Today Gemma is free from all her tubes! Her drain was taken out yesterday and the central line comes out today, so hopefully it'll all be over very soon. She hasn't been allowed to walk around the unit much this time, as there is a concern certain viruses that she may pick up. She has pretty much been bed ridden for the past two weeks and although she has been frustrated at times, she has done really well to have maintained good spirits throughout her recovery time. She has been kept thoroughly entertained by Jeanne, learning to knit one day, baking a cake for her granny another, and currently busy making a paper mache piggy bank - all in ICU! Poor Hello Kitty has been subjected to a pancreatectomy, had to be resuscitated, had many a drip put in, by her doctor/surgeon/nurse Gemma Deutschmann. Jeanne has put together a "real" medical kit for Gemma with used bits of equipment. Unfortunately her medical kit was eventually banned from the room (by Jeanne), because she was worried Gemma would get her own tubes etc, confused and start doing things to herself. The positive thing to come from Gemma's long stay in hospital is that she has really learnt to eat well, and start enjoying food. The hyperinsulinism still seems to be prevalent, as sugars still rise and then slowly drop, but as I've mentioned before, it seems to drop at a slower pace. The main thing is that if Gemma continues to enjoy eating, then she will slowly be able to learn to manage it herself instead of being force fed by us. It is bizarre to think that the remaining 2% of her pancreas can still overproduce insulin, but this outcome is probably still better than her becoming a type 1 diabetic with no insulin production at all. She has only had one hypo below 2.5 in the last 5 weeks, a few below 3.5, but this we can manage. However, on the other hand, her blood sugar levels are not 100% realistic, and we will only be able to see the true results once she is out of hospital, and back to her normal energetic playful self.
I sincerely hope that the next time I write, Gemma will be back with us, and that we will be able to go home. The other advantage of this hospital stay is that most of the SA population had to endure a bitterly cold winter. For us it will just be a blur, as we spent most of winter 2012 in a warm cozy hospital. Love and hugs to you all!!
2 Comments
I found it very difficult to write Gemma's blog during the last few days as I've been feeling guilty about several different things. Firstly, I struggled to come to terms with Gemma going into theatre for the second time round, feeling that it was my fault for having put her through this pain in the first place. After having had the reassurance from nurses and doctors that the decision to have the op was not my decision alone but one made by a group of people, to make life easier in the long term. My mom has been here and been spending many hours sitting with Gemma, and although I am extremely grateful and thankful for her help, I can't help feeling guilty about being able to totally relax and actually enjoy myself. On the other hand, we have had so much quality time with Bryce, allowing him to feel special. Just after Gemma went back into ICU, Michael felt he should go back to the lodge, but my dad (who is relieving for us), insisted that we stay together as a family. With Gemma being in hospital and having gone through all that pain, I think I felt I needed to suffer with her and not be as comfortable and happy as I have been, resulting in all these guilty feelings. I'm not sure if any of that makes sense, but maybe other mom's reading this will identify slightly.
Gemma is recovering very well and is back to her chatty, happy, joking usual self. Just to back track a bit to Tuesday evening to let you know what happened during the week. It was all a bit deja vu on Tuesday evening, and difficult for us to absorb the reality of what was happening to Gemma. We knew on Monday that Gemma was going to go back into theatre and the term laparotomy was used. We had confused this for the term laparoscopy, so the entire day we had thought that they were simply going to have a look around her abdomen with a scope. Laparotomy in actual fact, is an incision, so basically the procedure occurred through the same incision as she had her pancreatectomy. It came as a bit of a shock to us, when we realized our misunderstanding a few minutes before she went into surgery. From Tuesday night's operation they found that one of the pancreatic ducts had been leaking some fluid and this had been collecting in the right side of her abdomen, the side that she had felt the most pain. This fluid was removed, and on a positive note, no bile or other fluid was found mixed in, so there were no further complications from the first surgery. She once again had a tube in her stomach draining excess fluid out, and was expected to have this for up to two weeks. She was sedated for most of her first and second day in ICU, and received a dextrose drip. Her little hands were bandaged up, looking like little boxing gloves so that, in her drowsy state, she wouldn't be able to pull at any of the tubes - central line, draining tube or nose tube. Luckily for her, this time they didn't need to put a catheter in, so the nurses were able to wake her up and let her go to the toilet in a potty on her bed. By Friday she was already desperate to go for a walk around the ICU. Unfortunately because of the central line, and now being fed intravenously, she is not able to go too far. The physio has allowed her off the bed at times and she walks a few steps forward, back, side side. Her blood sugars have been mostly over 12, so she is receiving insulin at 2 hour intervals, but this is not a true reflection as she has both a dextrose drip and intravenous feed. They are slowly weaning her off the drip, and she had her nose tube taken out 2 days ago, so trying to wean her onto solid food again. In general all is looking good, and we just hope and pray now that once she is healed, it'll all be over and we'll be able to go back home. It's been almost a month since we've been home and the animals have since obviously learnt to read and write during this time, as we are getting daily updates now from Jungle cat - strange that we haven't heard from my dad in a while??? LOL Love to you all, and hope you have a great week ahead! |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |