needed to learn.. DO not cram your bag so full that things hit against one another in tight space. DRAT!!!!!!!

but on the good side, occupational therapy came in and was going to go over things and he interrupted the lady to say OH? you mean to go in to the bathroom? he gets up puts on his socks robe and tied it, walked quickly to the bathroom and came back undressed and got in bed. the lady said hmmmm, nevermind. how about i discharge you from occ. therapy. LOL you obviously are ahead of me LOL. cool.. thenn later physical therapy came in and took him for a walk around floor, came back did some standing exersises with him, gave him a handout reviewing the exersises and toldhim she was going to discharge him from pt as well he was beyond where she needed to have him too!!

so, as much as i wanted to share those great pics, dang dang! i guess if i had to choose the plus of the day, it was getting him dismissed from those two therapists!! ((((hint hint, we were told MAYBE maybe, we might be totally discharged on wednesday, but would have to stick around anyhow and not leave til weekend so his bloodwork could be done on friday before going home)) works for us!! BUT i havent heard any thing of the sort from THE man, dr. Sutherland so we will wait to hear what he has to say. but it is nice to have hope to do so. today and yesterday ithink she said he was sooooo busy and he was doing another islet tranni today!!

2005-12-10T15:26:00.000-08:00

Jerry and PT had him walking. up and around the bend and back.

2005-12-10T15:24:00.000-08:00

Jerry this morning
he ate solids and didnt use erythromyacin yet to help move it. albiet small amount he ate, but im sure that will change.

2005-12-10T15:16:00.000-08:00

this morning, i went in and jerry had eaten solid food for breakfast, cereal, cream of wheat too, toast, and juice. the nurses came in to remove his lidicane strips but he had already done so, one staple is already coming out and they are all loose, they look really good, nurse said oh, after three weeks they look like this and are ready to come out , the doc will prob have them out any day now, well i look at her, look at wall calendar and said. um.. today is the tenth? and he had surgery on the 2cd. its only been 8 days.. she looked back at jerrys staples and was like wow.. youre healing really fast, those look old not new. well hallelujah. maybe we can beat kathleens 20day stay? i could only wish to be so lucky. hes up and about, now if theyd only take that dang catheter out, hed get up more to go pee. they also stopped his basal pain meds. gave him oral methadone, and left the bump on the pain pump optional for him well there was a slight goof on meds, and thank GOD we caught it, she toldus she was there to give him his oxycodone, we both blurted out. oh nooo nooo not that one. i told the nurse the one time he took ONE twelve hour extened one it put him in hosp for a week. no thanks!! so instead she had to call down and get methadone, well we told her 5 - ten milligram pills for a total of 50 mg 2x day. well she brought him ONE 5 mg pill. okay accidents happen so she went and had reorded it. well he ended up going about an hour and a half with out pain med. so it climbed back up on him , and he was hurting. so he was going to try to sleep i left at 4. a nurse told us this morn too , that he has classes tomorrow and monday. i think around 2pm. i think for diabetes. so we will do those in hopes of getting out quicker. lol.

2005-12-09T13:14:00.000-08:00

Today jerry was up and walked to the bathroom and was going to shave, but his room mate came back and needed in. he was in pain and being argumentative, so i left. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. we will see.
first thing this morning he gave us the thumbs up but after being up and in the bathroom for a bit he was hurting.

2005-12-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

More good news!! jerry not only had the NG tube removed but he walked down one way of the hall then back up and to the other end and back to his room! also while he was waiting for the occupational therapist to show up he took the walker and walked around his room! so hes getting about now better. Good news!! Im staying in bed with leg propped up on pillows trying to get the swelling to go down. when i get up i can tell the difference it has helped! i told jerry tomorrow am, i want to hear hes been up sitting in his chair~! So bad on me no pics today but i hope to get pic of him walking around! and no TUBE in his face LOL he said it was really gross feeling coming out. i cant imagine ick~!

2005-12-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

Well backlash on ME today, i woke up early , 3am, cant open up my knee, freaked me out, but somehow i was expecting something like this to happen. so i hobbled- basically i sat on bed and bounced stood up on one leg and twisted to the other one then scrambled to end of the other bed and grabbed wall and hopped to bathroom got in hot hot water and just soaked until i could get leg to unbend, i came back out of bathroom hobbling and called jerry , told him i couldnt make it over today, he was doing well. They did end up giving him two units blood last night and back down for another chest xray. he sounded so much better on phone. he let them put the lidicane strips down sides of his incision. its 12hrs on 12 hrs off. well he thought it wasnt helping. but after 24 hr without them he figured he'd try them again. he felt decent and was even looking forward to walking!!! he said the lovely nasal gastric tube would prob be removed today. He hates the pressure socks on legs but as soon as hes up and walking 4x's a day he wont have to wear them any longer. personally i think they should take out the catheter then hed HAVE to get up to go to rr! then hed get his walking in! i guess 5 days out of that surgery is too soon. i cant imagine it. thankfully! he coughed while on the phone but didnt moan and carry on like he was yesterday, since it caused so much pain before. maybe those muscles from getting up and going to xray and such are starting to loosen up. he told me his plans were to get up and out of here as soon as possible. we can only hope!

2005-12-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

kathleen was sprung from hospital today. she flies out with her sister tomorrow morning. I was hoping shed get out ofthe cold but the weather channel showed texas dallas area with 20s and ice! so dang she wont get a break from the cold! Im sure she wont mind. just wants to crash into her own bed for a good rest! nothing like the nurses telling you to rest but they keep coming to stick your fingers and or take vitals. some sleep. ha! well i cant wait to get into myown bed myself! i painted the room to look like it had big bricks on it. walls were textured but not like brick. so its different for a while. LOL anyhow.. we are jealous of kathleen being out already!! 20 days of hospitalization will drive you nutty!

2005-12-07T18:08:00.000-08:00

today i found jerry in great pain. always have to have a step back to appreciate the steps forward i think. anyhow turns out he was up all night in pain. his lungs are clearing up and the ewww flem is causing him to cough, which in turn pulls those stapled muscles. so he hurts. he coughed while i was there too. holding the pillow to him, i went to move a line, and barely i mean barely touched his abdomen and he was like a cat on a hot plate jumping. he really is sore. they finally got him up in a chair, but if he hadnt been coughing theyd have walked him. he did take a walk last night, he goes across the room to the door and back. i cant wait until he can make it out into the hall. i tried to get more pics we will see if they come out. hmmm they came out but wont let me post. must be too many folks on this hub. ill post it later if i can.

2005-12-06T17:49:00.000-08:00

Yesssssssssss I dug out the battered instructions out of my bag, lol. Found a pic I took of Jerry today!!!! he was cold so we draped his robe ( i made him before coming up) over his shoulders. hes holding it together inhis lap he was cold but the fleece is soo soft and thick it warmed him up really quick. i couldnt intrest him in his slippers yet. im just glad he got out of bed!!