FRIDAY Night

It is 2:25 AM and I am in Gary’s hospital room. I came up to spend the night with him because I missed him and also because I am leaving for camp tomorrow afternoon.

The XRAY technician is here and has just finished up with Gary. I was dozing off around an hour ago. We were up because Gary has a fever (around 102) and Dr. Barth ordered blood cultures to see if Gary has an infection in his blood.

The XRAY guy was here because as I was dozing off I woke up to see Gary going into the bathroom, lose his balance, scream and go crashing to the ground.

I ran to the nurses station and had a stampede of nurses and aides running behind me back to the room. Gary was alert but in pain. Thank God his left shoulder hit the toilet because that broke his fall. Hopefully nothing is broken but if it is it would be much better for it to be his shoulder (the same one he broke during the church softball game) then his hip or leg!

I am just so thankful that I was spending the night tonight. Now Gary can’t get out of bed by himself because they set his bed alarm! Ha! That will teach him!

Dr. Barth came in tonight while I was here. He is such a wonderful doctor. Here is how I can explain him to all of you so that you can get a fairly decent picture of the man who is caring for our Gary.

Dr. Barth is Chief of Staff here at Hoag. I can’t even fathom his work schedule. Everyone wants a piece of him all the time. He has come in to see Gary well after midnight on occasion.

He is very articulate in his speech. He is so intelligent and as hard as he tries to explain things so that we can understand it is still hard to understand him. Not having gone through medical school and not having 30 years of experience puts us at a disadvantage immediately. He does not intentionally try to make things difficult to understand. It is merely who he is and we both have a great respect for him. After all, we are entrusting Gary’s life to him.

He is an incredibly compassionate man. Not in what he says but how he acts. When he is in the room you can tell that he deeply cares about Gary. He is focused on Gary and he wants to listen to Gary. He wants to know how Gary is and he wants to make a difference for Gary. When leaving the room he not only shakes Gary’s hand but holds on a little longer and gives him a squeeze. It makes me feel so good knowing he is very involved with Gary’s care.

Gary had a nerve block today. The purpose of the block is to hopefully help alleviate some of the pain in Gary’s sciatica. So far, there has been little improvement but we need to give it some time to work.

Gary had another transfusion tonight. He has 7 units of blood left in the bank. Next week we will need more people to donate who are 0 + or 0 -. I will make a separate blog entry with all the information.

The pain doctor changed Gary’s pain meds to methadone today. He is still jerking a little and hallucinating and reaching and dreaming but maybe this new drug will react differently in his system. Only time will tell.

Gary has had some new visitors. His friend from Hemet came in today and surprised him as well as his sister from Missouri and his brother who lives in Washington. His brother and sister will be here for a few days.

It has been a long night and I am sure the next 2 nights will be just as long at camp. I will have 10 girls in my cabin who are 10-12 years old. They are all great girls and I am looking forward to being with them this weekend!

We love you all and thank you for everything. I feel like I never say thank you but I think about thanking all of you ALL OF THE TIME! I wish you all really knew how thankful we are for the love and support you give us. There really are no words. I mean that. No words could ever make you know how we feel.

Gary’s room is full of love. All the nurses and doctors say that when they come into his room it feels like home. What a compliment! Your cards and well wishes and pictures and photos mean so much to Gary. All the cards from neighbors and friends and family members of people we don’t even know first hand! We get mail from all over the USA and we love reading notes and scripture and the encouraging words!

God certainly made a special man when he created Gary. Gary embodies love and peace and kindness and patience and sweetness and faithfulness and so many other characteristics. He is my hero! I thank God for my husband who is this amazing father to his 3 little boys!

Prayer for our family right now would be awesome. Gary’s spirits are a bit low today. He is not depressed but I woke up this morning to him being extremely groggy and out of it. We is definitely overmedicated with the methadone. Dr. Gluzman is decreasing it so that we can see how Gary does.

His shoulder is not broken but his chest XRAY is showing some congestion. The nurses need to work really hard to make sure Gary does not develop pneumonia!

I am off to camp! Pray for our safe travels as we go to Forest Home. Pray for kids lives to be changed this weekend and for new friendships to develop!

Be safe!
Love, L